I was raised western evangelical Christian. One of the earliest Biblical narratives taught through colorful felt scenes, puppet shows and coloring pages was the story of the Garden of Eden and the two trees. [1]
The tree of life & the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. First tree = good second tree = bad.
The story goes: God commanded Adam not to eat from the one tree the knowledge of good and evil, and of course, they could not resist. Forever and ever - God is the dangler of knowledge of things we should not desire and yet He gives us the choice because He desires to have a union with His creation but only on the fair terms that they choose Him and are given the choice. Simple enough right?
Until you get a little older and you read about Solomon and how he asked for wisdom, for knowledge, and it says this pleased the Lord and was granted [2]. When you read through the book of Proverbs it is clear, that the wisdom given Solomon was both filled with knowledge of good and of evil. Solomon was renowned far and wide for his wisdom [3]. And then he fell just as tragically [4] as that couple in the Garden about 3000 years prior.
This raises many questions if one is paying attention. First, why are Adam and Eve immediately chastised, banished and given a mortal death sentence while Solomon is patted on the head, handed what is requested and sent along to live his life ?
And why didn’t all of that wisdom provide him with enough good sense to finish well?
I think the first questions can be answered when you look at how the knowledge was acquired. First, Adam and Eve were defiant and helped themselves [5]. Solomon at least had the manners and reverence to ask [6]. Second, the Lord Himself dwelled physically in Eden and the reality of the cosmic laws of our universe as created are unbreakable : God cannot be in the presence of sin. Or rather, sin cannot withstand the presence of God.
All throughout the scriptures we see that the Holy nature of the Most High will burn up wickedness.[7] In our numb and modern minds it is hard for us to see pride, self-centeredness or willfulness as being wicked enough for death. Yet I ask you : where do the seeds for horrific crimes like murder, rape, torture and genocide grow from? They are the fruit of the seeds of those very things. These things cannot exist without being burned out of existence by the mere proximity to the Lord of All Creation [8].
So Adam and Eve were banished for their own protection.
By the time we get to Solomon, the fullness of Lord’s presence has left the earth [9]. Through anointing, atonement and ritual cleansing the Spirit of the Lord would appeal and communicate with men [10] [11] [12] [13], making banishment unnecessary.
What we do see, is that Solomon was still unable to endure the temptations and pitfalls of those exact same seedbeds planted in that very first Garden. He was lured into adulterous worshiping of other gods, fueled by his already idolatrous appetite and obsession with women. [14]
So where do we go from here? What is God trying to teach us about knowledge? The scoffer might say: “Your god wants the dull-minded, gullible fools who blindly follow his irrational rules.” Or the Atheist: “These are the glorifications of irrational and illogical minds that created a god to explain the universe.” Or the conspiracy theorist: “These are the ways kings and rulers would tell stories to frighten the masses into willful submission, never to question authority.”
But what the Bible actually teaches us is that God’s original intention was to walk with man (in the cool of the day) [15] and teach him and grow him. Why else would they start in a garden? We can glean that the Lord desired to create something He could dwell with and give authority to, something that He could connect and have relationship with, which was created in His image with the same desires to create, love, and share. A creation that could experience joy, laughter, compassion and be able to comprehend who God is. God knew that this would require a process of maturity and growth. The process described for man appears to be different than the process for the other unseen beings in the heavens, we won’t know for certain until the Lord reveals that to us, but we can see that for whatever reason the ‘angelic hosts’ who had a more direct and dimensional perspective of who God is, still were able to fall into the traps of the seedbed of wickedness and separate themselves from His presence [16]. It is clear that our process on earth is deliberate and methodical as a form of refinement.
The entirety of the scriptures shows us exactly how Adonai is maturing His family. We are also watching that refinement take place today. I am just starting to understand the truth around this lesson.
Do any of you have an iOS device you’re reading this on? What’s the logo? It is no coincidence that less than 5 years after the birth of the first personal home computer, a company with sights set on making information and knowledge accessible across the world was birthed and chose the name and logo ‘Apple’. Though the fruit of the trees in Eden were never disclosed, I would bet that Jobs and Wozniak were victims of the same Sunday school coloring pages that I was as a child.
