God’s First Commands in the Bible

Well, it's on page one after God creates life and orders the cosmos.

“He creates humans and he points them to be his image and he instructs them this way.”

Be fruitful, multiply, subdue the earth and rule it. In other words, carry forward God's authority and rule over what he began.

The first directives God gives to the humans are essentially imitate the divine life.

So the first time God tells anybody what to do, it's a blessing. While the first command in the Bible is called a blessing, the second command in the Bible is straight up called a command. And it has two parts. The first part of the command reminds us of the blessing.

Eat of every tree in the garden. The good that you see out there is real and when you find the good, enjoy it. And when I'm enjoying the good, what I am enjoying is God. The second part of the command is about how there's one tree that will look good, but will actually lead to death.

So don't eat from that tree. There are apparently some things that look good, but that won't be good for me, at least not now. And these two parts of the command work together. God's command is twofold.

One has life, enjoy good.

The second part of the command is, don't die.

Now, all the trees in the garden look good for eating. But, not every tree is wise to eat from. You can appreciate goodness, but not have to take it in yourself. And make yourself become one with it. You can just see and be like, that's good.

And isn't that what God's asking them to do with this one particular tree? So, how can we learn to discern between what looks good and what is truly good? How can you know?

“The only thing in this story is, you always command.”

Today, we trace the theme of the commands of God in the Bible as we prepare to meditate on the ten commandments. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Hello, Tim.

Hello, John. We are talking ten words. The ten commandments introduced to us in the story of access as the ten words. Yeah, that's right. Some of the most famous things that God says in the whole Bible.

Famous meaning, lots of people probably know about them. Whether all those people have pondered their full significance, and all of the cosmic meaning buried within them. Well, that's a journey we are on. That's the journey you and I are on.

Yeah, that's right. And we'll get to the bottom of everything. So, in our blast conversation, we just kind of introduced the ten, roughly where they appear in the biblical story. Yes.

They are introduced in the second book of the Christian Bible.

Right. And the second book of the Jewish Bible, the book of Exodus, and actually halfway through it. So, you're almost 70 chapters in to the biblical story before the ten are introduced. Yeah.

Typically, when you and I are doing a theme study, we try to look for themes that are introduced right in the first pages. That are continued throughout the Hebrew Bible, culminating in Jesus, and are somehow there's some kind of culmination near the end of the Bible. So, the ten commandments are such.

Don't quite fit that bill. It's a little unique. Because they're not introduced till way, way in the story. Yeah. However.

However. [laughter] All right. Tell me about Genesis one. [laughter]

How did you know? Oh! How did you know? So, the significance of God telling a human what to do. [laughter]

That doesn't happen for the first time at Mount Sinai. Yes. That actually happens in the first pages of the first scroll of the Bible. That just chooses. All right.

Right. Genesis two. But God tells a human what to do. That's right. But God speaking happens in Genesis one.

Okay. I think I know this. Bible trivia. In Genesis one, ten times God speaks. Oh.

God speaks ten times in Genesis one. It's got to be connected to the ten words. Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely.

That's great. The first place that we actually do start is with the ten words spoken in the seven day creation narrative. God tells creation what to do. And the first one is let there be light.

Let there be light.

“Well, God does speak to God's own self about God's own light, right?”

Eminating, generating out into the universe. Something goes out from God into the nothingness.

So, that's God speaking to the darkness day one day too is God speaking about the chaos

waters that they separate. Right?

“God introduces an orderly line and division in between the waters.”

Then God calls thirdly the dry land up out of the waters and then calls plants. Summons the plants to come up out. These are all the words. These are words one through four. Okay.

Wait, I went through five. There's seven days, but there's ten words. There's ten words. Yeah. So you go through the tenth thing that God says.

Ooh. It's to the humans. And Genesis one, and it goes like this. And God said, let us make human in our image according to our likeness and let them rule. Then you get the little poem in verse 27.

Yeah. Elohim created human in his image in the image of Elohim he created. Him male and female he created them. Yeah. It's a rad little three part.

Meditation puzzle. Then you get a repetition of God speaking. It's actually here's the tenth. Oh wait, that was the ninth? Yeah.

