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Crazy Good God

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How does God use Tree of Knowing good and evil for our glory How does hidden wisdom of God affect tkge Part 3

August 24, 2022 • Nancy Teague • Episode 29

0:00 | 6:34

29E Part 3 How could God possibly use the tree of knowing good and evil for man’s glory? What does man’s will, mystery, choice, God’s hidden wisdom, a non-intervention God have to do with the tree of knowing good and evil? What is it about God that lets Him live in the tension of opposites and seemingly not intervene? Is God’s goodness so big it trumps every evil?

29E TRANSCRIPT How does God use Tree of Knowing good and evil for our glory How does hidden wisdom of God affect tkge Part 3

Nancy Teague

crazygoodgod.org

nancy@crazygoodgod.org

Aug 24, 2022

Hi there. I'm Nancy Teague and thanks for listening to crazy Good God podcast. Go to crazygoodgod.org to learn more about me and the podcast. Hey, if my voice sounds a little weak, it's just that I'm on the tail end of recovering from COVID. What an experience.

00:26 Okay, check out last week Part 2 to find out why the correct translation for the forbidden tree in the Garden is the tree of KNOWING good and evil. It's not the word knowledge. Robert Farrar, Capon said, Using knowledge is a “careless habit that introduces a gross misunderstanding.”

00:49 So why is the tree of knowing good and evil in the Garden? God is only good, and He said everything He made was very good. Did he forget about the tkge? Gosh, it was right next to the Tree of life, so obviously He didn't. Must have been a strategic placement.

01:06 Well, it's all part of the mystery of God's wisdom. The tkge is an image of several things, one of which is a picture of God said “I will never let you go.”

01:21 Now here's a few things to throw out at you. We were made in His image and this includes given a will, freedom to choose, and be moved by desires. God respects the sovereignty of the soul. He respects our will and won't cross it. God is not a control freak. He will not make anyone do anything. God chose us and will never UN-choose us. His choice is eternal since He does not change.

01:55 God is only good. God does not know evil, yet He willingly lives in creation’s tension of opposites – good/evil, light/dark, up/down, in/out. God said of all he made, it is very good, and God rested. Well that says - pleased and confident!

02:18 Thomas Aquinas, 13th century theologian and apologist of the faith, said about creation, there was no wrongness or evil anywhere in the world God made. “There is only the immaterial possibility of evil in the decisions of human will.”Oh, oh - there's that, will thing - something that God respects in us. Must be important.

02:46 Martin Luther's description of God's ways were “the left hand of God” or “the strange ways of God.” Robert Farrar Capon describes God divine oversight as “Let it be” and “Hands off”.

03:04 Not understanding God's hands off style nor His finished work results in something like this. We see horrendous things happen and it's easy to charge - Where are you, God? Don't you care? How can you let those things happen? Or worse, blame Him - God did that!

03:23 In His hands off, let it be, way God knows that good always triumphs over any evil will. The mystery of “the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it”, is about how God is always present and transforms bad into good. Just look at how He transformed us! Tkge is a great image of a bad thing being transformed into something good.

04:04 Hey, have you ever thought that the light shines in the darkness of the tree of knowing good and evil? I hadn't until I asked you this question. But in light of the finished work, my answer would have to be ‘yes’.

04:21 And I even submit for you to consider – God’s ordained hidden wisdom was actually hiding in the tree of knowing good and evil. He would bring glory out of man partaking of the do not eat tree. And you know how he would do that? Death! The tkge was absorbed into the Tree of Life, which became the cross upon which the Highest Good died. Just look at the death of tkge and the result - all would live in resurrection life with Him.

05:03 From the beginning to the end, God has us. Now try this. Picture book ends. Jesus is the bookends. Alpha/Beginning book end on one side and Omega/End on the other side. And all the books in between the bookends are peoples stories. Humanity past, present, future. Now picture in those books all of humanity’s successes, failures, confusion, losses, darkness, loneliness. Those stories, those books, are standing upright between the bookends. Jesus HOLDS UP every book, He holds up every story, and it's a RESURRECTION UP in him. And the lot of humanity stories are interconnected!

06:03 My, what a story Jesus tells, and it even includes the tree of knowing good and evil, and He used it for our glory.

Until next Wednesday, Bliss to you and never forget God is absolutely crazy about you!