1A10
© Jeff Stacey | Last updated: 15 September 2016
1A10. God’s one requirement for Adam and Eve:
God commanded them NOT to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
1A10(title) God’s one requirement for Adam and Eve
God gave Adam and Eve freedom to eat fruit from almost any tree in the Garden of Eden Gen 2:16. It is interesting and later significant that this had even included the “Tree of Life” Gen 3:22,24.1 But there was a single limit to their freedom. God had just one requirement for them, as follows.
1A10(sub-title) God commanded them NOT to eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
The one requirement set by God was a prohibition Gen 2:17a. He gave no reasons for this command.2 It simply had to be accepted and always obeyed.
Actually God gave this command to Adam only, before Eve had been created. So Adam had the primary responsibility and accountability to God for obeying it Gen 3:9-11 [1A3(e)(iv.iii)]. Apparently Adam later told it to Eve, because she attempted to quote it to the serpent Gen 3:2-3.
Their relationship with God was intended to be profoundly positive for them, continuing as LIFE. But it could become devastatingly negative through being shattered by disobedience to God’s one requirement. That would be DEATH! Gen 2:17b.
This meant that their LIFE, especially their relationships with God and each other, depended entirely upon their free choice to obey God by keeping His one requirement.
Arrow 1A8 -> 1A10
Having created Adam and Eve, God maintained an intimate relationship with them and gave them His full provision to have LIFE, with freedom of choice and action.
But this arrow indicates another dimension of God’s commitment to them. He set a single requirement as the absolute boundary of their activities. It had to be obeyed.