Today's Favorite Verse: Genesis 3:1-3

Today's Favorite Verse: Genesis 3:1-3
"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

I'm reading the Old Testament now and my goal is to finish it in a year. Reading one chapter a day means it takes 2.5 years to complete. I will now pick a favorite verse from the three chapters I read a day.

The verse that caught my eye was Eve saying they could not even touch the tree in the midst of the garden. It made me think of the serpent's more subtle question "hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" By that question was he intentionally dismissing the fact it wasn't just eating of the forbidden fruit, it was even touching it? Did he think he would get her at least to start touching it? That made me think of the power of just touching something forbidden. Eve clearly knew she was not to eat or touch that fruit.

This made me reflect on the bird berries we had outside our home growing up. They were really pretty bright red berries. I remember my mother warning us every year when the berries came on that we were not to even touch the berries. They were bird berries and poisonous to us. I understood I wasn't suppose to eat them, that to do so could kill us. But, my mother warned us not to even touch them, the meaning being to stay away from them. Never in my whole life did I ever touch one of those red berries.

Day 3746