Knowledge of Good and Evil
I like the Hebrew translation of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is the tree of functional and dysfunctional discernment. The word functional is tov in Hebrew and means functioning within its intended purpose. It is wholeness and completeness. It is LIFE! Its ancient root means good, and it is a house surrounded with grace, beauty, love, health, and prosperity. Those are the parameters of what functional or tov is. They are the parameters of GOOD. It also sounds like salvation (sozo) to me!
Adam had functional discernment before the fall…. he knew only good. We see that with his naming of the animals. He named them according to their design or function… for the intended purpose that they existed.
Dysfunctional is ra and is often translated as evil or wicked in our English Bibles. Ra means impaired or abnormal action, not functioning within its intended purpose. It would be anything that doesn’t fall within the parameters of good (tov)… of grace, beauty, love, health, and prosperity. Within the parameters of WHOLE and COMPLETE.
Adam and Eve partaking of this tree now had knowledge that was NOT grace, beauty, love, health, and prosperity. And so, here they were with this new understanding, this new type of discernment that was outside the boundaries of VERY GOOD or FINISHED. No longer seeing themselves or their world around them as whole and complete, lacking nothing. No longer seeing themselves as sons in the image and likeness of God. They were fearful because of their sudden perception of being naked (of lacking).
The word naked is mentioned several times in the story of Adam and Eve, having different meanings that are only apparent when looking at it in Hebrew.
In chapter 2, it says they were arom, meaning naked and unashamed, bare and unclothed. In other words, Adam and Eve were innocent, bold, feeling no guilt or regret. They were not conscience-stricken. They were ONLY clothed with an awareness of their ONENESS with God, and who they were IN Him. They were transparent and comfortable in their FACE TO FACE relationship with Father, Son, and Spirit. They understood ONLY that they were the image and likeness of God, divine IN HIM. Their nakedness, their arom was not an issue for them.
But in chapter 3, we find Adam afraid and quivering behind a tree. His fear isn't a fear of God, but of his PERCEIVED nakedness. his perception was now outside God's parameters of GOOD — grace, beauty, love, health, and prosperity. He no longer saw himself whole and complete! This caused him to hide from God… withdrawing from the FACE TO FACE relationship he had with the Father, Son, and Spirit. He turned away from Abba, telling Him that he is naked and afraid. The word for naked that he uses now, here in chapter three to describe himself, is erom and is also used in Deuteronomy 28:48. This verse describes being enslaved to an enemy whose purpose is to destroy and completely annihilate one’s condition or existence! Sounds like John 10:10!
This word, erom (naked), also has its own set of parameters.... hunger, famine, thirst, dryness, drought, naked (being uncovered, stripped), lacking in everything, and an iron yoke of oppression around your neck.
All of this Adam and Eve's eyes were now opened to. Opened to the understanding of in dying, you shall die. Now opened to the vast gulf between the parameters of naked and lacking (erom), and the parameters of good (tov). Opened to the understanding that now they would no longer see ONLY good, grace, beauty, love, health, and prosperity, as God had intended for them. NOW, they experienced the overwhelming fear of this new knowledge that had opened up in their understanding.
They now had an awareness of death that they were NEVER meant to have, that they were NEVER designed for.
And having no way of knowing how to get back now that they had eaten from the wrong tree. New feelings existed inside them at war with who God declared them to be. Feelings of hopelessness, fear, and regret. Feeling unprotected and in bondage to an enemy that they had never seen.
God said to Adam, who told you that you were naked? Who told you that you were without My protection? Without My covering? Without my glory? Without My fellowship? And without My provision? Who told you that you were enslaved to an enemy, and no longer image and likeness of Me with dominion over ALL things?”
When Yahweh Elohim breathed life into man, He breathed life into the whole man. And the man became a soul alive, or a man wholly alive with the life of God. This life of God flowed through his physical body, through his mind, through his spirit, through his emotions, etcetera. God’s life flowed through the WHOLE man! Everything about him was saturated with the life of God. There wasn’t anything about him that wasn't the image and likeness of God. There wasn’t any part of him that wasn’t pulsating with the life of God! He was naked and not ashamed!
We were designed to be naked and not ashamed…. That naked is to be unclothed. It is an awareness, a perception of our ONENESS with God (Father, Son, and Spirit). It’s an understanding of as He is so are we in this world. It is an understanding that we are clothed IN Christ!
We were never designed to experience the naked and afraid. We were never designed to be death minded…. We were designed to experience abundant Life, the FINISHED life, WHOLENESS! But the problem is that we have been taught to be death minded.
Taught to see ourselves as only partially redeemed and SOMEDAY when we die and go to heaven THEN we will be FULLY redeemed and resurrected to be just like Jesus in His resurrected glorious state of being. BUT AS HE IS!!! SO ARE WE!! RIGHT NOW IN THIS WORLD!
IT IS FINISHED!
IT IS FINISHED