Most Wednesday evenings, our church hosts over 100 elementary and middle schoolers for the BLAST program. This Believing, Loving, And Serving Together ministry includes snack, recreation, dinner, and class learning time. In addition to driving the bus, my main responsibility is to teach Bible lessons each week. Since the themes this fall are in Genesis, the first evening it was a joy to share God’s amazing act of creation! As a nature boy from way back, I always enjoy telling about God’s ingenious designs and beautiful creatures.
The second Wednesday, I shared the tragic story of the Fall. When our greatest grandparents yielded to temptation, they plunged God’s perfect creation into sin’s consequences including hard work, painful childbirth, and ultimately death for all. But I also got to share the first prophecy about Jesus regarding Eve’s Seed that would eventually crush the serpent’s head.
When I asked for questions, one young man had his hand in the air. I had highlighted the fact that Eve had amended God’s command not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil by adding the prohibition of even touching it. This youngster wanted to know if she could lick the fruit. When I replied, he followed up by asking if she could bite it, chew it, and spit it out. Whenever you ask children for questions, you’d better be ready for anything. Although I’ve taught this foundational story many times and fielded lots of questions about it, I’ve never had these particular inquiries raised.
Isn’t this just like human nature? How close can we get to the edge without falling over? How close can we get to disobeying God without actually sinning? Our tendency is to always test the limits. We can stop anytime we want. We can eat it, smoke it, drink it, watch it, etc. without ever getting addicted. We’re not as weak as those other unfortunate souls. And before we know it, we’re not just touching, licking, and chewing, we’re swallowing to our appetite’s desire.
We are prone to add to or take away from God’s Word, both of which are sinful. Like Eve, some have added many additional laws. To the 613 commands of the Old Testament, the Pharisees had added over 1500 to keep Jews from getting anywhere close to disobedience. And while their intention to keep the law was good, Jesus pointed out that even they could not obey all their own regulations.
Most of us, however, usually take the opposite approach. We push the limits ignorantly believing the devil’s lie that we can stop anytime we choose only to realize too late that we are powerless to do so. Like Eve, when we see the forbidden fruit pleases our eye, is good for food, and can make us smarter, we can no longer resist. Sadly, we drag others into our sin, as did Eve, bringing guilt on all.
I fear that we are standing on the precipice of a potentially great evil as we look longingly at the polished pomegranate of artificial intelligence. It does please our eye with amazing graphics, it promises to satisfy our appetites for additional convenience and efficiency, and of course, it will make us much smarter. Sadly, those who know the most about it are the most concerned about its potential to wreak greater havoc than we have possibly ever seen before. We’re licking it. We’re biting and chewing it. And we will swallow soon enough.
Paul’s advice in I Thessalonians 5:22 is to, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” This helps us to avoid seeing how close we can get to the edge of sin’s canyon without falling in. But he balances that with the freedom not to be bound by law, but to do what is right by the Spirit. There is a balance and we pray for God’s wisdom not to add to or to take away from His Holy Word. Blessings, George