Though created innocent and
holy, our first parents were not placed beyond the possibility of wrong-doing.
God might have created them without the power to transgress His requirements,
but in that case there could have been no development of character; their
service would not have been voluntary, but forced. Therefore He gave them the
power of choice--the power to yield or to withhold obedience. And before they
could receive in fullness the blessings He desired to impart, their love and
loyalty must be tested.
In the Garden of
Eden was the "tree of knowledge of good and evil. . . . And the Lord God
commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat." Genesis
2:9-17. It was the will of God that Adam and Eve should not know evil. The
knowledge of good had been freely given them; but the knowledge of evil,--of
sin and its results, of wearing toil, of anxious care, of disappointment and
grief, of pain and death,--this was in love withheld.
While God was
seeking man's good, Satan was seeking
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his ruin. When Eve,
disregarding the Lord's admonition concerning the forbidden tree, ventured to
approach it, she came in contact with her foe. Her interest and curiosity
having been awakened, Satan proceeded to deny God's word, and to insinuate
distrust of His wisdom and goodness. To the woman's statement concerning the
tree of knowledge, "God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye
touch it, lest ye die," the tempter made answer, "Ye shall not surely die: for
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:3-5.
Satan desired to
make it appear that this knowledge of good mingled with evil would be a
blessing, and that in forbidding them to take of the fruit of the tree, God was
withholding great good. He urged that it was because of its wonderful
properties for imparting wisdom and power that God had forbidden them to taste
it, that He was thus seeking to prevent them from reaching a nobler development
and finding greater happiness. He declared that he himself had eaten of the
forbidden fruit, and as a result had acquired the power of speech; and that if
they also would eat of it, they would attain to a more exalted sphere of
existence and enter a broader field of knowledge.
While Satan claimed
to have received great good by eating of the forbidden tree, he did not let it
appear that by transgression he had become an outcast from heaven. Here was
falsehood, so concealed under a covering of apparent truth that Eve,
infatuated, flattered, beguiled, did not discern the deception. She coveted
what God had forbidden; she distrusted His wisdom. She cast away faith, the key
of knowledge.
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When Eve saw "that
the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to
be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat." It
was grateful to the taste, and, as she ate, she seemed to feel a vivifying
power, and imagined herself entering upon a higher state of existence. Having
herself transgressed, she became a tempter to her husband, "and he did eat."
Genesis 3:6.
"Your eyes shall be
opened," the enemy had said; "ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:5. Their eyes were indeed opened; but how sad the opening! The
knowledge of evil, the curse of sin, was all that the transgressors gained.
There was nothing poisonous in the fruit itself, and the sin was not merely in
yielding to appetite. It was distrust of God's goodness, disbelief of His word,
and rejection of His authority, that made our first parents transgressors, and
that brought into the world a knowledge of evil. It was this that opened the
door to every species of falsehood and error.
Man lost all
because he chose to listen to the deceiver rather than to Him who is Truth, who
alone has understanding. By the mingling of evil with good, his mind had become
confused, his mental and spiritual powers benumbed. No longer could he
appreciate the good that God had so freely bestowed.
Adam and Eve had
chosen the knowledge of evil, and if they ever regained the position they had
lost they must regain it under the unfavorable conditions they had brought upon
themselves. No longer were they to dwell in Eden, for in its perfection it
could not teach them the lessons which it was now essential for them to learn.
In unutterable sadness they bade farewell to their beautiful
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surroundings and
went forth to dwell upon the earth, where rested the curse of sin.
To Adam God had
said: "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten
of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:
cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days
of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou
shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,
till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Genesis 3:17-19.
Although the earth
was blighted with the curse, nature was still to be man's lesson book. It could
not now represent goodness only; for evil was everywhere present, marring earth
and sea and air with its defiling touch. Where once was written only the
character of God, the knowledge of good, was now written also the character of
Satan, the knowledge of evil. From nature, which now revealed the knowledge of
good and evil, man was continually to receive warning as to the results of sin.
In drooping flower
and falling leaf Adam and his companion witnessed the first signs of decay.
Vividly was brought to their minds the stern fact that every living thing must
die. Even the air, upon which their life depended, bore the seeds of death.
Continually they
were reminded also of their lost dominion. Among the lower creatures Adam had
stood as king, and so long as he remained loyal to God, all nature acknowledged
his rule; but when he transgressed, this dominion was forfeited. The spirit of
rebellion, to which he himself had given entrance, extended throughout the
animal creation. Thus not only the life of man,
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but the nature of
the beasts, the trees of the forest, the grass of the field, the very air he
breathed, all told the sad lesson of the knowledge of evil.
But man was not
abandoned to the results of the evil he had chosen. In the sentence pronounced
upon Satan was given an intimation of redemption. "I will put enmity between
thee and the woman," God said, "and between thy seed and her seed; it shall
bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Genesis 3:15. This sentence,
spoken in the hearing of our first parents, was to them a promise. Before they
heard of the thorn and the thistle, of the toil and sorrow that must be their
portion, or of the dust to which they must return, they listened to words that
could not fail of giving them hope. All that had been lost by yielding to Satan
could be regained through Christ.
This intimation
also nature repeats to us. Though marred by sin, it speaks not only of creation
but of redemption. Though the earth bears testimony to the curse in the evident
signs of decay, it is still rich and beautiful in the tokens of life-giving
power. The trees cast off their leaves, only to be robed with fresher verdure;
the flowers die, to spring forth in new beauty; and in every manifestation of
creative power is held out the assurance that we may be created anew in
"righteousness and holiness of truth." Ephesians 4:24, margin. Thus the very
objects and operations of nature that bring so vividly to mind our great loss
become to us the messengers of hope.
As far as evil
extends, the voice of our Father is heard, bidding His children see in its
results the nature of sin, warning them to forsake the evil, and inviting them
to receive the good.