Where Does Your Truth Come From?

What is the Meaning of Life?

John 17:3 HCSB

This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent —Jesus Christ.

What is the point of living? Knowing God

“In order to know well, you must listen to trusted authorities and do what they say in order to see what they are showing you.” - Dru Johnson

Biblical Knowing involves these three aspects:

An authenticated authority

A command or revelation

Obedience

Genesis 2 - Knowing Rightly

Genesis 2:8–9 HCSB

The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed. The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:15–17 HCSB

The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

Genesis 2:15

to “work it” (other translations: “tend”)

has the idea of service, even service to God

Elsewhere (Ex 3:12) this same term is translated “worship”

Genesis 2:15

To “watch over it” (other translations: “keep”)

Has not merely the idea of taking care of, but guarding, watching, and even the idea of obedience embedded in it

Gen 26:5 – “…because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My mandate, My commands, My statutes…”

Gen 17:9 – “…after you throughout their generations are to keep My covenant.”

Gen 2:15 – “…him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.”

Gen 3:24 – “…whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.”

Genesis 2:16–17 HCSB

And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”

Genesis 2:18–24 HCSB

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper as his complement.” So the Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it. And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man no helper was found as his complement. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man, and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. Then the Lord God made the rib He had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. And the man said: This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; this one will be called “woman,” for she was taken from man. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.

Genesis 3 - Knowing Wrongly

Genesis 3:1 HCSB

Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

Genesis 3:2–7 HCSB

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit from the trees in the garden. But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God said, ‘You must not eat it or touch it, or you will die.’ ” “No! You will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 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. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Just because someone speaks the truth does not make them worth listening to

Genesis 3:6 HCSB

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.

Genesis 2:9 HCSB

The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 3:6 HCSB

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.

Genesis 3:6

· No logical support for authority.

· The tree was “good for food and delightful to look at” (remember Gen 2:9)

· Her husband was there with her

· The power of ritual

Thus, the serpent insinuated that the God who had created them, who had planted the rich and luxuriant garden to provide for them, and who walked with them daily had intentionally and deceptively withheld from them the best gift of all. Adam and Eve disobeyed God because, in their mistrust, they feared that God might not have provided the best . . . . Key for the story of human sin, however, is the fact that Eve extended the serpent’s logic on her own, enumerating only the potential benefits to be gained from the forbidden fruit: it appeared to be nourishing, it was aesthetically pleasing, and it promised to make her and her husband wise like the very deity. – Mark Biddle

Genesis 3:7 HCSB

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Genesis 3:8–11 HCSB

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard You in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” Then He asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

God questions the source of their knowledge.

Genesis 3:12–16 HCSB

Then the man replied, “The woman You gave to be with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate.” So the Lord God asked the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “It was the serpent. He deceived me, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed more than any livestock and more than any wild animal. You will move on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life. I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. He said to the woman: I will intensify your labor pains; you will bear children in anguish. Your desire will be for your husband, yet he will rule over you.

Genesis 3:17 HCSB

And He said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’: The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life.

This Hebrew phrase for “listened to the voice of” is repeated over and over in the Old Testament in cases where there are competing prophetic or authoritative voices

Abraham and Sarai (Gen 16)

Jacob and Rebekah (Genesis 27)

Joseph and Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39)

Where Does Your Truth Come From?

The voices that we listen to determine our view of the truth that we receive from them.

Who are the authorities in your life?

What has God commanded or revealed to you?

Are you being obedient to God?