“The Knowledge of Good and Evil”

“The Knowledge of Good and Evil”

Genesis 50:15-21

The “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” is an enigma to most people – an inexplicable occurrence. They
ask, “Why did God put such a tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden? Why would He so tempt Adam, by even
putting the notion of evil in front of him?” The answer: “ Because that’s the way it is, which is to say, it was
necessary.” For if God is all good, then the absence of God is by definition, evil. “Yes, but God is omnipresent –
He is everywhere, so how could there ever be an ‘absence’ of God?” Well, it’s not that He is not everywhere present
as God, but rather that He is not everywhere acknowledged as the completely good and only God, as first Satan,
then Eve, and finally Adam concluded. So to deny God’s goodness is the very essence of evil – which is the natural
condition of every human being born of woman, except One! (Obviously, to attempt to completely delete God by
denying His very existence is even more evil.) Therefore, it is not possible to really understand evil until one has
a grasp of what is good. Thus the tree which begins with the knowledge of good, and only then reveals evil as the
lack thereof, is necessary.
The trouble with this tree, therefore, is the knowledge of evil which it necessarily imparts. For immediately
upon eating of it, both Eve and Adam were horrified to discover that in the very eating, they had become evil! Ever
since that moment, humanity has fled from this knowledge in terror, trying to deny its truth. Thus, father Luther
says “The Theologian of Glory (natural man) calls the bad, good and the good, bad.” But for those few who truly
understand God and His plan, “The theologian of the Cross calls a thing what it is!” Thus we hold that:

I. Everything Man does out of His Own Nature is Evil!!

A. Even the “chosen descendants of Abraham” were not immune to this evil.
1. Jacob sinned against his other sons by showing greater love for Joseph. (Gen. 37:3-4)
2. Joseph, in turn, sinned against them by boasting of God’s revelation to him. (Gen. 37:5-7)
3. Joseph’s brothers sinned against him by selling him into slavery. (Gen. 37:18-22)

B. The result of sin is always loss of peace.
1. Jacob grieved over his lost son.
2. Joseph became a slave in a hostile land – but God had a plan!
3. When Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers were terrified that he would enslave them. (vss. 15-18)
4. We each have our own forms of our slavery to sin and death.

II. Everything God does out of His Own Nature is Good!!!

A. His loving hand chastises us to draw us near.
1. Jacob was forced to recognize his sin.
2. Joseph was tested and tested again until God was his only hope and salvation!
3. His brothers were brought to true repentance.
4. We are brought to realize that our problem is our own sin.

B. Yet even when we “mean it for evil,” God means it for good!!! (vs. 20)
1. Joseph was used by God to save his family.
2. Jacob’s death brought his other sons to salvation!
3. God has given us true “Knowledge of Good and Evil,” that we might know His salvation in Christ!

The terror of this knowledge of good and evil is the realization that because we are now, by our fallen nature,
unfit for the “Tree of Life,” we must die. Thus we are, as the author to the Hebrews put it, “throughout all our lives
enslaved to the fear of death!” (Heb. 2:15) So crippling is this fear that most of us seek every possible way to deny
it, and especially its necessary implication – eternal separation from God. From the Atheist’s denial of the very
existence of God, to the ambition that drives men to “leave their mark on the world,” to the lethargy of
hopelessness, to the death-defying extreme sports mania, everything we do is tainted – nay, poisoned, by this
terrible fear – of death and Hell.
But God had a plan – from before the foundation of the Creation – to use this tree and its terrifying knowledge
to bring us to Himself in everlasting bliss. This plan is called “The Gospel of Jesus Christ,” and it necessitates that
God Himself would partake of our humanity in order to suffer both the fear of death and death itself on the “Tree
of Life.” Then He could “destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,” (Heb. 2:14) by rising
victoriously from the dead. This would then “destroy the shroud that was cast over all people – He would swallow
up death forever!!!” (Isa. 25:7-8). This is the truth with which Joseph “comforted his brothers and spoke kindly
to them.” So also here this morning Christ Jesus has comforted you and spoken kindly to you, “Be at peace, for
your sins have been washed away in the blood of My Cross!!!” Thanks be to God. Amen.