That was nine. Yeah.

“So the ninth and the tenth are a little frame symmetrical frame around the image of God.”

Well, okay. But this tenth one has a little twist and God blessed them and God said to them. So the tenth thing God says is also a blessing. They're called blessings, not commands. But they're stated as instruction or like do this.

Yeah. You can think of those as instructions or commands. That's right. Yeah. It's five frames blessing.

Five verbs. Be fruitful. Do multiply. Do fills land. Subduit.

And rule it. Yeah. But they are called blessings. Words of blessing. Okay.

So blessing right is about God donating his own infinite auto generating abundance to another creature. So that it now gets to generate an experience that abundance and security in order and harmony.

“And what else is being fruitful in multiplying and creating order subduing?”

Hmm. It's about abundance and order. And order. Yeah. That's the blessing.

So the first directives God gives to the humans are essentially imitate the divine life out of God's infinite abundance.

A whole universe of different things comes into being all these different expressions of God's creative abundance. And then you make a creature that's an image. Hmm. It's like that likeness of God is focused in on one creature that an image is also called to do the same thing. Bring order and experience.

Yeah. Yeah. So the first time God tells anybody what to do, it's a blessing. Hmm. Yeah.

Just enjoy being and be like me, which means to be fruitful and multiply and spread order. Yeah. Yeah. One instructions are blessing. That's interesting.

Yeah. The tenth word. Which these ten words in Genesis do. Why for you would invert it and you would say the ten words of Exodus are an echoing back to God's ten order bringing blessing generating words. Something like that.

So you could think of the ten commandments as, hmm. Yeah. Stargy rules. Hmm. Right.

But you could think of them as an opportunity for blessing. Yeah. Yeah. And being the image of God. Yeah.

And then the fifth command, the fifth of the ten. Yeah. Actually, has the blessing in it? Oh. Honor your father and mother.

So that you can have long days in the land. That's the blessing. Yeah. So creating an echo system of multi-generational honor. Hmm.

Well, result in an experience of blessing long days in the land. Hmm. Yeah.

That's the first time God tells a human what to do.

Second time God tells a human what to do. It's going to feel similar, but also the narrative context is a little different. So here is the context of God has brought a garden into being in the middle of a desert. This is Genesis 2. Yep.

[ Music ] The Eden story begins. Genesis 2. Genesis 4. What we're told is there's no plants, there's no water, there's no humans just dust and dirt.

So spring pops up out of the ground.

Plants come up out of the ground. You have a plants of garden. You have a forms, the human. Then breathe into the human, the breath of life. Put the human in the garden.

And then we're told, man, this garden has sweet trees. Every tree is beautiful to look at and good for eating. And there's the tree of life in the middle of garden and the tree of known good bat. So a lot of beautiful trees. They are given to eat and enjoy sustain your life.

There's the tree that will really sustain your life. And then, you know, the tree of known good and bad, which is the introduce and you're like, "What's the significance?" Yeah, almost be. Yeah, and the last one is the one that should cause the most questions in the minds of the reader.

You get a little aside about the river. Mm-hmm. That's the one river that is for. One river becomes for. Then, verse 15, we pick up Yahweh God took the human and rested him in the garden of Eden.

To work it and to keep it. Yeah.

“These are important awards as the word work of odd.”

It's also the word used to serve, where to give ones labor and allegiance.

Like all of my productivity that I can generate is for another.

Mm-hmm. That's this word. Okay. And then to keep means I've been entrusted with something. Mm-hmm.

And now it's my responsibility to guard it. And keep it, and both of these words are going to be relevant in the ten commandments. Both of these words are used. Oh, okay. Do not have any other gods before me.

Do not evod them. Oh, and that's the work. Mm-hmm. Because we serve. Do not serve them.

Don't direct all the energy of your life and what you produce in allegiance to another deity of odd. And then in the fourth command, keep the Sabbath. It's shemar. Mm-hmm. This word used here.

Keep the Sabbath. Keep it. Yep. Keep the garden. Keep the Sabbath.

Yeah. So notice this is the narrator. This is not God speaking.

