Episode Summary
Why would God put a tree in the garden that Adam and Eve weren’t allowed to eat from? Wasn’t that just setting a trap?
In this episode of Ask a Priest, the question gets turned around: what if God had not given Adam and Eve any concrete command to obey? The command concerning the tree gave them a real opportunity to trust God, obey him freely, or reject his wisdom. God did not make Adam and Eve into puppets. He created them as people capable of freely responding to his love.
The tree reveals that God gave human beings genuine freedom. He wanted their trust and love to be freely given, not mechanically produced. The command gave Adam and Eve an opportunity to entrust themselves to God through obedience rather than deciding good and evil entirely for themselves.
That leads to the deeper question underneath the whole episode: do I trust God enough to let him be God? The question shows up everywhere, in forgiving people who’ve hurt us, in where we find our worth, and in how we understand our own sexuality. Each of these can echo the choice represented by the tree: trusting God’s wisdom and goodness, or trying to decide those things entirely for ourselves.Episode Transcript
[00:00:01 –> 00:00:05] (Music)
[00:00:05 –> 00:00:09] unnecessary.
[00:00:09 –> 00:00:14] The eating of the fruit. It could have been easily avoided if God didn’t put the tree in the garden.
[00:00:14 –> 00:00:19] Why is the tree in the garden? God could have not done that.
[00:00:19 –> 00:00:21] way of asking it is was it necessary
[00:00:21 –> 00:00:25] for God to put a tree in the garden that couldn’t be eaten?
[00:00:25 –> 00:00:31] Was God trying to set a trap for human beings? Hey, I gotcha. Told you you couldn’t resist.
[00:00:31 –> 00:00:35] There’s so many questions about why the tree was there.
[00:00:35 –> 00:00:38] And why would you put tasty fruit there that Adam and Eve could not eat?
[00:00:38 –> 00:00:42] Also a side note, and this is kind of a Mandela effect.
[00:00:42 –> 00:00:45] The Bible never mentions that the fruit is an apple.
[00:00:45 –> 00:00:50] The fruit could have been a pomegranate or a banana or a tomato because those are fruits.
[00:00:50 –> 00:00:56] Another way of asking the question is doing the opposite. To ask,
[00:00:56 –> 00:01:00] what if God didn’t put that tree in the garden?
[00:01:00 –> 00:01:01] Then it would reveal that
[00:01:01 –> 00:01:03] he didn’t really want us to love him.
[00:01:03 –> 00:01:05] He just wanted us to be puppets.
[00:01:05 –> 00:01:07] God just wanted us to be robots.
[00:01:07 –> 00:01:12] if the tree was not there, then we never would have had the opportunity
[00:01:12 –> 00:01:14] to possibly not choose him,
[00:01:14 –> 00:01:18] which means there’s no way of actually loving him.
[00:01:18 –> 00:01:19] That would be like
[00:01:19 –> 00:01:20] a marriage proposal
[00:01:20 –> 00:01:25] where you are forced into the marriage, not being able to say no.
[00:01:25 –> 00:01:32] the only reason why a marriage proposal is so good and true and beautiful is because there is the opportunity,
[00:01:32 –> 00:01:36] there’s the potential for the woman to say no.
[00:01:36 –> 00:01:43] If that wasn’t there, that is not love. That is the opposite of love. That’s like being forced into something.
[00:01:43 –> 00:01:55] If the tree was never in the garden, if the opportunity to say no to God was never there, God just would want us to be puppets, he would want us to be robots.
[00:01:55 –> 00:01:59] God placing the tree in the garden that we cannot eat from,
[00:01:59 –> 00:02:02] reveals that God wants us to have freedom.
[00:02:02 –> 00:02:06] Freedom is risky because love is risky.
[00:02:06 –> 00:02:20] God didn’t put the tree in there just to trap us. Like imagining him kind of waiting with like this trap over the tree, just waiting for Adam and Eve to come and then finally, “Yes, I told you, I got you, I got you, you’re exposed.”
[00:02:20 –> 00:02:21] That’s not it at all.
[00:02:21 –> 00:02:28] God reveals his vulnerable heart that he’s willing to be said no to
[00:02:28 –> 00:02:35] because he desires something greater than just force. He wants our freedom to be able to say yes.
[00:02:35 –> 00:02:40] to say, “I love you,” isn’t really love. God could have easily done that.
[00:02:40 –> 00:02:45] Or imagine parents telling their kids when they did something wrong, “Hey, say you’re sorry.”
[00:02:45 –> 00:02:47] that they’re sorry,
[00:02:47 –> 00:02:50] but doesn’t mean that the kid feels sorry.
