The Tree of Knowledge as Tutor

In order to know right from wrong, did Adam and Eve have to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Was there magic in that fruit? Did eating it unleash some Matrix-like wave of knowledge? ("Whoa, I know kung-fu!") No. As soon as God placed a prohibition on the tree, the tree's very existence was teaching Adam and Eve good from evil, right from wrong. Even before eating the fruit, Adam and Eve were being taught that good and evil is defined in relation to obedience/disobedience to God.

Perhaps I can best explain this principle by way of example. Put a cookie in a jar and tell your child not to eat it. As soon you issue this prohibition, the cookie jar becomes a lesson in morality. In not eating the cookie, your child learns (positively) that obeying mom and dad is good and right; disobeying mom and dad is wrong. If your your child eats the cookie, s/he is learning the same lesson, only this time from a negative angle because of the punishment involved. The main point I'm trying to communicate is that the cookie doesn't need to be eaten in order for your child to learn this important lesson. In that sense, the cookie jar is always schooling your child just as the tree of knowledge was always the tree of knowledge, not simply after Adam and Eve ate the fruit. Similarly, knowledge is not locked inside the cookie anymore than it was locked inside the fruit--rather, morality is learned through experience, i.e., in active obedience/disobedience to the command.

After Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, God says, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil...therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden" (Gen. 3:22-23). Who is the us God is referring to? While some evangelicals believe God is having an inter-Trinitarian dialogue here, that cannot be what Moses had in mind. Most likely, the us is in reference to the heavenly host. Angels are moral beings--like man, they are created with the capacity to distinguish right from wrong. Of all the heavenly beings, who is the one angel who learned good and evil the hard-way, in sinning against God? Right: the devil. So when God says, "...like one of us in knowing good and evil," I am pretty sure what God is saying is this: "Behold, man has become like the Devil, the one of us who knows good and evil not through obedience but disobedience..."

What happened to the Devil when he rebelled against God? He was cast from His presence. Man rebels against the law of God, and what happens? He is kicked out of Eden.