“Just the narrator says, y'all, we put the human in the garden to work and to keep.”

Okay. Then y'all, we'll aim commanded the human. Okay. Here's the command. This is the word command.

It's not the vart. It's not the word speak. And it got translated as command. It actually is the Hebrew verb command, which is sava. Okay.

And then from that, you get the Hebrew noun mit sva. Mit sva. And then the plural that is mit sva. Command. Okay.

So sava. Mit sva. Instruction. Mm-hmm. His one way, but actually think that English word better captures the Hebrew word Torah.

Mm-hmm. Instruction. Okay. So command is a pretty good one. It's a directive.

I'm telling you what to do. Command. Sava. Sava. I mean, can we think of some other direction?

Instruction. Instruct has pedagogy. Programming. Like a screening. Training.

Yeah. And that's not sava. Okay. Sva's just basically. Do this.

Follow these. Do this. Do what I say. I need you to do what I say. Okay.

Yeah. Command. Mm-hmm. Well, this is the narrator telling us, Yahweh Elohim, commanded the human, say, "Ying." And now we're going to, maybe, let's try and define what sava means by what it is it got says.

Okay. Let's think about that way. And here's the mit sva. From every tree of the garden, you will eat eat. Mm-hmm.

This mit sva has three parts to it. Okay. That's part one. That's part one.

So the first part is for eat of every tree.

Yeah. And you're like, well, that sounds like the Genesis one blessing. Mm-hmm. Which would be fruitful multiply. Which is means I need a lot of food.

Yeah. So here it's just enjoy all the trees. Eat up. Eat up. Yeah.

So the first part of the mit sva is to enjoy God's good world and what it provides for you. Party on. Party on. So there's this wide open field of human experience now that I've just been commanded. Right?

To enjoy.

“That just raises a million issues, like how you're right?”

Mm-hmm. And so the second part of the mit sva comes long and it qualifies, specifies. Mm-hmm. And it's the first prohibition in the Bible. Mm-hmm.

The first do not. That will shout not. But from the tree of knowing good and bad, that will shout not. Eat from it. Mm-hmm.

Which is just you will not eat from it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So we weren't introduced to that tree earlier. Yeah.

Yeah. We didn't know why. Here. And it's like, oh, okay, that's the one tree not to eat up.

We still don't know why. Yeah. In the story. Yeah. Eat of every tree.

This one. It's true. No good bad. Mm-hmm. Not that one.

That's right. Right.

Now, knowing good and bad.

So just a quick reminder. This is a phrase used throughout the Hebrew Bible. Did discern between good and bad or know between good and bad. It's a mark of human moral maturity. Children that are really young, or a human that's super old, like right about near death,

are the two seasons of human life where someone doesn't really probably have a very reliable knowledge of good and bad. Mm-hmm. I didn't know about the old one. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

So children, you're just naive. Mm-hmm. You don't know. You haven't learned. Yeah.

It's a David when David is coming back to Jerusalem after he was run out by a son who staged a coup, and this guy says, "To David, like, I'm not going to come with you. You don't need-- I can't add any value to you. My son come with you, but I'm too old. I don't know good from bad anymore."

He loses it. Yeah. Point is my mind, isn't your mind's going? My mind's going. Yeah.

Yeah. Super interesting. Okay. So go back to these trees. Yeah.

This is always what's happening in this moment is foundational for understanding all of God's commands to follow.

Okay. You know, way you could say, all the commands, the ten and the hundreds, all are unfolding. It all starts here. The core idea of what's happening in this moment. Okay.

What I was just told was that every single tree in this garden is desirable. Yeah. But desire that the word used in the tenth command, don't covet. It's the same word that we desire. Come on.

Okay.

“So every tree-- and actually this is key.”

Genesis 2 of verse 9. This has been a very productive meditation for me in the last year. Yahweh caused us sprout from out of the ground. Every tree in that's given two descriptions. Desirable for seeing and good for eating.

Yeah. So this is our set in parallel with each other. So desirable to see good to eat. Just meditate on these things. Okay.

So desirable matches good and seeing matches eating.

