Does God Prevent Man from Sin?
 
Moshe Ben-Chaim
 
 
Reader: Sorry to keep pressing the point, but I still don't understand. If God "knew" that man could not maintain the standard set in the beginning and eventually would need the trappings of organized religion to keep from straying into paganism, why not institute that from the outset? Why wait for man to fail once and need to go through the Flood, Tower of Babel and expulsion from Eden?
Mesora: That is exactly the point: God does not intervene unless man has demonstrated the need. This is part of God's perfection, that He does only that which is necessary. He does not interfere with man's freewill. So although He knows man will fail many times, He does not address failure, until failure is a reality to man, and only then is the remedy applied if such a man is worthy, and will heed to the remedy. Following another principle that God only does that which is perfect, as stated in Proverbs, "Those who God loves does He rebuke".
God did not give man the conscience until Eve and Adam ate from the tree of life. God knew they would do so, but the conscience was not given until man demonstrated the need in his own reality. Had He given it earlier, it would have been unnecessary. God does however try to steer man away from evil and towards the good, as we see through the numerous prophets sent by God to warn people of imminent destruction if repentance does not take place.
 
 
Reader: This is especially true since the Talmud in places credits God with "creating the cure before the malady," teaching that its better to preempt bad turns of events than to wait to respond afterwards. Why not do that here?
Mesora: I don't think that is what we are to derive from the Talmud in those instances. I believe the concept there is that God does not create a world which is doomed to failure, i.e., a world with no remedies. And since man cannot possibly refrain from the instincts which cause his constant backsliding, the creation of the cure prior to the malady teaches that man is doomed to slip, and that God want's man to have the ability to rectify and be cured.


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