“A TREE TO BE DESIRED” A ‘temcat’ study
“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Genesis 3:6 Two trees in the centre of the garden; the ‘Tree of Life’ and the ‘Tree of Knowledge’. People, who read this account and just see two trees, are missing one of the grandest lessons on salvation in the whole Bible! It is a fact in Bible prophecy that the first time a subject appears in the Bible is most important, and all major aspects of it are present in the first account. So here in the centre of the garden we see the issues of what was to become the Great Controversy spelled out for us with great clarity. To begin our exploration of the subject first we need to understand some basic facts about God. We all know the basic that “God is Love”-1John 4:16 “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” But ‘Love’ is a very abused word in our language and we don’t always have a clear concept of what the ‘Love of God’ really is. ‘Love’ in our culture all to often degenerates into a sentimental feeling of warm teddy-bearishness that tells us nothing accurate about the character of the Great God of the universe. Let’s see what the Bible says: “And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:5-7: “To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my