Huh. Think of it like two parallel lines in Hebrew poetry. Okay. Oh Lord, the trees that you have planted, they are desirable to see. Yes, they are good for eating.

Okay. If that was set up in a line of biblical poetry, you would say, Hmm. Somebody wants me to-- Think of these two things connected.

So what's the relationship of desiring? Something that is desirable and something that is good. Yeah. When you desire something, it's because you want it and you want it because it's good. Right.

At least you think it's good. Yeah. So what any creature wants is its own good. Yeah. And that might seem so intuitive.

But it actually, it's worth saying out loud. Yeah.

“What is it that motivates any living creature to do?”

This is why the golden rule works. Yeah. That's right. Do you tell others what you would do yourself? I want good.

Yes. So do good to others. That's right. Now, you can introduce the twist to say, Well, man, what I think is good.

Yeah. Isn't always good. Always good. Always actually good. Yeah.

So I want good. Hmm. But do I actually see what is good? Totally. But that doesn't call into question the basic truth about human.

Yeah. Experience. That is good. Whether or not it is good for me. The reason I do anything is because I think that it is good.

I might be mistaken.

“But the reason I'm doing it is still because I think it's good.”

Hmm. So it's interesting that for how diverse people are and how many different ways are to try to exist in the world. Every single person is actually after the good. And it might be how in the course of a human life that my sense of what is good has become so misshapened. Right?

So damaged, so corrupted that what I actually think is good for me are actions that hurt me or hurt other people. Right. But even then, underneath all the wreckage is still a desire to do what is good. What is good is just the good has become some mutated that it's hard to see what good one is pursuing. If they do something that right on the outside looks really bad.

So notice that desire and good are connected there in the parallelism. Desirable to see good for eating. What I desire is the good. I desire the good wanting the thing that I believe will bring me good. That's the basic relationship.

Okay.

Because those are desire and good.

You said a pretty intuitive. How does that relate? Seeing and eating. Yeah. So seeing is a part of noticing, perceiving something is good.

Okay. But not taking it. You can see and appreciate goodness. But not. But you haven't consumed it.

Yeah. So the difference between seeing and eating is really interesting. Because you can appreciate goodness but not have to take it in yourself. Hmm. And make yourself become one with it.

You can just see and be like, that's good. Hmm.

“And isn't that what God's asking them to do with this one particular tree?”

Because when the woman sees the forbidden tree, what we're told is it was desirable to look at. Yeah. Because all the trees are desirable. Because all the trees are desirable. Yeah.

This is so profound, man. This is like the longer I sit with this simple little verse. Genesis 2 verse 9, it's like the whole universe opens up. And remember in the seven days, God did X solid, it was good. Okay.

Genesis 1, creation is good. When God has his way. Hmm. He creates the good. Yeah.

The creation is good.

And good is something that humans perceive first with their eyes.

Hmm. And then their eyes. Which creates desire. Which generates desire. Yeah.

Which then leads to an impulse to take and want to become one with it. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So by saying that every tree is going to look good.

But now we know there's one tree that looks good. And will excite your desire. But it is not good for you. Yes. Sneaky tree.

And there's nothing visible that will lead me to know the difference. So how can you know? How can you know? How can you know?

“The only thing in this story is you always command.”

Yeah. And the word says, "Eat of every tree in the garden." Oh. This one. Do not eat from it.

No. Let me finish the command. Yes. The third part. Because in the day you eat from it, you will die die.

The verbs repeat it twice in Hebrew. So first command. Enjoy every tree. Why? Every tree is so beautiful to see.

Hmm. And once that desire is excited within you. It'll impel you. Okay. What's the good?

So follow your desire. Yes. And consume the good. Follow your desire. Yeah.

The good that you see out there is good. It's good. Yeah. And when you find the good, enjoy it. Yeah.

And when I'm enjoying the good, what I am enjoying is God. Because the seven day narrative taught me that God is the knower and provider and the finder of all good. Okay. So any physical object within creation here with the trees is actually a sign or a symbol.

Yeah. Pointing to an ultimate source of all good. Yeah. So in a way, eating and enjoying the tree is a way to enjoy God.

