Who has your knee?

Genesis 2:16-17-

  “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, ‘ Of every tree in the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’”

In our study verse, God said to Adam- “You shall not” and then followed it up immediately with "for in the day that you do"…. He didn’t say- “You better not because IF you do…” The word “shall” comes from a German word that means to “owe” So when the KJV translators chose it, they placed it in the scripture for clarity. It is a model word that indicates movement or action. It is interesting that the translators used “shall” instead of “will” here because of the Germanic etymology of the word. IE… “You shall not” literally means "You owe it to me not to.” Likewise, the phrase:  “You shall surely die” literally means “You owe a debt to death.” This is an astounding concept!! In the word “shall” it is as if God is saying you owe it to me to obey and He is saying if you choose to eat, then you will transfer the debt you own me over to death and you will owe death your life. In Romans 6:16, the word says, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves who you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” This verse is a perfect and complete explanation of what God was speaking about in Genesis 2!

    Incidentally, it is thought provoking that God called those things that were not as though they were in Genesis 2:17 in that He prophesied these words “for in the day that you DO.” God, with this statement, was warning Adam in order to prepare him but the man, who was functioning in limitless brain capacity failed to recognize this subtle warning from the Creator. 

    My two admonitions today are these:

First, live in the freedom that Christ died to give you by withstanding the temptation to bow the knee and “owe death your life” by obeying the voice of the Lord your God.

Second, teach yourself to hear, in the words of the Lord, the personal warnings that may be heeded for self-preservation.