Genesis 2:8-9,15 [8]Then the lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. [9]The lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. [15]The lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.
God is GOOD! He provided for man a nice place to live and beautiful plants to see and fruits for food to nurture his physical body. God provided for all his needs. God is GOOD! God loves man, He is the source of all Grace or good things.
The tree of life in the garden is the symbol of God who lives forever and who is the source of living forever. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is also the symbol of God who knows what is good and evil. In itself the tree was not evil.
Then God entrusted to man the responsibility to work and to preserve, not destroy, what God had created good and beautiful. God trusted man! God is good to man!
Genesis 2:16-17 [16]But the lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— [17]except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
Man could eat from any tree in the garden, even from the tree of life. However, God warned man about death if he should eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God did not want man to die. Death was not God's plan for man. God did not warn them about the tree of life. This means that man could eat its fruit and live forever. God wanted man to live forever like him who cannot die.
Why did God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden when He did not want man to eat from it?
God's command revealed that he gave man the FreeWILL to obey. FreeWILL is God's highest grace to man. In giving man freewill, God took the risk of being rejected. However, man cannot truly love God unless he is also free to reject God. Man must be free in order to truly love God and live.
God put man to the test in order for man to exercise his freewill, otherwise man's freewill was for nothing. The tree itself was not evil, but it is not good for man to have his own independent knowledge of good and evil apart from God. The fruit of the knowledge of good and evil is not for man's food.
Any thought?
Hari
Let's have a coffee
And, of course, man did something wrong!