Season 7 Stories of the Bible, Podcast 7, “The Fall Pt 6.”

Stories of the Bible, Podcast 7, “The Fall Pt 6.”

Adam and Eve are taken out of Eden and placed in the Garden which contains the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They are permitted to eat from any tree in the garden, including the tree of life, for they are immortal. The only tree forbidden is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They walk with God on a regular basis because they are entirely innocent. They do not know what sin is? They have been commanded to multiply and replenish the earth; however, they are naked and unashamed. That means that they have no sexual desires. They do not understand the feeling of lust. The commandment to multiply and replenish the earth is an abstraction, and in their immortal state they cannot have children. Like obedient children they tend the garden. They will remain in that innocent state forever knowing neither good nor evil, joy nor sadness, love nor hate, happiness nor misery. They are in paradise, but they do not know what paradise is. 

However, they are intelligent beings. They have been taught by God the effects of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They understand that if they want children, they must eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. They may choose to remain in the Garden of Eden forever childless, or they may choose to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. It isn’t the taste of fruit that temps them. It is the effect of eating the fruit that tempts them.  They knew that if they ate the fruit they would have to leave the garden which meant that they would be cut off from the presence of God. It also meant that they would die. It is important to understand that when Satan presented the fruit, he was not saying this fruit is better than that fruit. They were not choosing between a banana and a mango. They were choosing whether or not to remain childless in the Garden of Eden forever without ever knowing good from evil or whether to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and have children and experience the joys and sorrows of opposition in mortality. In other words, they were not little five-year-old children caught putting their hands in the cookie jar. They were adults choosing between two different lives, an immortal one versus a mortal one. One a life of blissful ignorance; the other a life of infinite variety and greater rewards. 

Christianity is filled with paradox. This is perhaps the greatest paradox of all. They have two seemingly different commandments. One: don’t eat the fruit or you will die. The other: eat the fruit and multiply and replenish the earth even if the price is ultimate death.  God wanted them to eat the fruit, but being God, he could not command them to violate any law. Neither could he take away their agency. It was God who planted both trees, but it had to be their choice. Typically, God explained the consequences and then left them to choose for themselves. 

If it seems unfair that God gave two seemingly contradictory commandments, however, keep in mind that we are faced with the same dilemma. The difference is this—rather than choosing between the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we are choosing between Christ, who is the real Tree of Life, and Satan, who is the harbinger of death. Paul tells us, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

All the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden could offer was immortality in the Garden of Eden. The Tree of Life that Christ offers is immortality and eternal life with him.