Why did God put two trees in the garden?
For Meditation (Elisabeth Hayes)
We’re continuing our summer sermon series this week with another fun kid question: “Why did God put two trees in the garden?”
The creation and fall narratives in Genesis 1-3 may be some of the most familiar parts of Scripture to kids and adults alike, but that doesn’t mean that they’re easy to understand! The stories may seem trite… God made a beautiful world and put Adam and Eve in the perfect Garden of Eden. In the Garden, he put the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil–from which Adam and Eve were strictly forbidden to eat. Of course, they broke that rule, introducing sin and death into the world, and it was all downhill from there…
But why was the tree there in the first place? Why would God have introduced such a serious temptation into a world that was meant to be perfect? Was he trying to trick Adam and Eve? Did he set them up for failure?
It turns out that Adam and Eve asked the same questions… Is God holding out good things from me? Is he really trustworthy? Does he really mean what he says? And are his rules really good, or is he just trying to control me?
In preparation for worship this week, read anew the story of the creation and fall in Genesis chapters 1-3. Have a conversation with young people in your life about these questions, and hear what they think. And consider the question yourself: What was the point of that tree, anyway?
Genesis 2:8–9
Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:15–17
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 3:1–7
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.