God Like

We seek not to know God, but to be gods.

The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all who live. And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them. Then the Lord God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever’ therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life. - Genesis 3:20-24

In the Creation story from the third chapter of Genesis, we get a glimpse of our desire to be like God.

When God casts out Adam and Eve for their defiance in eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, He says He does so because that knowledge will lead them to reach out and eat from the Tree of Life.

So, is it the Tree of Life that makes us Godlike, or that in combination with the knowledge of good and evil?

I think the message here is that we want it all.  We want to make our own decisions of what is right and wrong, and we want to live forever.

Who wouldn't?

But God only warned them about eating from the one tree, making me think the Tree of Life was one they were able to eat from.  They had life before and now after disobeying, they were banned from it.

The story seeks to explain why we live as we do, toiling all our lives, giving birth in pain, and then returning to the earth as dust.  And it does that quite well.

But what it also tells us is that we will seek our own truth, abandoning God, and that is like a living hell on earth for us.

Our need to be like God keeps us from being close to God.

So, how do we overcome this urge to be God?

There is a clue in the story.  God makes the clothes for them before sending them out.  It shows us that God will provide for us, to help us deal with the troubles and challenges of this world.

So, if we reach out to God, we will overcome, and the life we live will be better.

It may not extend this life one bit, but it will make it worth living.

More to come...