To begin with, just the name of this deadly life threatening tree puzzles me. Good and evil: The reader is introduced to two trees specifically:
Genesis 2:9 King James Version (KJV)9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:17 King James Version (KJV)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.
Why Wouldn’t the lord not want us to “eat from” this tree that not only held knowledge of evil, but also of good? Why Doesn’t this lord want us to know good?
Why was this tree created in such a way that it held knowledge of both evil and good?Why not simply two separate trees: one good, one bad?
And Although it was of this forbidden tree that they ate from and eventually were sentenced to die; the Tree of Life didn’t lose any immediate problem.
But the noticeable thing here is that once this couple had “eaten” from said tree they become wise. They had had their eyes opened by a so called “serpent” or mores thecase, on the face of it, a much wiser honest god that the one who said they would die.
I am reminded here that Jesus talks somewhat admirably about serpents being wise and instructs his disciples to imitate them:
Matthew 10:16 King James Version (KJV)Behold,I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
It appears then that this Lord of Genesis wanted us only to know what he wanted us know, and not a thing more: kept in the dark and ignorant.
It seems the wise ole’ snake had done mankind a great big favour.