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.
Adam had everything in the garden except one tree. That tree carried with it a meaning and consequence unlike any other tree. God told him not to eat from that one tree. That was the simple instruction. Don’t eat from that tree. Period! And the penalty was severe, death. Wow, that seems a bit harsh, doesn’t it! Or does it? Adam had all the other trees, perhaps thousands or millions of them. The abundance of the Garden was his. All God wanted to know from Adam was that Adam respected God’s rule, His order to the Garden. By placing one limit on Adam and Adam obeying that one limit, God’s authority was established. God was in charge and Adam acknowledged that by not eating from the one tree. Everything else had no rules in the Garden. Adam was free to eat as he pleased. Even all that other eating showed that God was in charge. Just this one tree was off limits. Now we don’t know what kind of tree this was. We certainly can’t go to our local grocery store and buy a pound of “knowledge of good and evil” fruit. We know from later in this account that there was an actual fruit because it looked pleasing to the eye and tasted good. No symbolic fruit has those characteristics. But which fruit it was will remain a mystery. But our tendency is to rebel against God’s simple rules remains today. We have an abundant variety of choices that demonstrate God’s authority in our lives. Any number of actions show that we are submitting to God’s will. Why do we choose the one choice that shows we are rebelling against His authority? Why not rather enjoy the multiple choices that demonstrate our acknowledgement of God’s authority in our lives!
The Arnold Journey 