Cold Snaps and curiosity

Monday November 17, 2014

When the temperature dipped to -27 degrees Celsius in my city, newscasters cautioned the public against going outside. We were warned that, "In 10 minutes you could be dead without the proper clothes." After hearing warnings such as these, my husband said what I was thinking : "I think I want to go outside... just to feel what it´s like."

The allure of the forbidden mixed with human curiosity can be a dangerous combination. Adam and Eve had everything they needed as they lived in God´s perfect garden. Only one thing was off-limits - the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told them, "If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die" (Genesis 2:17).

God´s warning was clear, but the serpent capitalised on the couple´s curiosity (3:1). It provoked them to second-guess God´s rule: "You won´t die!.... God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil" (vv. 4-5). If I had been in Eve´s place, I surely would have wondered what would happen if I sampled the forbidden fruit. Would I really become like God? Would I really die? What would it be like to understand good and evil?

The answers to these questions became clear to Eve - and Adam - when they ate of the fruit (v. 6). Satisfying their curiosity and willfully disobeying God negatively affected all of humanity (vv. 16-19).

While being curious is no crime, disregarding God´s laws will devastate our relationship with Him. Instead, "Those who love [God's] instructions have great peace and do not stumble" (Psalms 119:165). Our curiosity should never trump our obedience to God. - Jennifer Benson Schuldt.

Read

Genesis 3:1-19

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some 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 realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"

He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."

And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

The man said, "The woman you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, 

"Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

To the woman he said,

"I Will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'

"Cursed is he ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 

By sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."

Psalms 51:5

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Acts 13:38

Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sin is proclaimed to you

Question to Ponder

Why do you suppose God created humans with the capacity to be curious?

How might curiosity lead a person to consider God and a relationship with Him?

**Article taken from ODJ (Our Daily Journey with God) Sept - Nov 2014 Issue