[00:02:50 –> 00:03:01] You look at the Father in heaven. You look at Jesus. You look at the Holy Spirit. You look at this mutual exchange of love and what is most important to God, self-gift.
[00:03:01 –> 00:03:05] Looking at Jesus on the cross, looking how he poured out himself in self-gift.
[00:03:05 –> 00:03:16] The tree in the garden is the opportunity for us to be a self-gift, to be able to say yes to the Lord and say no to anything that’s not from him.
[00:03:16 –> 00:03:20] The tree in the garden comes down to this one question.
[00:03:20 –> 00:03:24] Do I trust God enough to let him be God?
[00:03:24 –> 00:03:27] That’s basically the temptation that Adam and Eve received.
[00:03:27 –> 00:03:32] Do you trust God enough to let him be God or do you need to do it on your own?
[00:03:32 –> 00:03:34] Do you need to grasp these things for yourself?
[00:03:34 –> 00:03:37] God says to forgive those who have hurt me.
[00:03:37 –> 00:03:39] Do I trust God enough
[00:03:39 –> 00:03:42] to let that be enough? Do I trust God enough to forgive?
[00:03:42 –> 00:03:45] God says my worth comes from him.
[00:03:45 –> 00:03:54] Do I trust him enough or do I defy myself through my relationships or through my strengths or through my weaknesses or through my shame?
[00:03:54 –> 00:03:59] God says my sexuality has a purpose. That sex is good and sacred.
[00:03:59 –> 00:04:04] Do I trust God enough or do I decide for myself?
[00:04:04 –> 00:04:11] Again, the tree in the garden reveals the deeper question that all of us have to face at some point.
[00:04:11 –> 00:04:14] Do I trust God enough to let him be God?
[00:04:14 –> 00:04:22] Something really to pray with when it comes to the tree. The tree wasn’t just for Adam and Eve. We face the same question every day.
[00:04:22 –> 00:04:36] receive reality from God? Will I receive my identity from God? Will I trust God in reality?” Or, “Do I just create reality for myself? Do I create my own path?
[00:04:36 –> 00:04:43] Do I decide for myself what is good, what is evil, what is true, what is beautiful?”
[00:04:43 –> 00:04:48] it is so easy to ask that question like, “Why did God have to put the tree there?”
[00:04:48 –> 00:05:02] Man, it’s because he loves us. It’s because he wants something greater than us being forced to say, “I love you.” He wants us. He wants our heart. He wants us to say yes to him and he wants us to let him be him.
[00:05:02 –> 00:05:05] love you, praying for you. This is Spirit Juice. Peace.
Key Takeaways
- A forced yes is not love. Real love requires the freedom to say no.
- Without a real command Adam and Eve could freely obey or reject, there would have been no concrete test of their trust and obedience. The tree was not a trap, but a sign that their freedom was real.
- God is not vulnerable the way we are, but he did give human beings genuine freedom, including the possibility of rejecting him, because he wanted their trust and love to be freely given, not mechanically produced.
- God wanted our freedom, not mere mechanical compliance. He calls us to obey him freely, with trust and love.
- The command concerning the tree gave Adam and Eve an opportunity to entrust themselves to God through obedience. Jesus fulfills self-giving love perfectly by freely offering himself on the cross.
- The deeper question underneath the tree is whether we trust God enough to let him be God, rather than deciding good and evil entirely for ourselves.
- This same question can echo in ordinary life: in forgiving those who’ve hurt us, in receiving our dignity from God rather than from our own performance, and in how we understand our own sexuality.
What This Means for Prayer and Daily Life
The tree in the garden was never really about the fruit. It was about whether Adam and Eve trusted God enough to obey him freely, rather than deciding good and evil for themselves.
That same question can echo in ordinary life, even now. When someone hurts you and God says to forgive them, the question is the same: do I trust God enough to let that be enough, even when it feels easier to hold on?
When you’re tempted to measure your worth through your relationships, your achievements, or your failures, the question returns again. God gives every human person lasting dignity and worth. Do I trust him, or do I try to measure my value only through how I’m performing?
The same is true for how we understand our own bodies and sexuality. God created the body and sexuality as good gifts, with a real purpose within the vocation to love, especially the faithful, life-giving self-gift of marriage. Do I trust God’s wisdom here, or do I decide for myself what it means?
Try bringing this question directly into prayer this week: in the specific place where I’m struggling to trust God right now, will I receive the truth about reality, my identity, and the good from him, or will I try to define it for myself?
FAQ Section
No, the Bible never identifies the fruit as an apple. The apple is a later artistic and cultural tradition, not a detail stated in Genesis.
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