God Does Not Deceive: Genesis 2:8-17
God sets everything out before us and gives us free will to respond. His power is unmatched, yet He gives us the ability to choose our own path. He could force us to abide by His will, but He does not. God is a God of freedom and possibility, not a God of forced obedience.
After Adam is created, God looks at creation and determines a space to place Adam. Therefore, God creates a garden into which He can place Adam. God had just finished making the universe and then the whole world! When mankind comes along, God makes a special place for Adam to dwell.
God didn’t just create us as a cosmic experiment. We are not like ants in an ant farm sitting on a shelf with God observing us to see what we are going to do next. God made us to be the jewel of His creation, thus He made a special garden for us to have as a home.
Whatever else we can take from the creation story, we should gain an understanding of what we mean to God. His whole creation is special, and His creation was made with us in mind. This helps us understand why God acts the way He does in the rest of the Bible.
Take several examples from the Bible. Because we are so special to God, when the people rebel against Him, He sends a flood but spares Noah so humanity could continue to exist. When humanity rebels again and attempts to build an impressive temple to reach to the heavens, God scatters them rather than destroys them. When the Hebrew people rebel against Him, God sends them into exile rather than destroying them. God forgives repeatedly because we are special to Him. In fact, we are so special to God He sent His own Son to the earth as a sacrifice for our sake. He saves us and allows our relationship to be restored because we are so special to Him.
God also sets up constraints because we are so special to Him. He desires to keep us safe. He wants to protect the innocence we had in our creation. He tells Adam that he can eat from any tree in the garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Look at the words God uses when he describes the tree and its effect to Adam. God tells Adam that by eating the fruit, death will come to humanity. The consequences of eating the fruit are known full well in advance. There is no surprise here, because God has provided for humanity all along. Everything God has done up to this point has pointed to God’s provision, it only makes sense that God would disclose the consequences of rebellion before the rebellion occurs. God is not a deceiver. God sets everything out before us and gives us free will to respond.
