This morning, I was studying Genesis chapters 3-4. A podcaster said – the serpent didn’t try to convince them that God didn’t exist. His statement was intended to cause them to doubt God’s trustworthiness. The serpent told them, “God doesn’t want you to be like him.” He implied, “God is keeping something from you.”
In response, Eve looked at the tree of good and evil, and she saw that the tree was good food. I am sure it was good food. God created all things good, even this tree. He never said the tree was evil. He just said, don’t eat of its fruit. However, she desired the goodness of wisdom, and reached for the fruit of the tree. She reached for a created thing, and replaced God, who is all wisdom, with the fruit of a tree.
As I pondered why God might have instructed them to avoid the fruit of this tree, something occurred to me. By eating the fruit of this tree, humanity took to themselves the ability to define moral ethics; they became the arbiters of good and evil. For instance, Cain thought it was morally acceptable to offer God a menial offering, and then, in his jealousy, decided it was ok to kill his brother, who offered acceptable sacrifice. Cain’s son, Lamech, likewise killed for things as insignificant as a young man bruising him. The catch was – Cain then feared the moral code of others who might likewise kill him. God in his kindness, blessed him with protection.
I started thinking how complicated life is. How hard it can be to choose between two things. How complicated the variety of moral codes in the world, and trying to balance between one’s own code while trying not to infringe upon someone else’s. We try to avoid being impacted by the moral code of others, and unfortunately lack the blessing of protection granted to Cain.
All of this led me to think – maybe God wanted his people to trust that he had their best interest at heart. Maybe following God’s knowledge of good and evil is a good way of keeping things simple, instead of struggling with making good decisions on our own. In fact, if we were to choose his moral code, we would leave evil out of creation. We would improve the world around us. We would live the way he designed us to live, and life, in theory, would be much better.
All of this sounds good, but it isn’t easy. We long for our way to be right. We long to act upon our desires. We struggle because God’s ways are beyond us, and they often don’t make much sense. We want a world without evil, but we don’t want to do what it takes to get evil out of the world. We don’t want to follow God’s simple plan of existence. Even if some of us choose his plan, those who don’t are still living their own code of conduct. Evil would still abound in the world. Humans would still die. So, what is the point?
When we look at the lives of the saints, we see that those who conformed their decisions to his plan, found peace and joy even when there was strife in the world around them. They found amazing goodness even when they suffered. In addition, Scripture tells us that those who do things his way, receive a blessing similar to the one given Cain. While we will still lose our current lives, we know there is a next life where we will live eternally with God. This is a blessing far superior to the one given to Cain.
Spend some time with the Holy Spirit looking at your own moral choices. How do they affect your life? Do they bring lasting or temporary joy? Do your choices complicate your life or simplify thing for you? Ask him how you can live your life more in line with his moral code. Ask him for the grace to choose the greatest good, which is life in union with God for all eternity. Then offer him a sacrifice of praise for all that he has done for you.
In Him,
dw
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