The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil
Question:
Why did God create the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, then tell Adam & Eve not to eat from it, knowing they would disobey?
Answer:
This question implies God entrapped Adam & Eve when that couldn't be further from the truth! If a parent home-brews beer, and then tell their prepubescent child not to drink it, is that entrapping their child? No, that doesn't follow, as it doesn't follow that God would do that to His children. Even if all we knew of God was in the first two chapters of Genesis - the episode involving the Tree occurring in chapter three, respectively - it still doesn't follow. The knowledge of God's character from Genesis 1 and 2 is enough to tell us He would never entrap someone.
In chapter one, we learn of an all-powerful Creator who values all life and existence for the simple reason that He created all life and existence. If that's not enough, in chapter two, God appoints Adam, the first human, as steward over all life on earth, to cultivate and manage it, even so far as giving each animal their name. Further yet, in the second half of chapter two, God saw that Adam needed help with his tasks and that he was lonely. To address this, God created Eve, the first woman and a helpmate to Adam, molded from Adam's very flesh. In case you're keeping count, that's not once or twice that God showed His love for His creation, that's three times in two chapters. Each of these instances provides proof that God would never entrap His creation into wrongdoing. The final illustration we have of God's character before Adam & Eve disobeyed Him in chapter three. At the very end of Genesis 2, we read that God gave Adam & Eve the gift of shamelessness. With that gift, they experienced no self-conscious concern for their bodies, their nudity, their hair, etc. God gave them freedom from themselves. Freedom is the exact opposite of entrapment. After Adam & Eve disobeyed God in chapter 3, they tried to cover their shame. They sewed fig leaves together and made aprons. God came along shortly after, saw their shame, their feelings about it, their inability to cover it, and chose to make them better clothes, better coverings. He gave them, even in their disobedience to Him, some semblance of the freedom they rejected. In that one act is the first instance of forgiveness in the history of time. And not only was it forgiveness, but it was also a helping hand to regain at least part of the innocence lost.
If you believe God created the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to harm those He loved, then I have to ask: with all of the evidence I've presented in mind, why would He do that? Why would He go to all of the trouble of creating an entire universe, to then formulate a scenario that would ruin it? If we consider the evidence, the answer is that God wouldn't. When God gave Adam & Eve the command not to eat the fruit of the Tree, He said that if they did, they would die. That means that the instructive not to eat of the Tree was meant to protect, not entrap. And protecting someone is what you do when you love them. A better question to ask is: why would God create something that has even the potential to harm those He loves? That's a better question in that it directly confronts one aspect of the problem of suffering. Here's how I would answer the question. A rose bush has thorns. Are those thorns there to hurt you and me, or are they present to protect the roses? They are there to protect the roses!
Now, so far as we know, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil had no thorns, but humanity did have a command not to eat from it to protect them. In effect, the instructive was as the thorns, to the Tree as the rosebush. But the question is still: why would God create something that harms those He loves? Well, in this particular case and context, God created something beautiful and meaningful and told those He loved who were nearest to it that they could do all but one thing with it. He created something, told them to enjoy it, and gave them boundaries that would both heighten their enjoyment and ensure they were able to continue to do so. 1% of God's instruction about the Tree was a "don't," 99% of God's instruction was a "do." We like to look at this and conjecture that either God was trying to hold them back, or trying to tempt them. But, again, neither of those ideas follow. He created a work of art, told them not to touch it so they could continue to appreciate it, and then they disobeyed and had to suffer the consequences. I ask you, how is that any different than what would happen at the Louvre in Paris? Or at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City? We don't have a problem with "Look but Don't Touch" in those instances, but when God does it, it's somehow cruel and tempting and malevolent? Again, none of that reasoning follows. Especially considering how much God did for humanity afterward. He sent Jesus to bail us out. Why would God do that if all He wanted was to make rules for us to break? He wouldn't, and that's the point. He gives us commands that help us appreciate His creation and then provides us with the opportunity for redemption when we fail to do so. So, in conclusion, God did not create the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to entrap or harm Adam & Eve. They hurt themselves through disobedience, and then God sent Jesus to redeem humanity for their mistake ultimately.
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