A Tale of Three Trees

Questions for Reflection

Read Genesis 2: 7-17

• What do you notice about the creation man in this story? How is he made, and why does it matter?

  • What was the man’s original role in the Garden of Eden?

  • What was he called to do (vs. 15)?

  • What was he given permission to do (vs. 16)?

  • What was he prohibited to do (vs. 17)?

• Walter Brueggemann says that in the Garden, humanity was given a vocation (what we are called to do), permission (what we are permitted to do), and prohibition (what we are prohibited from doing). But instead of holding all three together, we tend to focus simply on the prohibition (“…you must not eat…” Why do you think we do this, and what is the effect on our lives?

• Why do you think God prohibited Adam from eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?

• Pastor Mathew gave us a helpful framework through which to understand both this passage in Genesis and the whole of the Scriptures: (1) We begin with the Age of Innocence, in which we relate to God as a child relates to their father. Our instinct, our very nature, is to do the will of God. (2) We move to the Age of Awareness, in which our instincts become perverted and we begin to relate to God as a slave does to their master. We are guided by the law, focused on knowing right from wrong. (3) We enter into the Age of Divine Romance in which we relate to God as a wife to her husband—guided by love and vulnerability.

  • In what ways do you function as if you were living in the Age of Awareness, treating God as your slave master instead of your heavenly father? In what ways do you put the law, the rules, knowing right from wrong… above following Jesus in an intimate loving relationship?