Genesis 2:15-17–Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation

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Welcome to today’s Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation covering Genesis 2:15-17 wherein we see the good things that God has given us and that which He has warned us against.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

The temptations in the world today are great and many–nobody would deny this.  But is that really our ultimate problem?  See here what God placed before Adam (and soon, Eve), giving him a host of good things to enjoy with only one stipulation: Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. We might long that we could be in the place of Adam, having no prior understanding of sin and the hardness of heart that follows it, living a life of simplicity but purpose in the caring for the land and its inhabitants that God had made, having the fellowship of a perfect companion alongside whom we could delight in the Lord forever.  All of this was in place for Adam, but we know the story to follow.  He and Eve, with a little help from the serpent, would mess it all up.  It seems that it would be a stretch to say that their ultimate problem was a continual influx of various temptations that simply overcame them.  No, they simply ended up showing that they had rebellious hearts.  They merely reflected what we now see in all of us.  Temptation isn’t our biggest problem; we are.

We could go around and around in circles asking the question of why God even put an off-limits tree and a crafty tempter in the garden at all, but instead we would accomplish much more in simply drawing near to Him and asking Him to keep our hearts alert to the dangers at hand.  We must look at all that God has blessed us with, just as Adam and Eve should have, instead of focusing on that which He has told us is harmful.  It is God’s desire that we trust Him, that we listen both to what He says is good for us and what He warns is bad for us, and then choose rightly.  There is much good to enjoy, but a lack of patience, a heart of disbelief, and seeds of rebellion have always ended up spoiling much of these good things.  There exists here a warning, a call to stop, and a need for repentance.  What are the tempting “trees” in your life?  In what areas are you self-deceived into thinking that you can handle yourself and manage your own life successfully.  Stop.  Grab a friend or make a new one who can take you by the hand and help you to fill yourself with the fruit of the many good trees of the garden.  Believe that what God has said is good is indeed best for you.  Know freedom in Him that results in freedom from your enslaving sins today.

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