Adam and Eve were unashamed of their nakedness. They communed with God in the cool of the evening, without self-consciousness. They were in complete obedience to God’s one command: not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
It seems strange that God did not want them to know what is good and what is evil, to be able to choose between right and wrong.
The Hebrew implies “all knowledge, knowledge of everything”; and this is what Satan says, “He knows you will become like gods, knowing everything.”
Then, after they eat, God says, “Look, they have become like one of us, they know good and evil, they know everything.”
While it is impossible to know everything like God, without being God, it is possible to know more than we are morally able to handle.
If you watch Forensic Files or listen to the evening news, then you realize that man knows way too much about how to do bad things to humans and animals. The same knowledge to use atomic energy for good also makes evil weapons of it. Humans have way more choices than bugs and animals do, to use good for evil. They have become very good at being bad.
God was able to walk with them when they only knew the good about their immediate surroundings and cared for it with childlike pleasure, while all their needs were supplied by their Creator. Once they expanded that knowledge, they chose to be like God and use that knowledge to achieve their own humanistic desires. Have you seen anything that reminds you of this on Forensic Files or on the evening news?
A child used to be known for its innocence. A child today knows more about adult subjects than I ever did until I was married. Our children are forced out of their innocence today by television, daycare, babysitters, music, games, books, and the list goes on. They know too much about too many things that they are not emotionally able to handle.
The number one killer is stress. Stress is nothing more than trying to deal with too much at one time. We know too much, and have to deal with way more than our emotional and intellectual brains can handle.
A 54-year-old man decides he has had enough and stops his car in the middle of a busy highway, gets out and starts walking down the middle of the road until a 26-year-old fails to see him in time and hits him, killing him instantly. One man’s stress overwhelms, bringing his death and mental and emotional anguish to a 26-year-old, who may face criminal charges.
A child finds a handgun under his mom’s pillow and shows it to his sister. He accidentally hits the trigger, killing his sister.
What grieves your heart as you read the above scenarios? The fact that good has been turned into evil, and that bad is now being called good? God foretold these days in Isaiah 5:20. Politicians, clergy, professors, teachers, leaders of society, parents, and children have all lost their innocence with losing their moral compass, as they have thrown God out of their lives and embraced what they want to call good in their own eyes. They are using the good for evil, selfish purposes that threaten the very existence of society.
God wants us to come to knowledge of Him, and allow Him to use that knowledge to develop moral character in our hearts. His moral character is demonstrated in Jesus Christ, and is meant to be duplicated in those who believe in Him as their Lord and Savior.
Jesus allowed the little children to come unto Him, taking them up into His arms and blessing them, saying these are what the Kingdom of God and of Heaven are to be like. Innocent knowledge of all that is good, and lack of desiring anything that is evil.
Have you ever longed to just drive off into the sunset, find a secluded spot where no people are around, nothing but the beauty of God’s creation for you to look upon, leaving behind all the cares of your life? It is in those quiet alone times that we come nearer to being an innocent child before our God. We have no one to impress, nothing to hide, and we can talk out loud of all that is troubling our hearts, without fear of rejection. God may not answer in an audible voice, but we sure come away with a sense that He did hear us, because we have a deeper peace and quietness in our burdened heart.
I believe that is what God wants us to learn now, in this life, during our 70 to 80 years on this planet, how to bare our souls before Him, how to allow Him to bring the innocence back to our hearts, how to experience the beauty of His Glory, how to feel the peace in our inner beings that passes all human understanding, how to realize that all we really need to know is what brings good to others and glory to our Creator!