Some knowledge is better left alone. My grandson calls it senseless, useless pieces of information. Knowledge is good but, there are some things I prefer just not to know.  For instance, why do I need to know the gruesome details behind a murder? Or the intricate details of how an airplane works if I am not the pilot? My only concern is that it gets me safely from point A to point B. Then, why do we need to know everything about the mysteries of God?

In this new series, we address an age-old concern that we all have: the concern for sin, evil, death, and what happens after we die. Is there hope after death? When God created us, humans, he intended for us to live forever in a loving relationship with him. But this relationship has been broken by sin.

Here, we address the origin of sin, and we look more closely at death and dying.

But, instead of looking at death in a negative way, we look at it in the context of hope, the promised hope based on what Jesus did for us when he died and came back to life again. (Split)

From the Sabbath School Adult Bible Study Guide 2022 Quarter 4: Sabbath.School

See also Hope Sabbath School and 3ABN Sabbath School

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Inviting the Holy Spirit’s Presence

Holy Father, some things about you are mysterious and unknown, and what you ask us to do can be hard to understand but help us to simply trust you and your word with the assurance that you will get us from where we are to where we need to be. In Jesus Name Amen. (Split)

Eve’s issue was a matter of trust. To avoid going down the same road we must decide who we will trust. God or Satan. What were Eve’s reasons for going against what God had told her and eating the forbidden fruit? (Split)

Genesis 3:1–7 helps us see the standards Eve used to choose between God’s word and that of the serpent.

1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden;

3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.

5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (Genesis 3:1–7) (Split)

Genesis 3 is one of the clearest examples of how Satan tries to trick our minds to

to get us to yield to temptation.

We can see in Genesis 2:16 and 17 where God warns Adam and Eve that if they ate the forbidden fruit, they would surely die.

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;

17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”  (Genesis 2:16-17)

As part of his plan to deceive Eve, Satan uses the serpent as a medium to talk to her.

How did Satan get Eve to yield to the temptation?

First, he used God’s specific command prohibiting the act.  The serpent asks Eve several questions to get her to not believe God. His aim was to get Eve to think that she doesn’t understand God’s command. He asks, “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1, NIrV).

What did Eve do? She argued that the rule only was about the specific tree in the middle of the garden.

Then she tells the serpent that She and Adam must not eat from it or touch it. If they do, they will die. Now, Satan has established a dialog between himself and the women.

What does Satan do then?

Next, He refutes God’s words. He says to the women, “You will not surely die”. (Genesis 3:4).

Finally, Satan goes a step further. He accuses God of hiding essential knowledge

from Eve and her husband.

He argues in Genesis 3:5

5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis

3:5).

As with anyone who is curious, Eve’s curiosity led her onto the enchanted grounds of Satan. At this point, she wanted to know more about this forbidden tree.

Thus, she was forced to decide either to remain faithful to God’s restraining order or to embrace Satan’s seductive allurements.

The thing is God warned Eve not to go near the tree. What does Eve do? She does not obey.

Once at the tree, what happens? Eve must decide between God’s words and Satan’s lies.

What happens next, Eve doubts God. She believes what she sees with her own eyes. She lets her own personal experience guide her. Eve uses her own senses to help her to decide. She uses the empirical method of personal observation to decide between the two conflicting statements (What God said and what Satan is saying).

Using the empirical method of personal observation:

First, from a dietary perspective, Eve saw that the fruit was a good choice: “the tree was good for food.” (Genesis 3:6).

Second, from a visual perspective, Eve saw that the fruit was beautiful. She saw that “it was a delight to the eyes.” (Genesis 3:6). So, she felt it would make her happy.

Then Third, from a logical perspective, using her own logic, she concluded that “the tree was desirable to make one wise.” Hence, she felt the fruit would give her special knowledge.

So, in her mind, Eve felt she had good reasons to trust the serpent and eat from the forbidden tree. (Split)

Sad to say, she ate the fruit. Have you been there?

The Story of Redemption points out that Satan communicated the idea that by eating the forbidden tree [Adam and Eve] would receive a new and more honorable kind of knowledge than they had up to this point ever achieved.

It says: This has been his specialty, with great success, ever since his fall. He seeks to lead us to inquire into the secrets of the Almighty and not to be satisfied with what God has revealed, and thus we fail to obey carefully that which God has commanded.

Satan would lead us, humans, to disobey God’s commands, and then make us believe that we are entering a wonderful field of knowledge. He used pure speculation, and miserable deception to accomplish this. Often humans fail to understand what God has revealed and disregard His explicit commandments. They aspire to obtain wisdom, independent of God and seek to understand that which God has been pleased to withhold from us mortals.

The book goes on to point out that humans are elated with their ideas of advancements and become charmed with their own vain philosophy, but they grope in midnight darkness relative to true knowledge. They are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. —The Story of Redemption, p. 33. Adapted

The thing is some people think that all forms of knowledge are good if

we follow the rule of I Thessalonians 5:21

which says:

21 Test all things; hold fast to what is good. (I Thessalonians 5:21)

But even in the testing, there are times when we should let go, especially when we find that the knowledge is harmful.

Adam and Eve’s sad experience should teach us that some knowledge is harmful and can be very damaging.

The incident with them affirms that there are indeed some things best not knowing and best left alone.

The lie “You surely will not die! has been echoed down through the ages. In what ways has it been repeated? Find out in Day 4: You will not Die!