Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Eve saw that the tree was delicious, delightful and desirable.
The tree appealed to three different domains: physical, mental and spiritual.
It was physically good. It was good for eating and would meet that dynamic well. It would taste good. It would nourish the body. It was something your belly would demand.
It was mentally satisfying. It was beautiful. It was good for observing and met that dynamic sufficiently. It delighted the eyes. It was something you wanted to look at and possess. It was not enough merely to look and enjoy, it urged more than merely looking. It inspired the mind. It was fun to mull over.
It was spiritually advantageous. It was desirable for obtaining wisdom. It would make the eater like God in knowing about good and evil and everything in between. It would advance one’s spiritual condition. Spiritually it would meet a need.
It was all of these things that so many things propose: sex, drugs, rock n roll, religion, importance, power, popularity, et cetera.
The tree was all of this, so you understand why its appeal was so powerful.
Yet God had said, “No.”
A simple command really, right?
“Don’t!”
But how attractive is the grass with the “keep off my yard” sign, eh?
That is our perspective this side of the fall, but doing something simply for the evil sake of it is not mentioned as one of the reasons the tree was attractive to Eve.
The best barometer of whether or not something is good is God’s word on the matter. Something may feel good, taste good, look good and be thought of as good by many and yet be wicked, evil and worthy of eviction from God’s presence by His pronouncement upon it.
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