“That's what these two narratives next to each other are teaching me.”

Because God's provider of what's good. Good comes from God. But you're enjoying the goodness God's providing. Yes. How are you taking the next step saying, and so I'm actually enjoying God?

Ah. Because anything that is good is a gift of God. Because God is the provider of what is good. Good doesn't just happen. Good is the product of a mind.

Okay. With the power. Good will not exist without God. That's right. To generate a world within some objects are fine and other objects are good.

But actually Genesis 1, the 70-year taught me that all of it's good. It's all good. It's all good. But there are apparently also some things that look good but that won't be good for me. At least not now.

Hmm. And the only thing that will tell me is not looking at it. It's listening to God's command. God's command. That's right.

So God's command is twofold. One. Live. Have life. Enjoy good.

Yeah.

The second part of the command is don't die.

[laughs] Truly. I mean, the assumption is in the day that you eat of it you'll die then kind of the assumption is. And I don't think you want to die. Yeah.

I think you want to live. So live and do not die. Okay. So follow your desire and eat. Yes.

It's all good. Yep. Although you are going to run into situations where it's going to look good. Yes. But it's not.

And that's a situation. Listen to my voice. Yep. Yep. And when you do that, you're not going to die.

Yeah. You'll avoid death and you will experience it. Which is back to then what's purpose of this is for life. That's right. Yeah.

Okay. So that's the three parts of God's command.

The three parts.

“And there's really just, there's a positive element.”

Yeah. Eat and live. Eat and have life. Yeah. Listen to my voice.

Yeah. Don't die. Don't eat. Okay. Do what leads to life?

Don't do what leads to death.

We say it that way. It's kind of like really, really simple. It is really meditate about this image of the trees, the garden, and being in this orchard, and all this beautiful fruit, but there's a poison tree, and you don't know the difference. Yeah.

Yeah. It's hard to think of a story with better images. Hmm. I have an impulse to take. But I could take the wrong thing that will destroy me.

It's kind of comical to think of us as creatures. They just want to like take good and consume it. Yeah. Yeah.

“Take and eat and consume and become one of the good.”

We want the good. I want that. Yeah. It's just very simple.

It's not just that we want good in the abstract.

What we want is the goodness, the concrete thing in front of me will provide. I want to live. I want to taste good things in my mouth. Yeah. It's pleasure.

Yeah. And life. Abundant life. Abundant life. Yeah.

Yeah. Because you can just stay alive. Right. And eat like bread and just stay old bread. And that's living.

Right. But man, if you could live and taste apples and oranges and tear me soon and soft brownies, you know ice cream. Right. Keele and pie.

Keele and pie.

Now we're talking the good life.

Right. But then that introduces the problem. Which is not everything that humans see and desire is actually good for them. Okay. So the story introduces these two principles.

God wants humans to live to be partners with them. Yeah. Listen to what God says, do what leads to life. And you can think of it in terms of you can eat something that's actually poisonous. Yep.

But the real complexity of human life or things get weird is how we relate to each other. Right. And how we relate to creation. Yeah. Which is a part of how we relate to each other.

Right. So as we're taking and consuming the good. I mean, there is the trap of grabbing something and consuming it and realizing actually that wasn't good for me. Right.

And that happens. Yeah. And that can be complicated. But what it's really complicated is as we're all taking and consuming and looking for the good as a community.

Yeah. How to do that in a communal way. Yes. Or we are honoring each other and loving each other. Yes.

And in those complex environments, it will often be the case that we don't actually know what is truly good for ourselves. And our desires or what we see is not reliable. Like it's either selfish, self-oriented, in some way, that it's about having pleasure or goodness in a way, expensive, at the expense of another, or it could just be lack of

knowledge. Ignorance about the cause of sex sequence. Yeah.

