The purpose of this study will be to examine the specific fulfillment of the consequences contained in the warning against eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Before we look at that fulfillment, it will be beneficial to note the specifics of the promise.
THE PROMISE OF DEATH
The promise seems to be quite clear as God tells Adam and Eve, “in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). The Hebrew text literally says, “dying, you will die” (tWmT' tAm), though we should understand this, not as speaking of two deaths, but as a Hebraic figure of speech indicating the certainty of that which is promised. The translators of the NAS capture this idea when they render it, “You will surely die.”
Not only is
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He does this because it is very evident in the subsequent chapter that when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, they did not immediately fall down and die. Instead we read in Genesis 5 how they continued to live what seems to have been long lives. We are not told this in the case of Eve, but we read of Adam living to an advanced old age of 930 years.
This brings us to the crux of our problem. It is a problem between promise and fulfillment. The promise from God was that eating would lead to death on that very day. The fulfillment as recorded in Genesis 3-5 sees physical death taking place only after a very long period of many hundreds of years. The question of how we are to reconcile the difference between the promise and the fulfillment has brought forth a variety of interpretations..
One can understand the temptation to explain away this seeming contradiction by reinterpreting the promise of death as referring only to spiritual death. But does this particular passage support or even allow such an interpretation? When we look into Genesis 4 and 5, each of the many references to death refer to physical death. Cain kills Abel and is subsequently afraid that someone will find him and kill him. Lamech kills a young man and writes a song to boast of the fact. Throughout the lengthy genealogy of Genesis 5, we hear the constant refrain, “And he died,” and we understand each of these references to speak of physical death. Nor does
17. Give an example of a wrong interpretation of what “eating forbidden fruit” means? Why should this interpretation be rejected?
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20). This is a Bible verse found in the first five books of the Bible, otherwise known as the Pentateuch. Each of these five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) all have similarities and differences between each other. More specifically, we can see this between the first and fourth book. Genesis and Numbers have both similarities and differences in not only the obvious discussions but also in their themes and purposes.
If God is truly all knowing why would he let Adam and Eve eat this knowledgeable apple? I personally think that he wanted to test their faith in him to confirm that they really do believe in him because they want to, not because they are told to. I also feel that God wanted them to have knowledge.
Adam and Eve was placed by God in a perfect newly created world. They were free and commissioned to rule the earth with authority and dominion without any restrictions on how to accomplish this task. However, Adam was instructed by God not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which would reflect his dependency on God: “You may eat freely of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in that day that
God comes to Cain to confront him with the responsibility and Cain denies him. God comes not to find the truth, but to allow Cain the opportunity to admit the truth. Never being able to admit his sin and receive God's blessing, he receives a curse. His farming shall not flourish as it once did, and he must wander and be a fugitive. God puts a mark on Cain as one of deserving of death yet one chosen by God to live. One interpretation of the mark is that God believes death is too good for Cain and punishes him by making him live with what he has to do. It can also be looked at as allowing Cain an open door through which he can return whenever he is ready to face things more honestly.
In “Genesis”, God has a fatherly relationship with the humans and as a result he chooses to bring a flood to destroy all of mankind for a specific reason. God chooses to kill all of humankind because they are noxious beings and need to be destroyed to rid the world of poisonous beings. “When the Lord saw that man had done much evil and that his thoughts and inclinations were always evil, he was sorry that he had made man on earth,”(6:5-7). God created humankind and because of the way their perilous acts he decided to destroy his
The book of Genesis records the creation of the world and everything in it, as well the early relationship between God and humanity. God creates man, Adam, “from the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7) and places him in a paradise on Earth called the garden of Eden, where he also places the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From the man, God creates a woman and tells them that they “may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil [they] shall not eat, for in the day that [they] eat of it [they] shall die (Genesis 2:16). Despite this warning, the woman, Eve, is eventually tempted to eat the fruit of the treat and convinces Adam to do the same, causing them to be cast out of the garden. Although Adam and Eve do have free will to do what they
God told Adam and Eve in the beginning that they would die on the day they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. One death was immediate; this was that they were spiritually separated from God. However, their physical bodies continued to live, but they would not live forever as God apparently intended. They would become old, sick and die. All three (Adam, Eve and the serpent) were put out of the guard and the curse came not only on them but on the whole world. They no longer had a personal communion with God.
