The “tree of knowledge of good and evil” was bad for Adam and Eve to eat, correct? Why then wouldn’t God just exclude that specific tree from Creation? Wouldn’t it have been better to leave it out?
Let’s start by reading Genesis 2:15-17, “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 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 of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” It’s amazing to realize that there was only one possible sin that Adam and Eve could have committed and they committed it. There was only one sin; one forbidden thing, and they chose to do the very thing the Lord told them not to do.
Let’s look at the words of the Lord to His people in Deuteronomy 30:15-19, “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”
In both of these instances we see a common element, and that is choice. With that choice there also comes a commandment to choose life. This is what the Lord desires of us and what He commands of us. Listen to the words of the Lord Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3:7, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” It was a clear directive from the Lord to Nicodemus to be born again through faith in the Lord Jesus. To not believe in the Lord is an act of disobedience. What was so wrong about Adam and Eve eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? The Lord told them not to do it, and be eating the fruit they disobeyed the Lord. Why even give them the choice? So that they could choose to obey the Lord. The Lord did not want Adam and Eve to sin. He warned them clearly about the consequences of their disobedience. Yet, they disobeyed anyway. Without giving them a choice, Adam and Eve would have been mere puppets, without the ability to choose to obey God because of their love for Him.
The Lord wants us to obey and serve Him because of our love to Him. It was written of the Lord Jesus in Psalms 40:8, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” This is how the Lord wants us to be. He wants us to want to do His will. When we become more familiar with the love of the Lord; His mercy; His grace; His patience and kindness, our hearts will love to do His will. May we learn to be like Joshua who said in Joshua 24:15, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” May we find our delight in the perfect will of God.