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When it’s Better not to Know, January 11
Genesis 3:6-24
And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly.
Ecclesiastes 1:17
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Adam and Eve both ate of the fruit, and obtained a knowledge which, had
they obeyed God, they would never have had,—an experience in disobedience
and disloyalty to God,—the knowledge that they were naked. The garment of
innocence, a covering from God, which surrounded them, departed; and they
supplied the place of this heavenly garment by sewing together fig-leaves for
aprons.
This is the covering that the transgressors of the law of God have used
since the days of Adam and Eve’s disobedience.... The fig-leaves represent the
arguments used to cover disobedience....
But the nakedness of the sinner is not covered....
Had Adam and Eve never disobeyed their Creator, had they remained in the
path of perfect rectitude, they could have known and understood God. But when
they listened to the voice of the tempter, and sinned against God, the light of
the garments of heavenly innocence departed from them; and in parting with
the garments of innocence, they drew about them the dark robes of ignorance of
God. The clear and perfect light that had hitherto surrounded them had lightened
everything they approached; but deprived of that heavenly light, the posterity of
Adam could no longer trace the character of God in His created works
If Adam and Eve had never touched the forbidden tree, the Lord would have
imparted to them knowledge,—knowledge upon which rested no curse of sin,
knowledge that would have brought them everlasting joy....
Age after age, the curiosity of men has led them to seek for the tree of
knowledge; and often they think they are plucking fruit most essential, when, like
Solomon’s research, they find it altogether vanity and nothingness in comparison
with that science of true holiness which will open to them the gates of the city
of God. The human ambition has been seeking for that kind of knowledge that
will bring to them glory and self-exaltation and supremacy. Thus Adam and Eve
were worked upon by Satan
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14
The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 1:1084
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15
Ibid., 1083
.
16