Today's food for thought - Genesis 3:1-4

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 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.' "

4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

My brothers and sisters, "Knowing good and evil is very different from being able to choose good and reject evil." (Andy Crouch)

For if we do not reject evil, there is no benefit of knowing good and evil. I believe it is God's intention for human to live in a world without evil rather than to know good from evil.

God actually says it in a firm but positive and pleasant manner to the man, ""You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 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" (2:16-17). The serpent, however, turns it around and presents in a provocative and deceitful manner to the woman by playing on the words, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (3:1b) to lure her to focus on the one forbidden tree in the garden instead of all other fruit trees she was free to eat from.

Truly, there is no goodness come out of evil but deceitfulness and lies. Let's us fear God and shun evil always, and do not be wise in our own eyes. Amen.