You shall be like gods…
Satan tempted Adam and Eve at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil saying that if they eat of the forbidden fruit they “shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
What was this temptation? I thought that they were already like God, created in His image? Why would they want to be like gods?
I believe that the temptation to become “gods” was a real one and that when Adam and Eve partook of the tree they would have become “gods”, or to use the Hebrew word: elohim, but what does this mean?
We are uncomfortable using this language in our day and rightly so. The Mormons and New Agers and other cults have taken over the term “god” and perverted it so that we as Christians cannot use it without explanations and qualifiers.
But Scripture uses this language and in order to “think God’s thoughts after Him”, I believe we need to learn to think and speak in biblical language and categories.
The purpose of this post is to show that one aspect of the temptation before Adam was impatience: to grasp the privilege of kingly rule before he was ready, to become a “god” an elohim before he was mature.
I showed in the previous post that the phrase “knowledge of good and evil” was used throughout the Bible to mean mature kingly wisdom with the privilege to rule and pronounce judgments under God. I tried to show that Adam would have eventually been allowed to eat of the forbidden tree when he had matured through patient faith by abstaining for a time. The test was not one of just sheer obedience, but of maturing patience and hope of reward, like the faith of Abraham.
In this post, I am trying to demonstrate how the temptation to become “gods” confirms this conclusion. For Adam to grasp the forbidden fruit and eat was the sin to grasp too soon at rule and kingship and not to wait and exercise patient faith in God’s command.
Elohim or “gods” in Scripture
When Satan said “you shall be as gods”, he used the word “elohim.”
The Hebrew word elohim can be translated as the word “God”, referring to Him in a general sense and not by a revealed name like Yahweh. However, many times elohim is translated as “gods” and is used for judges, elders, rulers, and kings in Scripture. Elohim therefore is the Hebrew word analogous to our word: god. We use it as god or God. Hence, English uses the term “gods” to refer to great men and rulers, though it seems to me that we have fallen out of that usage.
Here are some Scriptural examples of the usages of elohim:
Exodus 21:6;
Then his master shall bring him unto the judges (elohim); he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.
In ancient times, the city rulers/judges/elders would assemble court at the gate of the city. The love-slave (vs. 5) would then have his ear “circumcised” at the gate of the city, that’s where the door or doorpost is in this verse.
Psalm 58:1 Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods (elohim)? Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
This entire Psalm talks about unjust “gods” that are not ruling the people rightly. God sees and will judge them. Elohim (God) will judge the elohim (gods).
Psalm 82 uses elohim and speaks to the judges and rulers of the people.
1 God has taken his place in the divine council;
in the midst of the gods (elohim) he holds judgment:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and the needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”
5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding,
they walk about in darkness;
all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
6 I said, “You are gods(elohim),
sons of the Most High, all of you;
7 nevertheless, like men you shall die,
and fall like any prince.”
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth;
for you shall inherit all the nations!
Notice the use of the word prince in verse 7 confirming that we are talking about judges and kings.
In John 10:34, Jesus quotes Psalm 82. Evidently, the Greek word theos is somewhat analogous to our English “god"…
33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God (theos).
34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods (theos)?
35 If he called them gods(theos), unto whom the word of God (theos) came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God(theos)?
In verse 35, Jesus says that the word of God, the Scriptures, came to the “gods” of the Old Covenant, the kings (David, Solomon) and the prophets (Abraham, Jeremiah, etc), the judges (Samuel, Samson, etc.).
These verses are enough to establish what the Bible means when it uses the word “gods” in this context.
A god in the Bible is often a king or elder who has the judicial knowledge of good and evil acquired through years of patient faithfulness to God.
Had Adam waited until God knew he was ready, he would have been allowed to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and become a god in the Biblical sense, imaging God’s kingship and authority in his life.
We are to become “gods’”
It is in this biblical sense, that we are to become “gods.”
The two trees are a picture of our lives. We all start out as priests, as children under the law, partaking of the Tree of Life. Don’t touch that, don’t eat that, do this, do that, etc. We are to obey without question at first, and as we do, we learn faith and patience, and as a result we grow and mature.
As children growing up, there were all kinds of forbidden fruit in our lives. Foods, drinks, responsibilities, sex, and many boundaries we were not to cross. These are things that would come to us and be allowed to us eventually, but only through patient obedient faith to our parents and to our elders under God and to God through His Word.
It is only later in life that we enter into the “kingly” stage of our lives. A king still obeys the law through the motivation of love. In contrast to the priest though, he has to use kingly wisdom to apply the law to new situations. A king has to make much tougher choices, sometimes between the lesser of two evils.
In our lives, we begin to partake of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and slowly come into the rewards of “gods” with the privilege of rule. These include marriage, jobs, business ownership with employees, children, money, etc., and deaconship then eldership, or statesmanship.
The rest of the book of Genesis is a contrast to Adam’s failure:
1. Ham wanted Noah’s robe of authority and kingship and instead was punished (through his son Canaan) to be a slave (the punishment fits and explains the crime).
2. Abraham was promised a seed, land, and a great name. Abraham exercised patient faith and was not to grasp the promises of God himself before it was time. Though he tried once with the one promise of a child. He had two trees in his garden, Sarah and Hagar, one was forbidden.
3. Jacob was to wait to possess his blessing and inheritance by wrestling men (Isaac, Esau, Laban) for many years until he was 97, and then he had to wrestle God!
4. Joseph was to endure with patient faith until his God-given dreams were brought to pass, and he was given a robe of authority by Pharaoh.
Jesus is our example of patient faith. He was anointed as Priest by John the Forerunner at His baptism. He refused to grasp kingly authority at the temptation of Satan in the wilderness. He partook of the Tree of Life, he had food that His disciples did not know about. He was the Tree of Life. He would say “who made me a judge over you?” Luke 12:14 when it came to non-Temple issues during His earthly life.
It was only after His death and resurrection, that Jesus partook of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It was only after it was finished, that he would drink wine anew in the Kingdom. He would be given rule and authority (not grasp it beforehand) when he ascended and received the Kingdom from His Father. He is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He is King and ruling and reigning now and His Kingdom is expanding now and filling all the earth.
You see bread is priestly, but wine is kingly (Gen 49:9-11). Children eat bread, mature kings drink wine. The Tree of Life is the Bread. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil corresponds to the Wine. The Covenantal Meal is also a picture of your life, you start out as bread and then become wine.
Adam should have been our example of patient faith. The Second Adam is our example of patient faith. Now we as Christians are to be examples of patient faith and be…
"… imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.’ And thus, having patiently waited, .he obtained the promise" (Heb. 6:12-15)
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