SATAN’S TEMPTING OF MAN TO TAKE
THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE INDICATING THAT
SATAN WANTS TO KEEP MAN AWAY FROM
TAKING GOD AS HIS LIFE
In Genesis 3 Satan came in the form of a serpent to tempt man (vv. 1-6). Satan’s tempting of man to take the tree of knowledge indicates that Satan wants to keep man away from taking God as his life. God prepared everything for man with the intention that man would partake of the tree of life. But before man could take of the tree of life, Satan came in to induce him to take of the tree of knowledge (vv. 1-6).
In Genesis 2 the tree of life is used to signify God as life. This is very meaningful. The tree of life indicates that we need life. Verse 9 says that the trees were "pleasant to the sight, and good for food." The tree of life was beautiful, and its beauty was a matter mainly of its leaves. It was also good for food. Its being good for food was a matter of its fruit. As the tree of life is pleasant to the sight, God also is pleasant to the sight. But this is not God’s main purpose. Primarily, He is good for food. In Genesis 2 the emphasis concerning the tree of life is on its leaves for beauty; but at the end of the Bible, in the book of Revelation, the fruit of the tree of life is stressed (Rev. 22:2). In eternity the tree of life will produce twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month. This fruit will be for food.
God Mingling with Man by Man’s Eating
God mingles Himself with the human life by man’s eating of Him. Food is mingled with our physical being by our eating, digesting, and assimilating. Before we eat it, the food is in front of us, but after we eat it, the food disappears within us. The food is gone, but we remain. Eventually, we become mingled with the food that we have taken in. Hence, our eating is a matter of mingling. In order for any element to nourish us, it must be mingled with our being. Every day through our eating we are mingled with our food.
After this mingling is accomplished, we express the food we have taken in, through our person, our image, our attributes. If you are Japanese, black, or white, you express your food through your Japanese, black, or white attributes. This is very meaningful. As saved persons who have been regenerated, transformed, and even conformed to the image of Christ, we express what we have eaten of God as our food. God as our food is expressed in our being. God is expressed, but His expression is in our being with its characteristics. Our being will not be annulled. Thus, in the New Jerusalem, I will know you and you will know me. I will still be me, and you will still be you. The mingling of God with us does not annul our being; therefore, we will be able to identify one another, even in eternity. Our being will remain forever to express God in what we are.
(The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, Chapter 1, by Witness Lee)
