Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Genesis 2:9 Out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 2:9 And [in that garden] the LORD God caused to grow from the ground every tree that is desirable and pleasing to the sight and good (suitable, pleasant) for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the [experiential] knowledge (recognition) of [the difference between] good and evil. [Rev 2:7; 22:14, 19] |
Subject: why the one when not the other |
Bible Note: GBzones Apparently according to Genesis 3:22 Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live forever", it seems if one ate from that particular tree one would indeed live forever. I see your question here - Why put the tree of life in there, when clearly the other does give eternal life? What is most interesting to me about this is that God did say that Adam and Eve could have eaten of any tree of the garden, just not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil becuase they would surely die. What is implied here which is not so clearly seen is that they did have the right to eat of the tree of life and thereby live forever! But for some ungodyly reason it never occurred to Adam and Eve to go eat of the tree that would have made them live forever, they just mossied on through the garden eating fruit and vegetables and gave no thought to living forever, as if this was of no concern at the time for them. And indeed it was not as death did not enter in until they fell, so perhaps they had no need of the good gift of eternal life from the tree of life because they already had it. So, back to your question - Why a tree of life? No one can say for sure why God did that, only He knows. The only thing I could surmise is that God left them a choice of what to do, do what He said which included eating from the tree of life, which they could have done at any time, or to disobey and eat from the tree of good and evil that caused death. One thing that puzzles me is about Eve thinking that somehow disobeying would not result in what God said and that it would make her "like God", when the closest she was ever going to come to being like God would have been to continue living forever by either obeying, or eating of the other tree and living forever. The other interesting thing is that it did not occur to Adam and Eve to go eat of the tree of life after falling and being condemned to death, even though they now knew of good and evil, they did not seek to remedy death before God took that remedy away from them. About God's will there, I think that it is entirely possible that God wants all His creations to choose to worship and obey Him and always leaves the option open for them to excersize limited free will to do so, or to reject Him. No one can resist irresistable grace, that is not what I would say at all. But God knew before he made man that man would fall and planned accordingly from eternity past to rectify our mistake. Only God knows why, theologians have trying to figure out several unanswerable questions of this type without any sucess. I think you have hit on one of these things. I find your posts thus far most engaging and look forward to more studying with you. blessings abound, bowler |