Rick Joyner’s, “There Were Two Trees in The Garden” is an extraordinary book that focuses on developing a Spirit-guided foundation in Christ. Many believers in today’s society are unaware of how to overcome temptations and addictions of the flesh. In order to overcome or win a fight there has to be an accurate understanding of the enemy that is attacking. Joyner exemplifies how from the beginning of creation humanity had the volition given by God. Man the ability to choose to not eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, this applies to all on a daily basis. Everyday we have the option to be connected to the Tree of Life or the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The root of our inability to overcome identity issues, fears, and having a clear understanding of the works of the Holy Spirit and the flesh is process we walk every day. We must be united in the Spirit to see the purpose of our lives when we abide in Jesus. As Joyner explains, “…but there is a truth that kills and there is the Truth who gives life-and we must learn to distinguish between them” (Joyner 57). When we are able to work abide in Him we can connect to the God-given purpose for our life, we can walk in leadership positions that are based on Jesus. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is our selfishness, pride, fear, rejection, and many works of the flesh. However, when we decided not to abide in this tree, we walk in freedom through the Holy Spirit. Rick Joyner clarifies the
Eve took what God created to be good. Immediately after Eve does this, God looks for Adam and Eve in the garden, hunting for them to start redemptive work. From the beginning of sin, God is trying to undo the wrath of sin. Readers see sin snowball quickly when Adam and Eve start to blame each other. Adam blames the woman and God for giving him the woman. Eve blames the serpent. What was marriage to the full has turned into a fiasco. The Lord then gives consequences for the disobedience in the garden. Sin creates consequences of separation, fear, shame, blame, and pain that ripple through the rest of Genesis. Specifically, God puts the consequence of death on Adam. However, in the midst of sin, readers see the protoevangelium (first presentation of the redemptive plan- Jesus). The scripture reads, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). From the beginning, the plan of redemption on the cross through Jesus is highlighted to say that sin does not have the final word, and neither does Satan.
the earth, and it grieved him to his heart" (Genesis 6:5). So He determined to kill
First, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, was indeed a specific kind of tree with an edible fruit , this tree represented far more than a natural fruit forbidden to man. As the name suggests, the attribute of the tree was to bring in knowledge of good and evil to the mankind. This represents that man can be attracted to good and the evil. It states that the carnal men eats from the tree of good and evil. The carnal man can never achieve, what we know spirituality, and his fortune is made up of good as well as evil and ultimately he will perish to death. The carnal man is forbidden from the second tree which is the tree of life. The tree of life can signify that, only when man is free from the sense of good and evil, he can eat the fruit from the tree of life which will change the man into heavenly body and death will not be the destiny for man. Instead, he will live forever. Thus, both the tress at Garden of Eden propose two different ideologies that are totally opposite to each
Somebody asked that “Doesn’t God decide the time when we die?” Certainly, if God wants you to be here there is no power that can end your life, and if He wants you to go home there is no viable force that can stop Him. However, God gave us a free will to decide how long to live in this world and where to spend our eternity. Unfortunately, our old nature has a reputation of blaming God for our failures and using Him as a scapegoat. God predetermined the lifespan of mankind: "My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years" (Genesis 6:3). But how long we live within the context of the given lifespan depends on us, in particular, our godliness and lifestyle. God instructed us that: “Walk in obedience to all that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess (Deuteronomy 5:33).
Having read this excerpt from a totally different mindset and perspective, I would not use either definition exclusively to define death. In fact, I believe man does not determine the moment of death, God does. I understand the need for a universal definition for medical and legal purposes, and I understand that man must have answers to the question, “When is a person considered dead?” My definition, of death is completely faith based. I define death as the moment in time when the soul leaves the physical body. I believe the body is the vessel for the soul and that at the time of death the soul leaves the physical Earth to be with God and only he determines when that is. I recognize that because my definition is based on my religious belief
Adam is enriched with blessings in the present because the Lord is giving him all the luxuries he needs to survive. However, Jehovah tells him that in the moment he decides to eat of that tree he will die. By saying that Adam will die he means that Adam will lose any blessings that he has. Nevertheless, Adam ignores what Jehovah has told him about the tree and he eats from it (Genesis, Chapter 3, and Verse 6). When Jehovah finds out that Adam eats fruit from the tree of life; he sends Adam out of the Eden to work the land and obtain for by himself (Genesis, Chapter 3, and Verses 17,18,19). Jehovah does not protect, nor does he give Adam what he needs to survive because Adam disobeys what God had told him. This shows how when people are blessed in the present, but they go against God’s word their promises for the future will be vanished. This clearly shows how God has the power to bless people in the present but he also has the power to retract on his future promises to