As a side note relating to the last post, I want to mention that the popular idea that “knowledge is power” is a bit misleading or a half-truth at best. In Scripture, “wisdom” is to be sought more than anything else. All education is a kind of probation to prepare us for later attainment. We can be impetuous and do inhuman stuff with knowledge, as history has proven that, ‘a little knowledge is dangerous.’

Our screw-up of Eden is a good parable about this. The humans’ unfaithful “adultery” (the receiving of a command was evidence of the covenant commitment to their “Teacher”) with knowledge “to grasp equality with God” was disobedience to the call to gain wisdom for the high call of the Life of Love, which lead to a divorce which God had earlier warned “YOU will surely die” would be the consequence. If you or anyone you know up close has ever been through a divorce, and there is integrity enough to own any responsibility for it, it is a failure of breaking a covenant vow that feels like a death.

“But wait a minute,” you may say… “wasn’t these naive creatures just curious? God gave us a mind. He didn’t want us to leave it at the door of the class, right? What was the alternative for this God-given curiosity? Is God against knowledge?”

Really?! What do you think was the MEANING of “the tree of life?” Notice there were TWO trees “IN THE CENTER OF THE GARDEN.” Get the point? Why was there a ‘mystery’ tree close by? God gave no pronouncement over it other than its name. What do you think that meant? Was God being deliberately misleading or giving a real lesson about discerning what authority to trust? Do you think God had a real lesson to teach humanity about discernment? Is it the case we couldn’t gain the capacity for the wisdom necessary for life without the pre-conditions that a personal choice creates? Essentially, isn’t that what all tests are about? Discernment of choices? There is a right way and a wrong way to learn. Is experience the best teacher after all, or the building of faith through the discernment of authority to interpret our experiences? Isn’t that the meaning of wisdom?

Again, we have a problem understanding why God chose the method He did due to our point of view. While God lives in the immediate contexts, we read the account AFTERWARD and think that alone makes us wise, because after all, we are reading the Bible, right? But put yourself in the story. When you think back, do you remember how naive you was as a child? We don’t know what span of time the narrative covers, or at what points in the new humans life God commenced His classes for Life. We do know God had an orientation class initially. God spoke directly to orient Adam to the agenda and gave him that knowledge through a command, that basically taught Adam everything was at his disposal, EXCEPT ONE THING(!), the tree of the knowledge of good and EVIL (that alone should have made discernment an easy mark). God had classes about other matters too. For instance like science, such as naming animals (build a relationship with and take responsibility for what one is to govern); social studies, such as meeting a woman (Adam could have got that wrong as he did with God! …Though he did throw her under the bus later in the narrative), getting married, having a family, and given the brevity of the account, I am sure there were plenty of other choices made that weren’t necessary to the narrative to aid Adam in his maturity in wisdom. And it appears God granted Adam great liberty to make these choices, too. But keep in mind ALL choices have consequences based on the level of their importance, as we know from our own experience. But did all these ‘classes’ make Adam wise?

Then came the final exam, the really important one, the one which would determine if the humans would graduate go on to the consummate Life and exaltation: the Resurrection. So, with each level of importance to gain wisdom for what the education was to prepare us for, meant the stakes were incrementally higher. Notice the order in the narrative: science class and its field trip, the social study with romantic overtures, and the move toward social community in marriage and family building. The greater the call, the greater the discipline. But then came the ultimate class on wisdom and its exam about the meaning of Life itself. So, necessarily the stakes to determine the readiness at that point to fulfill the responsibility God created humans for meant the ultimate stake: Life or death (absence of Life). It was no surprise exam. God initially warned Adam the consequences of His choice in this matter. Was God’s creatures ready for the consummate “adoption as sons”―to be given “all authority in heaven and earth”? As Jesus said, “to whom much is given, much will be required.”

Maybe the scenario seemed too common to Adam and Eve to be that important. It was about finding food and eating, right? What was the big deal about that? They knew, as we hear Eve recount God’s command to her deceptive education counselor (the ‘serpent’). But this school of wisdom’s vision was suppose to be about Life, as God’s original orientation made VERY clear. Hence, they failed the exam. They fell short of the wisdom necessary for Life. Wisdom is discernment related to meaning and the power to properly imagine the consequence of our choices. Their imagination unformed by wisdom fell short of the glory of God, and hence the purpose for which we were created.

Keep in mind, there wasn’t only one choice in Eden related to the exam. God spoke about two trees. Why didn’t the humans walk over to the other tree? God NEVER stipulated any pre-conditions to partake of it. They had just as much access to it. We do too. So what was the “tree of Life?” Simply put, it was wisdom, the wisdom to discern the choices we encounter, and how to obey God in relation to those choices. Partaking of that fruit would demonstrate their obedience, so the tree was wisdom’s key to unlock the door to “the Resurrection and the Life.”

God’s creation would have to await a new Adam. One who in wisdom would go in obedience to the tree of Life. But the fruit of the tree Adam and Eve ate from had filled the environment. So way to the tree of Life for Jesus (the “Omega Adam”) meant to be obedience to God and eat up all the fruit of human choice and bear it on a tree until death so that tree could be raised from death and mutate through His Resurrection into the New Tree of Life for all who obey His “faith.”

…BTW, with that bit of housecleaning, welcome to the Living Room…