It Was Good

It Was Good

June 24, 2019

Genesis 3:6  "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it."

Adam and Eve were set up in the Garden of Eden and it was good. The Bible says that all of creation was good, as the Lord was building and designing and creating, and the Lord declared it all as good. He put the man and the woman in the good garden, and placed boundaries around them. The Lord also placed the a tree in the middle, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. No one will ever know why He placed that tree there, a tree that would be tempting to someone along the way. But it did not take long for Adam and Eve to figure out the tree in the middle of the garden, the one that grew forbidden fruit, was good, too. Eve inspected it and decided the fruit was good for something, it was quality food and would open their eyes. No one will ever know what went through her mind just before Eve took the first bite of the fruit, but she reasoned it was good. She reasoned the fruit was good and the experience would be good and it was going to be good thing to do.

It wasn't good, however, eating that forbidden fruit. The sole reason it was not good was because the Lord had told them not to eat it, never to eat it. The fruit was good but the eating of the fruit was not good. The Lord creates everything in our lives, all good things, but it does not mean that everything is permissible or good for us to partake. If the Lord creates a boundary, a limitation, then we need to respect the boundary line as good. Eve did not asses the boundary line as good. She assessed the boundary line as just a line, that was passable if she deemed passing it was good. That's where Adam and Eve went wrong. They assessed that crossing the line was possibly in their interest, best interests even.  Here lies the difference between God and man. God can declare something as good, but man does not possess all knowledge to understand what the Lord understands.

In having a children, the parents set up boundary lines. Maybe a boundary line is as simple as not playing the street. The child may assess the street as a desirable place to ride a bicycle or kick a ball, but the parent is aware of so many more dangers and hazards. Playing in the street may seem good, but it is not. Parents often know far more than children do, but it is the same nature, that Adam and Eve had, to deny the boundary line if crossing the boundary line seems good. Parents don't always have the time to explain to a child why something is not good, nor does a child possess all the understanding required to comprehend why something is not good. This is often true with the Lord. He does not always explain why the boundary line is good and participating is not good, but nonetheless He put the line there not to be crossed.

You and I, we think we know better than the Lord. Eve clearly reasoned she knew better when she decided to eat the fruit. Maybe the fruit was good but maybe the boundary line was good, too; maybe the boundary line was better than the fruit. You have boundaries placed all around you. They are in your marital relationship, or lack thereof, they are in your workplace and finances, they are even in your walk with the Lord. The Lord sets up good boundary lines, as He knows best how to take care of His children. He knows all the reasons why the boundary line is put in place but does not always express to us why it is there. We want to know why the boundary line is there to assess if the Lord is correct, but the Lord wants us to trust Him and follow Him. There is where the rub lies, sometimes. We want to know all that the Lord knows and make our own decision. If you think about it, maybe the Lord is best equipped to make our decisions for us.

Don't take my word for it; look it up: Gen 3, Deut 34:12,  Ps 16:6, Jer 5:22, Hos 5:10, Rom 8:28