God created everything. And on what the Bible says was the seventh day, God rested from all of this work. That’s the summary of the first chapter of Genesis. And then we get into a laser-focused description of God creating in chapter two. One of those verses that describes God’s creation of food says, “And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Genesis 2:9, ESV). 

Now we fast forward to Genesis 3. God had already created men and women and placed them in the garden. But in this chapter the serpent approached Eve to deceive her, telling her that nothing bad was going to happen to her if she ate of the tree that God told her not to eat. After listening to him, with Adam standing right next to her during this whole dialogue, she came up with three reasons as to why it was good for her to move forward in disobeying God’s instruction.

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. – Genesis 3:6, ESV.

The first two reasons behind her justification for disobedience were the exact same things that chapter two tells us were good: that the food was pleasant to the sight and good for food. But the third reason was her own justification: eating the fruit was desired t make one wise.

Wisdom. But this desire for wisdom led to the fall of humanity and the entrance of sin into the existence of the human race. 

What she thought would be wisdom was not. Why? Because her desire for wisdom was based on wrong information. She mentioned the desire to get wisdom but it was a cheap counterfeit that she was settling for. She settled for that which was “earthly, unspiritual, demonic” (James 3:15, ESV).

The wisdom that she should have waited for is described this way by James: “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” “James 3:17, ESV).

I encourage you to not rush into settling for a cheap knock-off of God’s best. Rather, long for and wait for the real thing that comes from God. Don’t settle for fake wisdom. Wait for the real stuff. Walk with Jesus intimately and allow him to make you wise with wisdom from above.