THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL WAS NOT MEANT TO TEMPT MAN. IT WAS TO BE EATEN

In the garden of Eden, there were many trees, but two were specifically named.  One was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and one was called the Tree of Life.  It is interesting to note, however, that these two trees were located in the exact same place in the garden.  

Genesis 2:9 Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Genesis 3:2-3 The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 

These two trees were in the exact same place – in the middle of the garden.

When God gave the children of Israel instructions on eating the fruit of trees, He tells them in Leviticus 19:23 ‘When you enter the land and plant all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you; it shall not be eaten.”  

These fruit trees may be eaten later, but in the first three years, they were not to eat of them.  The word that was translated as “forbidden” is not a word they would normally associate with trees.  The Hebrew word used here is orlah and it literally means “foreskin”.  Fruit trees are considered “uncircumcised” until the fourth year and even then, they were not to eat of the fruit until the fifth year. It is likely that this is why God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree in the centre of the garden?  It was not “circumcised” yet and it was not time to eat of it. God also did not put it there to tempt them as many people suggest.

In the first three years, the fruit trees in Leviticus were uncircumcised. The fourth year, the fruit of the tree is only God’s.  

Leviticus 19:24 ‘But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the LORD.’  

They were not permitted to consume the fruit of fruit trees until the fifth year.  

Leviticus 19:25 ‘In the fifth year you are to eat of its fruit, that its yield may increase for you; I am the LORD your God. 

Similarly, God would have permitted the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil to be eaten on a later date. This Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not a bad tree and it was not meant to tempt man by God. He most likely may have wanted it to be circumcised and made holy first. The Tree certainly provided shade for man and beast and branches for birds to sit. It also provided fruits, but the very first commandment given unto man was to not eat of its fruit. 

The tree was not a bad tree.  It was the fact that man violated the commandment which had consequence (death) that was bad.