The Discovery of Genesis (37 page)

But why two trees instead of one?

As the Genesis narrative is recalled, one discovers that there were two important trees specified in the Garden. “The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant 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
” (Genesis 2:8, 9). These two noteworthy trees were found side by side in the very middle of the garden. The “tree of life” is further described in Revelation 22:2 as having “twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” This tree had very wonderful life-giving properties, and Adam and Eve were commanded to eat of it without restriction. The second tree sounded ominous, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”

When God created human beings, He gave them freedom of choice and thereby risked losing them by allowing them this freedom. God had placed Adam and Eve in a luxuriant garden, lovingly providing for their every need with luscious fruits and nuts of every kind. He had forbidden only one thing: “He [the Lord God] told the man, ‘You may eat from every tree in the garden, but not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for on the day that you eat from it, you will certainly die’” (Genesis 2:16,17 NEB). Actually, this was a test of loyalty to ascertain whether or not the human family would choose of their own free will to obey God, their beneficent Creator. For by disobedience, they would actually separate themselves from the Life-Giver.

The use of
two trees
in a character therefore is significant and could indicate that a choice must be made between them: eating the fruit of one symbolized obedience and life, but the other, disloyalty and death.

An abbreviated character for God is
(see page 36). When a hook is added to the middle stroke
, a verb is formed meaning [God]
commands or notifies.
The word
forbidden, to warn, to prohibit, or restrict
is written
and pictographically records God’s original commands regarding these two specific trees. One can understand then that Adam and Eve had ample instruction and warning by God. How meaningful that to this day the Chinese still write about trees when using the words
forbidden
and
covet!

God had an enemy, a mighty angel, who had no regard for the just laws of God. A mystery remains, hard to understand, how Lucifer had fallen from his high position as an honored angel, standing in the very presence of God, to being a renegade, an outcast. Lucifer, as a subordinate, had become jealous of God’s creative power, and in aspiring to a higher state, had determined to dethrone God. “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star [Lucifer] … You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; … I will make myself like the Most High!’” (Isaiah 14:12–14). In reference to this rebellion of Lucifer, it is recorded: “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought; but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Revelation 12:7–9).

Adam and Eve had been cautioned regarding this crafty foe who would attempt to align them as accomplices in his warfare against God. They had also been advised of the natural results of disobedience, which would put them into disharmony and separate them from their Creator and Life-Giver. Would they listen to Lucifer and his subtle reasoning, or believe that God was all-wise and all-loving? The choice was theirs.

One might think that since there were only two people in existence, Adam and Eve would usually be in each other’s company. The word
to go
. (see page 50), shows just this. There were
two persons
who were
lords
, with dominion over the whole earth. But one day as Eve had left Adam’s side to pass through the middle of the garden, she suddenly heard a strange voice. It was not Adam’s voice, and the sound of it arrested her, and she stopped, curious to know from whence it came. She looked with amazement into the branches of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil where a beautiful serpent rested. Was this creature also able to speak? Lucifer, in the guise of a serpent, had been waiting for just this opportunity when Eve might be alone, for the couple often passed by this tree.