the tree of knowledge

blogs are like buses indeed.

I had a thought about the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' last night. In Genesis, God told Adam that he can eat from any of the other trees, but not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, 'for you will surely die'. blimey.

So, knowledge isn't intrinsically bad. Actually it's very helpful. A woman from my church who has been in the Sudan region of Africa witnessed a man there who was suddenly struck dumb, unable to speak and articulate. Unfortunately, his family decided to bring in the local witch doctors to rid him of evil spirits, this was the default setting for dealing with a crisis of this nature. It wasn't until weeks later that the Christians in the area were able to convince them to take him to a hospital in Nairobi, to get an understanding of what was wrong, where they eventually found out that he had a brain haemorrage(sp?) which could be treated.

So knowledge is really good, there's no doubt about it. And for those that are wanting to find a scientific explanation for the way the world is, the way it came to be, from year dot to the present - I encourage you, do it! To quote Dawkins; "Science is interesting". Indeed!

There is a proviso, and this is why the command not to eat from the tree was there.

"Does the axe raise above him who swings it, or the saw boast against him who uses it?
As if a rod were to wield him who lifts it up, or a club brandish him who is not wood!"

Once you have found the reason behind the way things are, this does not mean to say that you have gained anything more than what God already knows. This isn't a discouragement to go looking, actually I think God means it for the praise of his glory, so that the intricacies behind science can enhance the magic so to speak, that we can be even more in awe of it all fitting together the way it does.

What we know (or dont know) could never put us on equal or better standing than God.

here is the lie the serpent weaved;
"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God"
see how closely knit it is with 'your eyes will be opened' - in itself, that isn't the lie. They do take the fruit and a couple of verses later on it explains that 'the eyes of both of them were opened'. But, to make the lie enticing, it needed that phrase to explain how, to Adam and Eve, they can become 'like God'. Funnily enough, there is no mention of Adam and Eve becoming like God after they took the fruit to eat.

Even more funnily enough, being like God isn't totally out of the question. We are made in the image of God, broken images now, but we are and will be restored into a Christ-like existence.

Adam and Eve wanted this on their own terms, rejecting God's command, and in the business of instating themselves as Gods in their own right (i remember Nietzche's texts encouraging this). This is probably why the first commandment takes after the first sin, 'God is a jealous God, therefore you shall have no other Gods before me'.

In choosing to put our faith in Jesus as Lord, we can become like Christ, to reflect not our beauty and our knowledge, but show that it is his beauty and his knowledge!
If I were to make myself a God, every aspect of me would be turned over for people to worship - which is fatal because there are clearly things about me which are terrible and flawed - not worship material! But in God, we can look at every facet and remain satisfied that there is nothing rotten in him, that he stands up to scrutiny.