The Purpose of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not for food, because God said, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:16 – 17. It had different purpose.

In Genesis 2:8 – 17, the garden of Eden is described as the place on earth where Adam and Eve would live. It states that God planted the garden Himself. It was His garden. It says God made every tree of the garden pleasing to the eyes and good for food. The Hebrew word for “pleasing” is chamad and means desirable. It will be used again in Genesis 3:6 when Eve sees that the tree was “…desirable to make one wise.” Not the purpose God had for it.

The other feature of the garden was the river springing up and branching off in four directions as the water source of the whole earth. Before the flood, before it rained, the earth was watered by big rivers branching off and becoming smaller and smaller rather than the other way around, the way it is now. The way it was is similar to the way God created the circulatory system of the body. The garden was the heart of the earth, the worship center of creation.

And then the main feature of the garden, next to Adam and Eve of course, was the two trees in the midst of the garden. They were given names before the animals! They were called the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the one mentioned above in 2:16 – 17 was given a different purpose than for food and like all the other trees, it was desirable, pleasing to the eyes. So what was the purpose of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? It was for worship! It was the heart of the heart!

There are two companion passages with Genesis 2:8 – 17; John 15:1 – 11, and Revelation 22:1 – 5. John 15 is red-letter describing the Father as the Gardener, Jesus as the Vine, and believers as the branches, bearing fruit. But the fruit of the Vine has one purpose, it is all for the Gardener and His glory, 15:8. Revelation 22 is the final chapter of the Bible describing the center of the New Creation with the river of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb and through the middle of the street of the city (the Bride of Revelation 21:9 – 27), bearing fruit and healing leaves.

All three of these companion passages are describing what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth. The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the first fruits of the garden, a tithe of the garden, reserved for God, to worship Him, produced by the Bride beside and abiding in her glorious Husband, her Head, the Lord Jesus Christ and the redemption He brought to pass in the fullness of time, the tree of life. This is once again seen as the heart of the New Creation with the only exception being that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is now given a new name, the city, the New Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb!

Today, take a few minutes to read again Genesis 2:8 – 17, John 15:1 – 11, and Revelation 22:1 – 5 and meditate on the beauty of what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth, in Christ, as the body of Christ.