Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.“
Genesis 2:9

This verse can refer to only the vegetation of the garden itself, or to the time when God called forth all the vegetation in the world. He either planted the garden when He was calling forth the rest of vegetation or He made the garden after the other vegetation, making a specific spot extra good. Both are conceivable and the scriptures don’t specify which way He did it, as it doesn’t really have any bearing on us.

‘in the middle’ speaks to a specific and known spot. It was in the middle, in the midst, or in the centre of the garden He made. Obviously it was a place that humanity could get to and from. It was known to them and known to God. Since the Fall, it has had no relevance to humanity at all, and so we are not told where that specific point is. It has been barred to us – in fact, the whole of the garden has been barred to us (Genesis 3:24) – and so its precise location does not matter to us.

All the vegetation of the Earth was much the same, but in this particular place (the garden) there were two UNIQUE trees. The Tree of Life (which we see again in Heaven – Revelation 22:1-2) and the Tree of Knowledge. The knowledge in question was the knowledge of good and evil. Why is it that God put these trees in the garden? Why put something there and then deny humanity their use? The answer is authority. God gave us authority and through that authority dominion, and He did it by decree, by giving us our statue of behaviour. To quote Prosecuting and Defending Extradition Cases: A Practitioner’s Handbook: ‘Decision-makers who exercise powers granted by statute always have boundaries to that authority. No public authority is unlimited. Those who act under public authority must stay within their legal authority, or jurisdiction, and are guided in their decision-making by statutory intent.’ In order for us to wield authority, we NEEDED to be restricted.

Those who do not understand God’s moral character will often take up the idea that by refusing us access to the knowledge of good and evil, God was in some way limiting knowledge or keeping us down. This is not true. By exclusive, intensive, and comprehensive knowledge of GOOD, we automatically have knowledge of evil: anything NOT good. God was allowing us, has ALWAYS allowed us, and WILL always allow us deep and intimate knowledge of GOOD (James 1:17). Deep and intimate knowledge of HIM (1 Corinthians 2:16). This knowledge informs us of its opposite without us needing specific knowledge. For example, take sexual immorality. I can simply understand sexual immorality is wrong by knowing what proper sexual conduct is. I don’t NEED to know all the types of sexual immorality (which historically can include lust, flirtation outside of a committed relationship, sexual acts outside of a committed relationship, adultery, incest, bestiality, paedophilia, necrophilia, and homosexuality). All I gain with specific knowledge of evil things is the ability to be tempted by those specific evil things – we cannot be tempted by that which we have no knowledge of. By restricting us to good, God was protecting us from evil and severely limiting the ability of the devil and his angels to interfere with humanity.