“Me doing this thing that I think is good will set in the motion something that actually”

is bad for my neighbor ten years. Yeah. So this story is simultaneously saying, God is Pat creation with goodness to be enjoyed that leads to life, but I actually need to become also suspicious of my eyes. And I need to be somewhat suspicious of my desires, not because desires bad, but my desire

for the good could lead me towards something that looks good but is not. And how am I supposed to know what's the way forward? And in the Eden story, it's a very simple moment in the story where God is the one who says, "Listen, I will teach you. I will teach you how to know it from bad, not from this tree, my command will be how

you know it could from bad." That's fundamental. So Genesis 3 begins by saying there's a snake in the garden and it's crafty. It's true. Hmm.

See it's an opportunity. Yeah. So no backstory about the snake. Other than it's a creature that God made. Hmm.

We know that. And I don't know. Maybe I'll hyperlink to our podcast series on spiritual beings in the God series. Hmm. Okay.

So this snake starts talking to the woman and says, "To God really say, don't eat from

Which of course is character question? Not what God said.

“In fact, it's the opposite of what God said.”

You said. It's what God said with the introduction of the word not. Remember? It's a way to screw things up. Yeah.

God said, "Do eat from all the trees of the garden." And what he says is, "Snakes such a God say, don't eat. Do not eat from any trees of the garden." So the woman, that's easy one. Right?

So she says, "No, that's not God." That's the snake. Yeah. But what were the woman notices is, "Well, God did say from all the trees of the garden." Hmm.

Well, but there's one. Yeah, the one. So suddenly the snake draws attention to the one. Let's talk about that one. The one object of desire that God said, it looks good, but it will kill you.

Yeah. And he's drawing attention to that. Right. And the woman says, "Well, God says, we'll die if we eat it." So it looks good, but it's not.

And then the snake says, "The woman, you're not going to die." God knows. In the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened in image of knowledge and illumination. It was a metaphor and that you will be like Elohim, knowers of good and bad. Now we can't really trust the snake here at this point.

Hey, that what he's saying is reality. No. That's the whole point is that he said to see her. Hmm. So the snake, both tells the truth and he lies.

Okay.

And that's always the hardest kind of lie.

Right? The lies that are full of have truths. So he does say, "You will not die." And that is not true. They're going to die, if they eat the fruit.

Yep. Totally. They're going to cut themselves off for that's a lie. God's life. That's a lie.

They also says there's just other effects that you'll have that you really will by declaring through your choice to do what God said is not good. You will become a knower of good and bad. Yeah. The tree.

And that's true. And then you desire that. Yeah. He's speaking to her desire. Yeah.

That. You can actually just have it. And the day you eat from this, you're going to have it. That's right. You will in that moment become a knower of good and bad.

And that's a sneaky half truth too because it's true. Yeah, totally. But it's a distorted knowing of good from bad. That's right. It's God just invited you to trust him to trust his command.

Yeah. So this phrase you will be like Elohim.

No, we're not good and bad, just always throws me from him.

Because they are like Elohim, their images have gone. Yeah, that's right. And they are meant to know good from bad. Well, they are meant to rule and Stewart creation has got to partners, which will involve making calls about good and bad.

They don't yet make calls between good and bad like Elohim does. Yeah. But that's the riddle of the command. Because the command seems as if God is saying, I don't want you to have the knowledge of good and bad.

But I don't need it. But the command itself is the first lesson about knowing good from bad. Namely, that you will know good from bad, not by following your desire or your eyes. Or what you perceive is good.

The most reliable source will be from the divine command. And if you begin to let that teach you, now we're going to actually begin to learn true good from bad.

“At least I think that's the logic of the story.”

So for six, and the woman saw that the tree was good for eating. Because all the trees were that. Okay. And that it was an object of longing for the eyes. And the tree was desirable for making wise.

So three ways is kind of saying the same thing. Yeah, remember it was just two ways before. Desireable to see good for eating. That was the word "hamad" or "nechman." And that is used here in Genesis 36.

For the third description for desirable to make one wise.

That's that word "hamad." The second thing for the eyes, it's a new word. Oh, there was desire for the eyes. And here it's object of longing. Yeah.

Namjee a ta-a-va. Ta-a-va. Ta-a-va. So ta-a-va. And nechman.

Or the two key rewards for desire. There's synonyms, but ta-a-va speaks more like our English word craving. Longing. It speaks to the physical experience of desire. In a way, it's a little more visceral, more primal.

