Disobedience

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 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 ESV). As we read ahead a few verses we learn that Adam and Eve did not obey God and ate of the fruit. Immediately they died spiritually, but God chose to delay physical death until later thus allowing time to reproduce and maintain a growing population of humans on the earth. God’s plan was for man to choose to walk with him in love enjoying life, but mankind now would walk alone, apart from God with hearts that were darkened because of the broken relationship with God. Without provision from God and with the knowledge of good and evil came a growing understanding of the violence, sickness, and suffering that was to follow. If God were to leave mankind in this condition they would continue to reproduce and die until some horrible disaster ended their time on earth.

To again have a personal relationship with God individuals would have to somehow obtain spiritual life again. Eating the forbidden fruit caused God to remove spiritual life from mankind. As a result only God can restore it through a plan he has that we will develop in future lessons.