This teaching is part 7 of teaching number 84, The Fall and Rise of Adam.
What's hidden in the story of Adam is the effect that knowledge had on him upon learning certain things. Knowledge is good when God tells it to you. The knowledge of the Holy One is insight (perfect understanding, Proverbs 9:10 ESV) and allows you to act on what you know without failure. This kind of knowledge does what God intends for it to do, which is to say, it accomplishes what God intended for it to do.
But then there is the knowledge you gain outside of God because you go after it in lustful arrogance. This is to say; you act on your desire to know something before you're ready for it. You think you know what you're doing without God's guidance. Gaining knowledge this way is usually provoked by an outside source like the serpent in Genesis 3.
What's the answer? Obey God and do what He tells you even when you don't know why.
But let's back up and discuss the effects of knowledge using Adam's conversations with God. Before we discuss how knowledge affected Adam after he ate from the Tree of Knowledge, we need to discuss how knowledge affected Adam before he ate from the Tree.
God was teaching Adam, but there were obstacles.
There's not much written in Genesis about Adam's interaction with God. To deal with this subject, I will draw on my experiences with the Lord and the examples of the scriptures that show a clear pattern in the sons of God throughout the Bible, starting with Adam. They continually acted in haste and went outside of God's guidance.
God had been teaching Adam what He was doing and preparing him for things to come. Adam was already learning everything he needed to know from God before he ate from the Tree of Knowledge. We see Paul refer to this idea in his teachings (2 Timothy 1:8-10) when he said that we were given God's purpose in Jesus Christ before the world (ages) began. (Also in Romans 8:27-30; 16:25-27; Ephesians 1:3-14; 1 Corinthians 2:7; Titus 1:1-3) That purpose is revealed at the appearance of Jesus, which Adam would try to experience for himself before the time. The point is that there was a conversation between you and God in the beginning that you probably don't remember yet—the same as Adam.
With these conversations in mind, the question becomes, why did Adam eat from that tree? Paul tells us that the serpent deceived Eve to eat from the tree, but Adam was not deceived. If he wasn't deceived, why did he eat in blatant disregard for God?
Instead of waiting for the appearance of Jesus to make all things known to him, he acted out what God spoke to him without understanding it. He thought he could save his wife from sin by taking on the sin she committed. He believed he could be a savior, and that was God's purpose given to him. He became the figure of Him that was to come by taking on sin, but once he took on sin, it shocked him and overwhelmed him so that he couldn't finish the work that only Jesus could do. He wasn't ready for it yet.
He learned this idea while talking to God about the future and how His Son would take on sin and become the world's savior. But more than that, he also knew about the woman that would be His bride and how His Son would give His life for her through love. (Another principle that Paul refers to in Ephesians 5:22-33) God taught Adam these things, which were promises meant to keep him during his sleep.
What happened to Adam is he took a living word from the voice of God, and it became knowledge to him, and he put himself in death.
The serpent seduced Eve, but Adam's hastiness caused him to try to do a work he didn't understand and wasn't ready for. He thought he was prepared to be the Son who could give his life for his wife. Interestingly enough, his failure to understand future promises created the need for them to come true.
His arrogance to act in disobedience would cost him greatly, and we see this pattern repeated often in the Old Testament.
Abraham had a child of the flesh because he didn't wait for the Lord to visit his wife Sara and fulfill His promise. Moses tried to be a deliverer in Egypt before God sent him and ended up murdering an Egyptian to free his brothers. Even the angels in Genesis 6 acted hastily by taking the daughters of men which weren't given to them, and tried to mediate between God and men. These acts were all premature and refused to acknowledge that this work could only be done by the chosen one, Jesus Christ, in the time God prepared. (Hebrews 2:5-9)
Knowing the future through promises can draw out your lust and cause you to act before it's time. Be patient and continue to let God guide you. Adam set a dangerous example when he acted to save Eve and got in way over his head. Adam was no Jesus but tried to be Him before he was ready.
It's essential that when you receive a word from God, you give it enough time to understand what God is saying to you. If you act hastily, what God intends to be a living quickening word will only be knowledge to you that provokes you to disobey Him. If you are patient, God will help you remember everything He spoke to you in the beginning. And when the time is right, you will fulfill everything He told you to.
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