"hamad" is certainly connected to our bodies.

“But it's speaking more, I think, to the little more to the mental imagination.”

Yeah, imagination. Yeah. So "hamad" desire is about your imagination. Ta-a-va is about physical impulse. Impulse.

Impulse.

And you're really hungry. Yeah.

“When you smell the food cooking, that's right.”

And you salivate. That's right. Yes. Ta-a-va. That's right.

So that smell, obviously the eyes are a activator of physical longing for food and for sex. And for pleasure, for comfort. Right. Imagine that's not yours. So that's physical.

The thing happens in your stomach. Right. And you want something. Okay. That's here.

Okay. So first notice. Notice the order. When back here, when the trees were introduced. Mm-hmm.

It was every tree was desirable to see and good to eat. Mm-hmm. So it's seeing. Then eating. Okay.

So you can see something and then just be like, "Oh, it's good, but I don't need it. I'm good." Yeah. And it can be good. It can be good.

And I can be good without eating it. Mm-hmm.

Notice how eating a second.

Okay. Now in this scene, what she first perceives and sees is that it's good for eating. The order's been swapped. Okay.

“So the first thing she sees is about what it is in relation to me.”

Okay. The good needs to come into me. Right. Right. I think that's significant.

Mm-hmm. In other words, because you can see something that's desirable. And just be like that is so rad that that exists in the world. And if I take it, I'll screw it up. Yeah, but I don't have to eat it.

Mm-hmm. It can just be. I can just be. But it is noticing you'll see something it's good. It'll excite the desire.

Mm-hmm. And then you'll want to consume it. And here, what she sees and notices first is what that thing is in relation to mind. I'm going to eat that thing. Yeah.

That thing is from me to eat. She doesn't notice that it's beautiful and good. But that I don't have to have it. The first thing she sees is-- I have to have it.

What it is in relationship to me. Yeah. I can eat that. Okay. And it's good for me to eat that.

And when I see it, I crave it. I crave it. I need it. Mm-hmm. So, okay.

That's interesting.

So you're saying, when seeing is first, you can see and desire it.

Mm-hmm. And then when eating's first, the seeing becomes as impulsive kind of craving. Craving. That's right. Where you aren't letting it be neutral, you're just like that.

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it's the difference between-- I'm hungry. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. And I'm riding my bike home. This is actually a real experience. I sometimes have riding home. Yeah.

So I've worked all day here in the studio. Mm-hmm. And if I ride my bike up ankeny street, I'm going by all of the restaurants. Some of the best restaurants in Portland are a block parallel to my bike ride home. All right.

And I'm just like, oh my gosh, it smells so good. And I'm hungry. Yeah. Like, you're going to want to go home and we're going to start dinner. So it's kind of like that.

But so it's that difference of, I smell that it is good. Mm-hmm. It excites my desire. But I can say, that can be good for all the people in there right now. Yeah.

But I've got a good thing that I'm going home for. Mm-hmm. That's what's good for me right now. But here it's the inverted. And it's just the moment you smell it.

Yeah. You're just like, I need tacos. That's mine. That needs to be mine. Tacos in my belly.

That is mine. Yeah. It's that difference. See, there's some distance. Like, I can distance myself.

Okay. To say, that is good. But I don't need that right now. And the swapping of the order, I think, here in Genesis 3.

SIX is telling us that that can get inverted, which is pretty good. Yeah. You can begin through habit.

“I think mental habit began to relate to any object.”

In the moment you see it, if you're just like, need that. Mm-hmm. Need that. Yeah. That's mine.

It can begin. I think to develop a distorted way of relating to things that are good. Yeah.

Your first impulse is to just taste.

Is that what a cookie monster is? I really, I don't know. I just keep thinking of the cookie monster. Yeah. Yeah.

Cookie is for me. See this for cookie. Cookie is for me. Oh, no. Cookies not for anybody else.

Just mow on cookie. Cookies not just for the shelf to be tasty and good without me. I mean, eat it. Yeah. Cookie has for me.

