In these verses, God plants a garden toward the east in Eden and tells Adam to cultivate it. God causes the trees to grow for food, for life, and for-bidden (the tree of the knowledge of good and evil). There are rivers to water the garden. He creates Eve to be a helpmate to Adam. He really only gives them one rule: do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if you do, that day you will surely die.
Did God just put the tree there to taunt them? Or did he forbid them to eat of it because He knew it would be bad for them? Well, they did eat from it, thanks to Eve being tricked by that darn snake, but they didn’t die on that day, instead, their time clock began ticking like a time bomb. That was the day they started the aging and dying process. Also, in the Bible, a day is a thousand years, and a thousand years is a day. They did die within a thousand years, in fact, just shy of it.
One thing I have learned in life is that activities which God calls sin are labeled that way because of the harm they cause. It’s kind of like putting a Mr. Yuck sticker on bleach bottles (Do y’all remember those?) and other household cleaners so that our kids will know to steer clear.
I don’t believe that God created rules just to be mean to us or to withhold joy from us. Is that what you do to your kids? Just like a good parent, He is trying to warn us that our sins can and will cause harm, not only to others, but to ourselves. The choice has always been there from the very beginning. God sets before us two choices: life or death—the tree of life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God gave us free will to choose. Eve made the wrong choice when she trusted the serpent over God. Then, since misery loves company, she dragged her poor husband right into the thick of it with her. By the way, he sure did throw her under the bus, didn’t he? (Gen. 3:12).
The wages of sin is death, but lucky for us, the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus, but here’s the thing…you must choose whether or not to accept His precious gift (Jesus), because God gave you free will.
(Updated from the original post published on February 4, 2020)