God's Rule(s) in 'The pattern of the Kingdom'

The first thing that pops into my mind when I think about ‘God’s Rule(s) in the Pattern of the Kingdom is the most explicit rule God gave men in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 2:15-17 it says:

“¹⁵The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man,“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

I guess that God couldn’t be more clear. But then I start asking myself questions: “Why did God give men this rule in the Garden of Eden, since everything was perfect? God is omniscient, He knows everything. He knew from the beginning that Eve would eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Why then did God put that tree in the garden of Eden?”

To be honest, I have no real answers. But I do know that God designed us, humans, with a free will. We can choose to obey God. And if we do so, we show God that we trust Him; we show Him that we desire to have a deeper relationship with Him. 

Imagine yourself together with a really good friend. You know him really well and he is very important to you. You want him to have all the things he longs for, and even more. You have so many great ideas and things you want to experience with him. You love this friend. But then it turns out that this friend didn’t want to be friends with you; it just happened. Wouldn’t that be a real disappointment? You want your friend to choose you. You hope that he will realize that you are a true friend. Somebody who is worth their time. Knowing that he chose to be your friend, and that he wants to be with you would mean so much to you. It would change your relationship.

Maybe that was what God wanted to do, by giving that rule, he wanted to give us a chance to choose Him. So that not only He would be a true friend to us, but that we could be a true friend to Him. He loves us so much, that He is willing to take the risk of being rejected by his own creation.

The song ‘Good’ performed by Matthew West and Leigh Nash is about God’s love for us.

Genesis 2:15-17, isn’t the only rule in the beginning of the story. In the first two chapters of Genesis there are a lot of other (less explicit) rules. It’s not even a real rule, they are more like tasks. It’s something God tells his creatures to do.

• The land has to produce vegetation. (Genesis 1:11)

• The lights in the sky are made to be signs to mark seasons and days and years, they have to be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth. (Genesis 1:14-15)

• The living creatures in the sea and the birds in the sky have to be fruitful and increase in number.(Genesis 1: 22)

• Men are made in Gods likeness and they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. (Genesis 1:26)

• Men are to be fruitful and increase in number. (Genesis 1:28)

• God gave men every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be food for mankind. (Genesis 1:29)

• God gave all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the air and all the creatures that move on the ground –everything that has the breath of life in it- every green plant for food. (Genesis 1:30)

• “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame’. Humans are made male or female and they are supposed to be innocent. (Genesis 2:25)

God's words is the foundation of creation. The things He said are the rules on which the entire world is based. God's rule in the pattern of the kingdom is His Word.

picture 1: http://www.wisemindbody.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/oak-tree.jpg
picture 2: http://www.theholidayspot.com/friendship/images/true-friends.jpg
picture 3: http://www.hdwallpaperstop.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Sky-Moon-Stars-HD-Wallpaper.jpg