I’ve been sick this week. Some days were spent just resting with my brain not capable of much. Other days, however, were spent with some meditation. I’ve been going through the Bible Project’s class “From Adam to Noah” (you should check it out), and as has happened, my perspective on things I’ve been taught in my faith walk are shifting yet again.
One of the issues that pops up in reading Scripture is the question, “Why?” Why did God create two trees? I’ve been taught that the biblical perspective is that evil was introduced when Adam and Eve took the fruit of the knowledge of the tree of good and bad. So, why does that tree even exist?
If God were to create human in His own likeness, then it would seem to stand to reason that there needs to be two trees in the Garden. There needs to be a test of trust. God is not described as mindless or a drone in Scripture. So, why would He create drones? Instead, there is a test in the Garden; a choice that humans must face. Will humans trust God or will they take for themselves? We know how the story goes.
Its an incredible risk when you stop to think about it. Think about when you train someone to do a job. You are communicating to that person, “I trust you to take care of this. I trust that you will do a good job.” In creating this test of trust, God is placing a lot of trust and faith in humans in the Garden narrative. He gives them direction to care for the Garden, to be fruitful and multiply, and to not take from the tree of knowing (experiencing) good and bad. The tree of life is available for the taking, but to take from that tree humans must trust God with the same trust God has placed in them.
So, ultimately the taking from the tree of knowledge of good and bad is a breaking of trust. Its a breaking of relationship. It isn’t solely breaking the rules. Have you ever broken someone’s trust? I bet you have. Everyone has except for Jesus. What was the other person’s reaction when the trust was broken? I imagine there was hurt, anger, frustration, and probably feelings of betrayal. As we read Scripture, we see God experience all these emotions regarding breaches of trust. Yet, even in the Old Testament, He shows patience and grace and gives chances to earn trust back.
Jesus was the ultimate example of what it means to trust God fully. It is easy to disqualify ourselves and say, “But Jesus was God. There’s no way I can achieve that type of trust.” That statement may have some truth in it, but its not the full truth. Jesus was God, and placing our trust in Jesus isn’t going to magically fix things. We are still going fall. We are still going to break the trust that both God and people have put in us. However, we can pursue Jesus’ example. We can pursue peace, reconciliation, and a life of trust.
This isn’t to say to place our trust in everyone or everything. That wouldn’t be healthy in a broken world. However, we can take care of our side of the street, and when it comes to others who have broken our trust, we can offer forgiveness. It is up to the other party to pursue any type of restoration of trust if that’s possible. Unfortunately, some trust just may not be able to be restored on this side of the Kingdom. However, we can look forward to the day when all relationships and trust is restored in the renewal of all things.
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