That's, dude, this is three sex, right? Okay. The woman saw the cookie and the cookie has for me. Yeah. That's it.

All right. So, of course, she took from its fruit and she ate. Yeah. And then, of course, she gave to her husband. To her husband, who was right there the whole time?

We'd find out now for the first time. Can we talk about the third part though? It was desirable for making wise. Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Because, because the impulse of being wise is. Thank you. Is a good thing. Yes. Yes.

This is muskiel or huskiel. This is positive everywhere else in the Hebrew Bible. Yeah.

Lead to goodness. Okay. But what's interesting is what you were told the tree is connected to knowing good and bad.

And knowing good and bad is crucial for making wise decisions that lead to a good outcome.

Yeah. So, in this sense, she's not wrong. Yeah. She should have gone the opposite direction. Okay.

I want to be wise. I desire to be wise. That object looks like it's good. Mm-hmm. But do I need to eat it?

Actually, no God said, don't eat it. Yeah. Yeah. So, what defines wisdom is wisdom defined by following. God's command and assuming God is wise or than I am.

Or this tree represents a decision in the moment I take it.

“I'm striking out of my own and declaring that's how that's wisdom.”

Wisdom is following my desire.

Mm-hmm. And if I follow my desires, if I be true to my most authentic to the desire, then that is wisdom. That's so tricky because in some cases, that's true. That is the baseline God gives. But in some cases, that's not true.

But then how do you know what it's not true? And the only thing is the command. So, is it God's command that gives wisdom or is it following my desire? Mm-hmm. So, this sets up the fundamental dilemma.

I think of the human story. And to me, this has been so important over the years because this isn't a moment of, like, depraved rebellion. Mm-hmm.

It's not-- It is a fail.

The word sin means moral failure.

Okay. So, it is a failure to not do a God's said or to do a God's said not to do. So, the word sin is accurate description. It's not using the story, but it is an accurate description. Yeah, but it's not like armed rebellion.

It's not-- They're not like, you know what? We're fed up with you, God. Yeah. They're culpable because they heard what God said.

Mm-hmm. So, accountable to that. But it's not like they have a broad life experience to draw on. Mm-hmm. And they are willfully--

They're stupid. They're foolish. Mm-hmm. This is an act of folly. Like they don't even know what death is, experientially.

Yeah. They're children. They're naive. They're easily deceived. So, it's with Kane in the next story that we're going to start getting into.

God just told me this is bad. What is bad is taking the life of another. I'm mad. I'm going to kill my brother. Then we start getting more and is a little more culpable.

“But this is-- I think depicted the fundamental human condition is that we don't know.”

We are ignorant. Mm-hmm. We don't know what's good for ourselves. Yeah. And our desires sometimes point us to what it's good.

But not always. But we need to know this if we're going to ever get ahead. And this is the moment in the story that's saying, like humans from riots far back as we can possibly tell, pretty much trapped in folly, ignorance, and being misdirected by their good desires. Good desires can lead to bad ends.

And it's a problem that every human and every generation of humans seems to grapple with. Yeah. What's the way out? What's the solution even if humans don't seem to listen to it? It's just God's command.

God's command leads to life. Even when it doesn't seem like it. This is the fundamental stuff. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Where we're going to go from here is then trace just overview real quick.

“A couple key moments where God also tells some people what to do.”

He tells Noah or Noah's sons, one specific thing about murder. And then he tells Abraham, "Do you all kinds of things?" Yeah. And that is going to introduce all these twists because Abraham sometimes doesn't do. Sometimes does, and sometimes half does.

Mm-hmm. And what happens in all those combinations? Okay. We'll get to Matt Sinai, where God tells a whole bunch of things to do and not do to these realites. And this is our journey of tracing the theme of God's command in the story of the Bible.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Bible Project Podcast. Next week we'll continue to study the theme of the commands of God. We're going to look at the story of Noah, Abraham, and Moses. We'll see that in each of their stories. Listening to the voice of God will bring them to the end of themselves.

It looks like a kind of surrender or death. But God's command tends to lead people in that direction and then surprises them with life. Bible Project is a crowdfunded non-profit. And we exist to help people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus.

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