Knowledge of Good and Evil

September 15, 2013 Background Scripture: Genesis 3 Lesson Passage: Genesis 3:8 – 17, 21, 23 Is ignorance truly bliss? It certainly seemed to be true in the beginning in the Garden of Eden. On the surface, it appears that being ignorant of good and evil allowed Adam and Eve to live blissful lives in God’s Paradise. When Adam sinned by eating fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he placed himself at enmity with God. Eve’s conversation with the serpent and their subsequent actions started an avalanche of Divine judgment upon the serpent, the woman, the man, and the ground. Their actions included Adam’s sin, their shame as a result of it, and their futile attempt to avoid God’s presence. In spite of Adam’s excuse that they were trying to hide from God because of their nakedness, it is clear that something else was going on since they had already covered their physical nakedness with fig leaves. They were embarrassed because the fig leaves covered their naked bodies but not their sin. Their sin was exposed and they wanted to avoid God’s presence. In their fallen state in the garden, there was an even greater danger lurking. The new threat of danger was their access to the tree of life which was in the midst of the garden. Its fruit would cause them to live forever in their current state of sin. This would have caused them to have the same destiny as Satan and his angels—namely, the Lake of Fire for eternal damnation. Therefore, they were evicted from the Garden of Eden so that they would not have access to the tree of life and eat of its fruit which would have been a greater error than the first. Prior to Adam’s sin, the tree of life was not part of the diet restriction God had imposed on him. If they had chosen to eat of it prior to his sin, then they would have lived forever in their state of bliss. Rather than that, Adam chose to disobey God’s instructions to him even though God told him what the punishment would be. God made garments of skins for them. These were more durable than the leaves which would eventually dry up and wither away. More important than that, those skins were taken from some animal that, no doubt, gave its life for the provision. The skins covered their bodies but the blood of that animal covered their sins. Adam and Eve were removed from the Garden of Eden as part of God’s plan of redemption. They were not evicted from the garden because of their knowledge. They were evicted because they were now living in a state where sin had become part of their nature. Sin came when Adam disobeyed God’s direct command (warning) to him. Knowledge does not cause sin to occur. Rather, acquiring knowledge by disobeying God is the real problem. Disobedience to divine instructions is sin. Now let’s revisit the question, Is ignorance truly bliss? Adam and Eve were living in a state of bliss because they lived in obedience to God not because they were ignorant. Knowledge did not bring about their suffering and struggles. Knowledge is neither moral nor immoral. Knowledge is neither ethical nor unethical. Knowledge is neither holy nor unholy. On the other hand, there is absolutely nothing right about disobeying God. Robert C. Hudson September 4, 2013