“But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:17
Isn’t it interesting that the first commandment of God has to do
with our appetites – what we desire to eat? God told Adam his appetite was not to include the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He could hunger after any other tree in the garden, after all the fruits God had created except for one.
Why might this be? Of course the major reason is that God said it and we are to obey. But there is another thought. Our appetites show what we desire. God is telling Adam do not desire to know evil. Do not allow
that to be the driving force of your life – seek to know me!
It is interesting how the Lord presented the beatitudes. They are progressive. Each beatitude assumes the ones that have gone before. You only hunger and thirst for righteousness after you have have become broken in spirit, after you have mourned over your sin and separation from God and after you have meekly accepted God’s rule in your life. When one has experienced the first three beatitudes then knowing God becomes the daily pursuit in one’s life. Think of the cry of the Apostles. Paul wrote in Philippians “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death”. John wrote, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”. Peter wrote, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord”. These are not just idle words. The Apostles knew that the overriding purpose of the Christian life is to know God and to demonstrate that knowledge by which we magnify Him to others .
Have you ever noticed how when you are very thirsty – totally parched – how good a sip of ice cold water is? I had a painful lesson in this area, When I was in basic training in Fort Riley Kansas we were on an operation one very hot August day. I was the company
Executive Officer and I was being run ragged with details and coordination. I was not very disciplined with my canteen and it was not very far into the morning before it was empty and there was no refill available. The next hours were excruciating as I tried to do my job without water. I got it done and made it to the next water refilling point but I was not at my best – I needed, craved, water. That is
what is escribed in Psalm 1. After telling us what we are to avoid the Psalmist tells us “but his delight is in the law of the Lord”. Delight means to bring pleasure, to desire or to long for. Immediately the Psalmist tells us the result of delighting in the law of the
Lord. “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not
wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” Water, refreshment, vitality, all the time.
What can we learn? In John 7 the Lord makes a great statement that tells what we should thirst after. (Was He thinking of Psalm 1?) “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone isthirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will
flow rivers of living water.’” This desire to know Christ is reflected in the Lord’s invitation to the men who He called to be His disciples. “Follow me.” In other words He said to them “Do you thirst to know me, to be with me, to be my disciples?” He says to those who are broken in spirit and mourn over their sin, who look to God and know they need to obey Him in all He says. That’s their desire.