Wasn’t one of the fundamental aspects of Adam and Eve’s temptation exactly the desire to know beyond what they would be allowed to know?Adam and Eve wanted autonomy. From there, this thought will be effective throughout the human race: wisdom is based on autonomy; having knowledge is independent and independent of God; be like God; self-sufficient; Satan offered them a competitive worldview where the reference point was no longer God, but his personal desire. [1]
Something paradoxical has happened here: the being I admire most is precisely what I reject with my disobedience to become like him backwards, the logic would be that I wanted to get closer and closer to God’s wisdom through obedience to his precepts. satanic temptation, he was convinced that the way to do so is a subversion of his authority.
- By denying God’s wisdom.
- I can be as wise as He is here.
- We have a moral suspicion about the integrity of God’s being.
- I am beginning to think that He is not as holy.
- Just.
- And kind as He wants us to believe (Genesis 3-1-5).
- The path to growth.
- Adam and Eve think.
- Is one of disobedience.
- The supposed fall.
- You can imagine.
- Is over! This achieved.
- The truth.
- Already so obvious.
- Is going to the foreground.
- Came into his life.
- In his relationships.
- And in creation (Genesis 3:7-24).
The scriptures show us with insistence that it is God Himself who instructs us (Psalm 32:8-9). [2] However, it is interesting to note that our early parents, who had God’s continued presence with them, rejected divine instruction, preferring the wisdom that was supposed to come from the tree in the Garden of Eden. Moses said, “When the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, pleasing to the eye, and a desirable tree to give understanding (????) (s?She took the fruit and ate it and also gave it to her husband, and he ate it?(Gen . 3. 6).
They wanted to succeed for themselves, but they knew of failure because they were guided simply by their sensations, which they already mysteriously cultivated in some way, unlike the divine order.
God’s proposed understanding can never begin with an act of incomprehension that materializes by disobedience to His Word, on the contrary, it must begin by obeying its precepts, we mature in the process of learning obedience.
In other words, I learn to obey by obeying. And as we obey, we adhere to God’s instruction and experience its fruits in our lives.
Adam and Eve’s attitude, on the other hand, revealed a lack of understanding that would be compounded by the consummate realization of this faith-based behavior in God; this image of disobedience would definitely be reversed only with the perfect obedience of Christ our Lord. . [3]
Here we also have another valuable lesson for us who often tend to change God’s instruction to another, outside His Word. This is a normal tendency of the sinful man. Therefore, all without exception, though sometimes subtly, we are willing to replace the creature with the Creator (Rom 1:25), [4] creating and worshipping gods that suit our desires and circumstances.
Referring the question to a purely philosophical bias, Descartes (1596-1650), in his Meditations, expresses himself in this way: “I am one thing that thinks, that is, that doubts, that he claims, that he denies, that he knows little, that he knows very little, that he loves, who hates, who wants and who does not, who imagines and also feels?[5]
Human life is not only to live, but there is an imperious desire to understand it, to understand life, even if it is necessary to take several paths, including the theological one, does not escape the anthropological perspective: to know man. not only to participate in the spectacle of life, but also to understand its processes, to understand the nature of its actors.
[1] See: R. K. Mc Gregor Wright, The Banished Sovereignty, Sao Paulo: Christian Culture, 1998, p. 248.
[two]? I will instruct you (????) (s? Âkal) and I will teach you the path you must follow; And, in my eyes, will I give you any advice? (Ps 32. 8). The word here translated as “Instruction” is also translated as “Understanding. ” (Gen 3. 6; Sal 14. 2; 53. 2; 2Cr 30. 22); ?intelligence? (Jr 3. 15); ? Pay attention? (Sal 106. 7); ?caution? (1Sm 18. 5, Ps 2. 10, 94. 8, 111. 10, Est 52. 13); ?Success? (1Sm 18. 14. 15. 30; 2Rs 18. 7); ?discernment? (Ps 36. 3); help (Ps 41,1). The word refers to the action, with intelligence, of knowing the causes. (?) Refers to the thought process as a complex set of thoughts that result in a wise and very practical approach to common sense. Another consequence is the emphasis on success? (Louis Goldberg, Sakal: In: R. Laird Harris, et. Al. , Eds. International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology, São Paulo: Vida Nova, 1998, p. 1478). See: William Gesenius, Hebrew-Chaldean Lexicon of the Old Testament, 3rd ed. Michigan: WM. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1978, p. 789-790; Louis Goldberg, Sakal: In: R. Laird Harris, et. al. , eds. International Dictionary of theology of the Old Testament, São Paulo: Vida Nova, 1998, p. 1478-1480; Robert B. Girdlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, (1897), reprint, 1981, p. 74, 224-225.
[3] Did [Jesus Christ] become the Author of our salvation, for he gave himself justly in the eyes of God, when he remedyed Adam’s disobedience with an opposite act of obedience?(Joo Calvino, Exhibition of the Hebrews, Sao Paulo : Paracletes, 1997, (Heb 5. 9), p. 137-138).
[4] 20 For the invisible attributes of God, therefore his eternal power, as well as his own divinity, are clearly recognized, from the beginning of the world, being perceived through the things that have been created. Such men, therefore, are inexcusable; 21 For they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor give thanks; on the contrary, they were left empty in their own reasoning, and their senseless heart darkened. 22 Inculating the wise, they went mad 23, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God in the image of corruptible man and of birds, quadrupeds, and reptiles. 24 Where surely God hath delivered such men into filth, by the desires of his heart, that they may dishonor their bodies among them; 25 For they have turned the truth of God into a lie, worshipping and serving the creature in the place of the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen!? (Romans 1: 20-25).
[5] R. Descartes, Meditations, Sao Paulo: Cultural April, (Os Pensadores, v. 15), 1973, III. 1. P. 107. (See also II. 9. P. 103).