Depending on God: 7 Days to Recognizing Your Deep Need for HimSample

We Depend Entirely Upon God for Our Protection

When we bought our first house, my wife discovered a plant with poisonous berries growing in the fence around our garden. When our young son became mobile, the presence of those berries posed a dangerous threat. Seeing us eat the fruit in the garden, he’d assume he could eat the berries on the fence. Unable to discern safe fruit from toxic fruit, he could make a lethal mistake. So we took pains to remove the plant and guard against its return. We also taught our son, as he grew, not to eat berries and plants unless we’d given our permission. Our son depended on us not only for provision but for protection.

So far, we’ve seen that the Lord provided the first man with a lavish, appetizing orchard. What we haven’t seen is that eating from one of those trees would result in death. So the Lord gave the man both permission and a prohibition: “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die”. Now a few scholars have debated the exact meaning of “the knowledge of good and evil.” For our purposes, it’s important to notice that (1) the man was able to die and (2) eating from this tree would result in death.

We were created mortal—we can die. Only God is immortal. It’s always true that life is a gift from God to us, as is the ongoing preservation of life. The first man, like our son, had no way of knowing which plants were safe and which one was life-threatening unless his parent told him.

Here’s our weakness: We’re incapable of discerning what is safe and what is deadly, what is good and what is evil, unless the Lord tells us. This is one more way we’re incapable of living and being without God’s gracious gift. That gift, in this situation and throughout the Scripture, is his Word. We’re not wise in ourselves; we’re born lacking wisdom. From the very beginning, we’re taught not to lean on our own understanding but to live by faith, trusting God for protection.