The two trees set before man after man's creation signify God and God's enemy, His opposite. God is positive, and Satan is negative. From these two sources, there are two flows, and these two flows become two lines. A line is also a way. The tree of life is a way, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is also a way. The tree that you live by is the way that you live. To live by the tree of life is to live by the way of life. To live by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is to live by the way of the knowledge of good and evil.

About six thousand years have passed since the time of Adam, and the entire world today is taking the way of the knowledge of good and evil. Families, societies, and nations of the world are formed not by the way of life but by the way of the knowledge of good and evil. But thank the Lord that we are a group of people who have been called out of the group of those who live by the way of the knowledge of good and evil, the way of complication.

Much of the time, however, instead of living by the way of life, we live by the way of the knowledge of good and evil. Day by day we parents raise our children to deal with three things—knowledge, good, and evil. The mothers teach their children with the knowledge of what is good and what is evil. The children are taught in their homes and schools to pick up the proper knowledge to do good and hate evil. The law courts and human governments are set up according to the concept of the knowledge of good and evil. Even Christianity and many other religions have fallen into the same "cage" of the way of the knowledge of good and evil. But we need to be those who are outside of this cage. We do not care for the knowledge of good and of evil. We care only for life.

Cain and Abel are representatives of these two lines, which are two ways. I believe that Adam brought forth many sons, but the Bible in Genesis 4:1-2 records only two sons of Adam—Cain and Abel. Both Cain and Abel came to worship God by offering something to God. Cain was a farmer. His labor produced a crop, so he offered the fruit of his crop to God. It seems that Cain worked for God and respected God by offering something to God. God, however, rejected Cain's offering. When I was young, I could not understand why God did this. Abel was a shepherd who offered the firstlings of his flock to God. God was pleased with Abel's offering.

These two brothers of the same parents represent the two lines of the Bible. The first one, Cain, chose the way of the knowledge of good and evil, and the second one, Abel, chose the way of life. Adam's race became two groups. One group was of Cain, and the other group was of Abel. In Abel's group there were Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who eventually became Israel. This is the positive line in the Old Testament. In Cain's group there were all the evil ones. Eventually Nimrod was raised up in this evil group. He was a mighty man who built Babel (Gen. 10:8-10a). He also built Assyria with Nineveh as the capital (vv. 11-12; cf. Micah 5:6).

The history of mankind in the Old Testament is of two groups, two lines, which are out of two sources. To what group did David belong—the group of Cain or the group of Abel? According to the revelation we have seen thus far, David was in both groups. In Psalms 1, 3—7, and 9—15, he was in the group of Cain. In these psalms, he was praying to God, praising God, and thanking God in the group of Cain. He was fearing God, loving God, and worshipping God, but in the wrong way.