3. but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden and you must not touch it, or you will die.' (Gen 3, NIV)
The BKC said "Eve disparaged the privileges, added to the prohibition, and weakened the penalty – all seen by contrasting, her words (Gen. 3:3) with God's original commands. (2:16-17)."
Now I heard a preacher on the radio once talking about how Eve had added the prohibition "...you must not touch [the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil]...", and because of that she had opened the way for disobedience because when she touched the fruit and she didn't die, she then thought that maybe she could eat the fruit as well, so by misquoting the Lord she was opening the door to disobedience. Perhaps that is what they were talking about here.
17. but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die. (Gen 2, NIV)
The NIV doesn't mention the time from for the death from disobedience. That they will die in "day" they partake of it. I don't see what the BKC is talking about when the say Eve "weakened the penalty" both verses say the penalty is death. I wonder why the NIV leaves out that they will die in the "day" that they partake? I can remember someone pointing out no one has lived longer than one day to the Lord. Peter says that a day to the Lord is a thousand years to us (2 Pet 2:8).
BKC points out that after Satan has tempted Eve, and he then leaves her and she is left to herself and the fruit appeals to her natural side. The fruit is "good for food" appealing to appatite. It's all "pleasing to the eye" or beautiful. How often are humans lead astray by the beautifulness and desirability of something? And it was "desirable for gaining wisdom" or getting great knowledge. Now I don't really know that gaining knowledge is bad, but the BoM warns against becoming wise and thinking that you know more than the Lord (2 Nep 9:28).
The BKC makes a big point of describing Satan's tempting of Eve. It says that Satan first says that sin will not cause death, then he tries to say that Heavenly Father is jealous and doesn't want them to become like Him, and that he is holding them back. Then the BKC says "So Satan held out to the the promise of divinity – knowing good and evil." (emphasis in original). I don't know that Satan was offering to make them divine, it just says that it will make them like God. What would he offer to perfect immortal humans who were the associates of God that would make them more divine? I think the BKC oversteps in their emphasis.
Then after Adam and Eve partake and sin enters into the world, the only thing they actually got was "the knowledge of good and evil". In fact God confirms this when he says
22 "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever."
So the lie Satan told was that they wouldn't die after they partook. This is the true insidiousness of Satan's lies, he mixes lies with truth to make it sound plausible, so that when you take the truth with the lie that's when you get in trouble. In this case it brings about death for everyone.
I like the insights that the BKC brings when they talk about the cursing that the Lord gives to Adam and Eve. First since is was Eve's "desire" for the fruit that got them in trouble in the first place, her "desire" is going to be to her husband, and this will result in her being ruled over by her husband. When I teach Genesis I like to point out to brethren that this is not a reward for Adam but punishment for Eve. So don't let this be something to swell a mans head.
It points our that the Serpent will spend its days eating dust. Man will die and return to the dust, and so, presumably, to being dominated by Satan once again at least symbolically.
They also describe how the Lord shows his concern for Adam and Eve by making the coats of skins. The BKC says that this is symbolic of the of the fact that later Israel will sacrifice animals that will remedy a curse for them as well.
Chapter 4 gives an account of how society becomes sinful starting with Cain. Pretty standard stuff here. The thing that was most interesting is that when the Lord tells Cain that "sin lies at the door" that the word that is translated as "lies" would imply an animal crouching, ready to pounce, and that Cain is able to resist the crouching sin, and that it is his duty to do so.
The BKC says that the mark that the Lord puts on Cain is a mark of grace and that it protects Cain from retribution from any who should find him after he was thrown out of God's presence. The rest of the chapter talks about the introduction of evil/worldly society. The book seems to take culture to task here a little to much for my taste, but perhaps they are talking about worldly culture.
The BKC points out that the only words that are spoken in this chapter other than Cain's are Lamech's. The book says that Lamech breaks away from God's plan when he takes two wives. I'm pretty sure that that's reading more into the Bible than is there. I guess I'll have to wait to see how it handles the wives of Abraham, and others. I have always wondered what Lamech was talking about when he said the if Cain was protected 7 times, he would be protected 70 X 7. The book says that this is an example of pride and he's bragging. That sounds as good as anything else I've ever heard.
No comments:
Post a Comment