Scripture of the Day.  February 26, 2023

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.

2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;

2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."

3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

3:2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;

3:3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'"

3:4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die;

3:5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

3:6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

3:7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Reflection:

The more I read and think about this story, the story of our disobedience or rebellion against God, the less certain I am about what it means.  It does seem clear to me now that God wanted Eve and Adam to eat that fruit — whatever kind of fruit it was — an orange, a fig?  But that doesn’t matter.  God created the first human beings — so, as creator, God knew them, knew what they would do if presented with a law (the Bible shows that people don’t like laws; they need laws, but don’t like them.  Even Jesus didn’t follow many of the laws of his Jewish world).

So God made this first law and knew the humans wouldn’t follow it.  If God didn’t want the people to eat this fruit — God wouldn’t have put it in the garden.  Because — it was a choice.  God chose the fruits and vegetables and grains that would grow in the garden.  If the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was in the garden, it was part of God’s plan that we would eat it and prosper and suffer and — grow up.  And part of growing up is, as Sinatra sang, riding high in April, and shot down in May.   Good and evil; pleasant and bad — that’s life — that’s the atmosphere in which we humans grow and thrive.  And why is life like that?  Because of that tree! (I don’t know!  Ask God!) 

But the really important tree is the one God put in us, which the authors of Genesis called “the image of God.”  This is the seed, the tree, that really matters.  When that image, that seed, grows to maturity, it looks like Jesus.  That seed is in us now; it’s growing in us now.