For the Genesis 2:15-17 PODCAST, Click Here!
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." ~ Genesis 2:15-17
Today, we return to our study of Genesis 2 where God has provided for Adam who is His highest and most complex creation in every way possible. But for the deception of the enemy, as we will see in Genesis 3, there was no way man would rebel against God because God had provided everything Adam could have wanted in the Garden of Eden.
In v.15 of today's passage we read, "Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it."
In this verse work is being proposed for the Garden of Eden, but when we consider the purpose of the Garden at that point, this makes no sense. Earlier, in v.5, we read that man was to "till the ground." However, this was before God planted the Garden of Eden. Man was formed outside of Eden and then placed there. In fact, Adam was originally "put" into the Garden where he could "rest" and enjoy "God’s presence." Originally, the Garden of Eden was meant to be a place where Adam would have intimate fellowship with God.
The word translated "put" here in today's passage is a completely different word than what was used earlier in v.8. This word gives us the idea that God caused Adam to rest in the garden. If that was so, and it was, then why would man need to tend and keep the garden? And, to add to our difficulty understanding this, the word "garden" is written in the masculine in the Hebrew, eliminating the garden from being the object of the verbs. The only conclusion that we can make is that the verbs should be taken as abstract in meaning and that the significance of man resting in the garden was to provide a setting for the story to demonstrate man’s relationship and responsibility to God.
With this abstract meaning in mind, we instead should translate the words "tend and keep" as "worship and serve," as both of these words are translated elsewhere in the Bible. This just highlights the fact that man can not in any way supply for our needs on our own. From the very beginning, man, like all of the rest of creation, needed God desperately. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the One who supplies our every need. It wasn’t the garden to which Adam was responsible. No! Adam was and man is responsible to worship and to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. In the way, God didn't create man to meet some need He had in Himself. God created man to worship and to enjoy God forever. Real freedom is when we are operated according to the specs with which God made us.
In v.16-17 of today's passage we read, "16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'"
This verse contains the very first words that God spoke directly to man. The word "may" clearly indicates that Adam had the ability to choose right from wrong. This is why God created multiple trees in the garden and they were graciously granted by God for Adam's benefit. Adam was given the freedom to choose to partake of any of those trees except one.
The words "shall not" clearly indicates God's desire for Adam to not choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam was given free will and his free will was given and exercised in a state of innocence. If he hadn’t yet eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil then Adam would not have had the knowledge of evil. Adam's free will was the product of his ability to love or to not love. He had never died and he had never experienced death around him. When he was told that death would result from disobedience, Adam had no way of understanding the implications of his decision to ignore God's instructions.
Many say of the Bible that it is just a book of do’s and don’ts. I beg to disagree. It is really a book of choices. The do’s and the don’ts are involved in many of those choices, but in this context the choices are set out for our good. If there is a "do," it is there to keep us following the right path. If there is a "don’t," it is there to keep us from getting onto the wrong path. God's do’s and don’ts are the expressions of His love and wisdom. When we operate according to His word and are defined by Him, we will have demonstrated that we have acquired God's wisdom.
As you already know, Adam didn't choose wisely. As a result he was graciously cast out of the Garden of Eden after he chose to rebel against God. If he had accessed the Tree of Life, well, Adam would have been unredeemable because in his state of sin he would have been galvanized in his sinfulness. After this account in Genesis 2, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil disappears from Scripture. We do not find it specifically mentioned after Genesis 3, largely because its effects have become commonplace. But the tree of life reappears again in the book of the Revelation. In the Garden, there was one command in the negative and that command was based on faith. In Christ there is one request and it is in the positive. And it, likewise, is based on faith. That request says to us today, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
