"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee; but, remember that I forbid it, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Moses 3:17
Reading this today, I was thinking about how this is kind of the part where God is setting up the game board and explaining the rules. I don't intend the analogy of a game as a dismissive thing. Fiction teaches us about reality by blowing truths up to bigger-than-life size and showing them to us in a different way. Games and toys can also teach us about what we value and assist us in dealing with the real world, either by modeling it or offering respite.
Life is obviously important and really matters to the rest of eternity, and should never be dismissed as trivial. In other ways though, it has similarities to a game because this earth life is a largely symbolic subset of reality where we experience limitations we wouldn't normally have, and some of our memories are hidden. When the veil is drawn back, then we'll see how things really are, and nothing will be hidden from us anymore. For now though, we play the game by making choices and working to learn and improve... there is just a lot more on the line than play money. :)
God is talking to Adam here and sets up a choice, defining the rules and explaining the consequence of disobedience, which set up the fall and resulted in all of us. We usually don't face such massive consequences, but what God asks of us is similar. He gives us commandments, and lets us know that it is our choice whether to follow them or not... but there are consequences for disobedience, and they often are serious as well, and can lead to physical death in some cases, but very much worse, can also lead to spiritual death.
Today, let's remember what God forbids, and that the consequences are real. Let's use the information that we have to learn and grow and if we don't have enough information, let's pray and ask for more. We do have limitations here, but also ways around those limitations as we learn more about our capabilities and about faith.
Moses 3:17
Reading this today, I was thinking about how this is kind of the part where God is setting up the game board and explaining the rules. I don't intend the analogy of a game as a dismissive thing. Fiction teaches us about reality by blowing truths up to bigger-than-life size and showing them to us in a different way. Games and toys can also teach us about what we value and assist us in dealing with the real world, either by modeling it or offering respite.
Life is obviously important and really matters to the rest of eternity, and should never be dismissed as trivial. In other ways though, it has similarities to a game because this earth life is a largely symbolic subset of reality where we experience limitations we wouldn't normally have, and some of our memories are hidden. When the veil is drawn back, then we'll see how things really are, and nothing will be hidden from us anymore. For now though, we play the game by making choices and working to learn and improve... there is just a lot more on the line than play money. :)
God is talking to Adam here and sets up a choice, defining the rules and explaining the consequence of disobedience, which set up the fall and resulted in all of us. We usually don't face such massive consequences, but what God asks of us is similar. He gives us commandments, and lets us know that it is our choice whether to follow them or not... but there are consequences for disobedience, and they often are serious as well, and can lead to physical death in some cases, but very much worse, can also lead to spiritual death.
Today, let's remember what God forbids, and that the consequences are real. Let's use the information that we have to learn and grow and if we don't have enough information, let's pray and ask for more. We do have limitations here, but also ways around those limitations as we learn more about our capabilities and about faith.
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