“I’ll answer your question about why the tree would be allowed in the garden now,” Austin said. “To best understand, you have to first hear about how Adam and Eve ate the fruit.”
“There was a serpent in the garden. This serpent desired nothing more than to be as Great as God The Father, and he hated Adam and Eve for being made in God’s image. He was jealous of them, and wanted to see them suffer.”
“The serpent approached Eve and started to make her question God and asked, ‘Did God actually say that you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?. Eve responded, thinking she was answering an innocent question, ‘We may eat of any of the trees in the garden, except for the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, because if we eat of that, we will die.’”
“The snake looked at her like he was confused by her answer, and responded, ‘You won’t die Eve. God the Father and the Holy Spirit are keeping a secret from you. They know that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you’ll be like them, knowing good and evil.’”
“And Eve, wanting to be wise like Mom and Dad, ate the fruit. She then gave some to Adam who was with her. They felt a new feeling that they had never felt before. They felt ashamed of their actions and felt guilty for what they had done.”
“Not only did they know what they did was wrong, but they were no longer with Mom and Dad like they were before. Because they betrayed them and didn’t listen, there was a new distance.”
“They looked at each other and realized that they were naked, and felt ashamed. They made clothes out of the leaves and tried to hide.”
“I’ll answer your question now Tim. God the Father and the Holy Spirit want us to love them and know them, right? So what they do, they do to teach us.”
“They want Eve to fully rely on Adam and be his perfect helper, like the Holy Spirit is to God the Father. They want Adam to have Authority, like God The Father, and rely on God first, and be with Eve second.”
“When we look at what happened and how the serpent tricked Eve who then convinced Adam to take the fruit, we see that Adam and Eve both failed to love Mom and Dad and do as they commanded.”
“When the serpent told Eve that she would become more like God by eating the fruit, she should have said, ‘No, that’s not what Adam told me,’ and then left. But she doubted Adam, and listened to the Serpent instead of him.”
“Adam should have had the authority to stop the whole thing from happening, and tell the snake to leave them immediately, but he did not. And then when Eve took the fruit and offered it to him, he should have immediately called for The Father and told him what happened. Instead, Adam chose to be with Eve instead of Mom and Dad.”
“But the most diabolical thing that the serpent did, was to use Adam and Eve’s desires against them.”
“In Eve’s heart, she wanted to be the perfect helper for Adam. And because she loved him so much, she was excited by the prospect of being wise like Mom and Dad are. So she ate the fruit.”
“But imagine this. Imagine she had first asked Adam, ‘am I enough for you? Do I need to do anything more than be myself, to be your perfect helper?’ Adam would have said no! Instead of relying on Adam, she relied on herself for the answer. That’s where she went wrong.”
“In Adam’s heart, he wanted deeply to love and protect Eve. After Eve ate the fruit, the serpent used Adam’s true desire to trick him to leave God. Adam knew after Eve ate the fruit that she was in trouble, and he chose to follow her into the trouble.”
“But imagine if Adam had grabbed the snake by the neck, the second the snake started making Eve question if she was enough, and took the snake straight to Mom and Dad to ask what to do. But he did not, because he trusted Eve’s judgement, to eat the fruit, more than Mom and Dad’s.”
“Mom and Dad used the tree and the serpent to show Adam that he loved Eve more than he loved them, and how he would trust her judgement first. Adam relied on himself and Eve, before he relied on them.”
“They showed that Eve would listen to a stranger, rather than Adam, if the stranger offered her something enticing."
“That’s why the tree was there, because God knew for Adam and Eve to love them with all of their hearts, they had to be taught their shortcomings.”
Tim understood better now.
Read Chapter four