Good Rather Than God

By David Eckman, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer, Kesed Seminars

CBN.com -- Adam and Eve were supposed to function as a team, but the serpent got them to act independently of each other. They were not supposed to eat from the Tree of Good and Evil. As it says in Genesis 2:17, "But from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil you shall not eat." What is often forgotten is that it was not the tree of evil but the tree of good and evil. In the name of the tree first came the word "good," and then followed the word "wretchedness" or "evil." An important spiritual lesson is here.

Choosing good without God quickly leads to evil. One can leave God out just as quickly in the pursuit of good as of evil. It can be said that the good that people pursue can be as spiritually dangerous as evil. God wants relationship, and what Adam and Eve did was to choose benefit over God. God is more than good things.

Eve was tempted not to do evil, but to pursue good without God. "When the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired because it made one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband who had been there throughout, and he ate" (Genesis 3:6). Genesis 3 says the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil was good for food, was a delight to the eyes, and it could make one wise. Not one thing in the list was evil; all was good. God is all for good food, pleasing sights, and wisdom. But good should not be chosen over God, but that was exactly what occurred and evil followed.

In a sense, the temptation set before Eve was to become a "better person" who is a wiser person. She was like a woman in the Book of Proverbs who is seeking wisdom. Seeking wisdom is a good thing, but the better thing is to know God.

A modern-day temptation exists for today's woman. Again it is a temptation concerning good over God. Eve was created to deal with Adam's loneliness. The Scripture says that in creation both man and woman were very good. But Eve was fashioned to deal with loneliness; therefore, she must be good at relationships. Indeed, the universal observation is that women are superior in relationships.

But because of the Fall, that could become a weakness, for it is women who in three out of four cases initiate divorce. Normally, women become dissatisfied with marriage first. A woman will notice the relational weaknesses in a marriage long before a man will. Then, if she does not have a strategy for change or the resources of God and the church to help, she may make the simple but damaging mistake of thinking that finding another man may well be the answer. In these situations the woman must first seek to know God and His ways before merely seeking good, because seeking good without God is always followed by wretchedness or evil.

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David Eckman is the co-founder and senior lecturer for Kesed Seminars, a non-profit organization dedicated to introducing people to Gods loyal love. The organization name, Kesed, comes from the Hebrew word for loyal love. Kesed Seminars is a seminar and training team that works with Campus Crusade, churches, denominations, schools, and other parachurch organizations to bring spiritual transformation to their constituencies. Dr. Eckman and his wife, Carol, have been married for 30 years and have two children.