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 of it you will surely die.”            ~~Genesis 2:15-17

This scripture tells us that man was free to eat from the Tree of Life as well as the other trees, but he must choose not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The next line of scripture then tells us that God saw that man was alone and determined this was not good.

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” ~~Genesis 2:18

God put man into a deep sleep, the Bible tells us, and out of his rib, God made woman. Together they inhabited the earth.

A Tree & A Snake in the Grass

The plot thickens. One day, as the woman is apparently standing too close to the tree forbidden by God, Satan enters in the form of a serpent. The Bible tells us that he is “crafty,” crafty enough to twist the words of God and to convince the woman to pluck the fruit from the tree and eat it.

“Oh,” we often say, “if Eve had only done this…or not done that.”

But, ironically, Adam was standing close by; close enough to have intervened perhaps?