Study #23: AYIN

AYIN: THE 16TH LETTER OF THE HEBREW ALPHABET

THE AYIN WORD: ETS (TREE) PART 3

THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL

The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was put in the Garden of Eden by God to give Adam and Eve a free-will choice to obey or disobey Him.

Adam and Eve were free to eat anything they wanted, except eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Genesis 2:16-17 says: “And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’

However, both Adam and Eve ate from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Ironically they did not seem to know that their act of disobedience was spiritually detrimental to themselves and contagious to others.

That is what exactly happened when sin opened their eyes to evil. For the first time, they knew what it was to be evil, to feel shame, and to want to hide from God. Their sin of disobeying God also brought corruption into their lives and spread into the world especially among their offspring. Their sons Cain and Abel would be the first to suffer the fallout of their parent’s sin.

Evil, sin, suffering, sickness, and death have plagued the world ever since! Their decision resulted in every person being born with a sin nature, a tendency to sin.

Adam and Eve’s sinful decision is what ultimately required Jesus Christ to die on the Cross and shed His Blood on our behalf. Through faith in Christ, we can be free from sin’s consequences, and ultimately be free from sin itself.

ABBA FATHER, may we echo the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:24-25, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!”