Jesus has been walking me through this in my own maturity process. Recently, He showed me in a vision during prayer that I needed to address an information consumption problem. That my appetite for information has surpassed my current level of maturity. This prompted me to do an information fast. No internet whatsoever, aside from listening to scripture via audio, checking emails, listening to music and communicating with friends and family. No teachings, No other books, even books about The Book, no social media and absolutely NO TWITTER. This fast lasted 6 days and this morning when I opened up my Twitter feed to get updates on the current war in Gaza, the weight of this lesson from the Lord was both clear and piercing. My tolerance for the vitriol, violence, and delusion had drastically decreased while paradoxically, what also decreased was the anger, outrage and offense that it triggered in me as I looked at it. Instead, I felt only deep grief.
When our tolerance to absorb certain knowledge that we aren’t mature enough for is increased, our reactivity to that knowledge is equally increased. This is NOT the seedbed we want to be planting in our hearts.
Please understand, the purpose of this exercise is not to become an Ostrich, definitely not to advocate for sticking one’s head in the sand - in fact, the Bible is pretty derogatory towards the Ostrich if you want to go on a little side quest - being ignorant is not praised even if the ostrich seems to be delighted without a care in the world, she is not given wisdom and is described as cruel, harsh and labors in vain.
When God came to earth as Jesus [17] to teach us at the time when a portion of His firstborn had matured to the point of receiving the gift that was His life, death and resurrection (and this portion appears to be SMALL in number compared to the population of the time), He revealed to us the exact way by which He would keep His promises [18], and ensure that once again, after ALL of His children have grown and matured in both love and obedience, something ONLY possible by Trusting fully in Him, will be able to be in the fullness of His presence as it was before. That through this Grace, our ability to trust enough to walk with Him, following what was given by Jesus and in this process maturing into our own personal revelations given by His Spirit until the day when the entirety of those who belong to Him have been matured to the place of receiving all of His wisdom, the same knowledge from that tree will ultimately be given to us when we are ready.
So what does maturity look like? Just how can we be made ready to finally eat from that tree without it leading to our destruction? In Ephesians there are mysteries revealed that not only describe what this looks like, but also explains the purpose for God's process. We learn that He equips all those in Christ with specific gifts that work together in harmony while being unique, however this harmony only occurs in maturity, and that maturity is found when unified under Jesus as the head of the body [19]. This means we no longer allow things like denominations, doctrines, theology or 'isms' lead our walk or interpret the Bible. It means we as a single entity rely entirely on the two witnesses that were given to us as guides. God provided us with the Word and the Spirit and they are not meant to stand in isolation. Truth is revealed spiritually [20], if we are reading in our own spirit we can easily apply our own ideas on the text, but when read in His Spirit, truth is illuminated. In the same vein we do not rely solely on the Spirit [21], discernment is a grace given as part of maturity, we are prone to deception from enemy spiritual forces as well as self-deception, the word provides a light to hold up to spiritual wisdom to ensure it is truth [22]. It means we allow God's body (Jesus) and soul (Holy Spirit) to free us from our own mind (our will) and calibrate it to His mind, His will (The Father). This is what it means to be mature and unified, the wisdom of the mind of God is what the fruit of that tree really is. Ephesians chapter 3 gives us the reason : What the Most High is doing here on earth with His Assembly of devoted disciples through this process, is revealing the multifaceted wisdom of His very mind to the unseen angelic and demonic rulers in the air [23]. Our role is to have the ultimate truth of God Himself revealed in us and how we respond to His example of what love looks like. Love is laying down our desires, our dreams, our own lives so that another might live, so that God's truth and love might be revealed in that action.
In Revelation 22 we are given the picture of the kingdom, and that the crystal waters flowing from the throne of God has "The Tree of Life" "On either side of the river" - How can one tree be on either side of the river? Is this describing a dimensionality we have yet to experience, maybe? Or perhaps at the end of the process of maturity these same two trees both possess the name Tree of life for all who eat from them, as they are watered by the same river, which flows from the Lamb through the great city.
Our maturity must be as radiant as pure gold [24], something that can be refined in fire and not incinerated. The tree of knowledge of good and evil was never meant for us to have to choose between life and wisdom, rather it was an example of what is in store for us if we choose obedience and trust God’s process and wisdom. If we can Trust His process and follow His guidance, then all of His wisdom awaits us when we reach the maturity that turns us into pure gold, where we can walk through the fire of His presence and dwell with Him forever.
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