Genesis 2:17 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 2:17

Comments

As representative head of the human race Adam was given this command when he was alone, before Eve was created. As his Creator, the Lord had the perfect right to command Adam what he may or may not do. There is no reason to think that there was anything intrinsically harmful about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was an arbitrary command, and arbitrary commands are best suited to test obedience. The command and the threat that went with it must have made Adam reflect deeply on his relationship with God. Here was the Lord who had made him, and made so many good things around him. How was it that his Creator, who showed such evidence of love and kindness, should threaten him with death if he did not obey? Adam was required to trust God in this matter, because the reason for abstaining from eating was not revealed to him. The relationship between man and God is one in which Adam is required to obey. This has been rightly described as a covenant of works, for there was no other time when it was possible for man to have obeyed God and in doing so to have avoided death and preserved life. As the first man created, Adam stood as the representative of the human race. In him all mankind stood or fell. His obedience or disobedience to a specific command of God decided the matter, but he obeyed not only for himself but for the whole human race. This is evident from the result of his disobedience and from all that Scripture says about his key position in this covenant. Once he sinned and died, he would never again be in a position to obey from the heart, for he would have a corrupt heart that could no longer obey willingly, and he would have a sin record which he could never remove.

Application

Would Adam gain the knowledge of good and evil by eating of the tree or by not eating? It was God who gave the tree this name. Satan tempted Eve to believe that it was this knowledge that she was being deprived of by God and that she would gain by eating. But this was a great lie. Eve already had some knowledge of good, for Adam and Eve were created upright moral beings. How would they gain knowledge of good by eating of the tree? It is the lie of Satan that we cannot know evil except by experiencing it, but this is a trap. In fact those who seek to know evil by experience are blinded by it so that they cannot understand it as they should. Having tasted evil, it remains before them as a mystery drawing them ever more deeply into its power. The true knowledge of evil comes through diligently avoiding it and seeking righteousness. It is as we practice good that we have knowledge of good and evil, for we become those who ‘by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil’ (Hebrews 5:14). Who can understand evil more clearly than God who is infinitely removed from it? Those who live immersed in sin are those who have been most dulled by it. Adam was commanded to make a choice between good and evil, between obedience and disobedience, which would bring the distinction between the two into sharp focus. It was by not eating that he could gain the knowledge of good and evil.

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Genesis 2:17 Commentary and Bible Study