The Two Trees: Life and the Knowledge of Good and Evil

The Tree of Life

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Two trees stood in the middle of Eden. One of them is called the tree of life. It shows up at the very beginning of the Bible and at the very end.

In the middle. “The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden” (Genesis 2:9). It stood at the heart of Adam's home.

Life is a gift. The tree reminded Adam that life comes from God. Adam did not keep himself alive. God did.

Adam could eat. God said, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat” (2:16). The tree of life was not forbidden. Adam could come to it.

After sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, God sent them out of the garden. He did not want the man to “take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” (3:22).

A kind closing. Living forever in a body broken by sin would be terrible. God closed the way to the tree so that He could open a better way later.

Guarded. God “placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (3:24). Cherubim are powerful angels who serve near God's throne.

No way back. No one could fight past the cherubim. People could not get back to God's life by trying harder.

Jesus is the way. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

Life is knowing God. Jesus prayed, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). The tree of life pointed to life with God Himself.

A promise. Jesus promises, “To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7).

The tree again. The last chapter of the Bible shows a river in God's city, and beside it “was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits” (Revelation 22:2). “The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

No more curse. “And there shall be no more curse” (Revelation 22:3). What sin closed, Jesus opens.

What to do. Life is not found in things, games or being popular. Life is found in knowing Jesus. Ask Him today to help you know Him better.

The tree of life stands in the garden at the start of the Bible (Genesis 2:9) and in the city at the end (Revelation 22:2). Between them runs the story of how God brings His people back to it.

In the midst (2:9). The Hebrew betok (say: beh-TOKE), in the midst, puts the tree at the center. Life with God was the center of Eden.

Not forbidden. The only forbidden tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (2:17). The way to life was open as long as Adam trusted God.

Genesis 3:22. God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” Many Christians see mercy here: God would not let sinners live forever in a fallen state.

Cherubim (3:24). Cherubim (say: CHAIR-oo-bim) guard God's holy presence. Later, golden cherubim stood on the cover of the ark (Exodus 25:18-20), and cherubim were woven into the veil before the Most Holy Place (Exodus 26:31). Each picture said the same thing: sinners cannot simply walk into God's presence.

Torn open. When Jesus died, “the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51). The way that had been guarded was opened by His death.

Wisdom and life. Proverbs calls wisdom a tree of life to those who take hold of her (Proverbs 3:18). Paul calls Christ the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).

John 17:3. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Eternal life is not only endless time. It is a relationship.

Revelation 2:7. The risen Jesus promises the overcomer to “eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” Paradise is the garden restored, with the tree back at its center.

Revelation 22:2-3. On either side of the river is the tree of life, “each tree yielding its fruit every month.” Its leaves bring healing, and “there shall be no more curse.”

Application. If Jesus is the life, then He, not achievements or approval, is where your heart finds what it is hungry for. Come to Him daily in His Word and in prayer.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

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The second special tree had a long name: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It was the one tree God told Adam not to eat from.

The command. “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 2:17).

Why one rule? God did not make people like robots. He gave Adam a real choice, so his love and trust could be real.

Not a mean rule. God gave every tree but one. One no in a garden full of yeses is a kind rule.

Trust before understanding. Adam did not need to understand every reason for God's rule. He only needed to trust the God who had already given him everything. Trusting God's word is where faith begins.

What it meant. To know good and evil here means deciding for yourself what is right and wrong, without God. Adam already knew what was good. Everything God gave was good.

A warning. God told Adam the truth about what would happen. Death would come if he ate. God warns us because He loves us.

The lie. Later the serpent told Eve, “You will not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). He made God's good rule sound unfair. Satan still tells that kind of lie today.

What happened. Eve ate, and Adam ate (3:6). Sin and death came into the world, just as God had warned (Romans 5:12).

Hiding God's word. “Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You” (Psalm 119:11). Knowing what God says helps us say no to temptation.

A way out. “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Jesus said yes. Jesus “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Where Adam said no to God, Jesus always said yes.

Another tree. Adam sinned at a tree. Jesus died on a tree for our sin. He “Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

From curse to blessing. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). Redeemed means bought back.

What to do. When God's Word says no to something, trust that He is good. Ask Him for help, and look for the way out He promises.

Genesis 2:17 is the first command God gave a human being. Its tree is named for what eating from it would grab: the knowledge of good and evil.

Knowing good and evil. The phrase is daat tov vara (say: DAH-aht TOVE vah-RAH). In Hebrew, to know often means to experience or to take charge of. The tree offered not information but independence: deciding good and evil for oneself.

Like God? The serpent promised, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil” (3:5). But Adam and Eve were already like God, made in His image (1:27). The lie was that they had to grab, apart from God, what He had already given them.

Freedom and limits. Real love needs real choice, and a boundary made trust possible. “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:8).

“You shall surely die” (2:17). Death began that day as separation from God: they hid from Him (3:8) and were sent out of the garden (3:23). Bodily death followed in time. “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

The way of death. “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). Deciding good and evil for ourselves is still the root of sin.

The second Adam's test. Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and answered with God's word: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). He “was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Gethsemane. In another garden, Jesus prayed that His Father's will would be done, not His own (Luke 22:42). Adam chose his own way in a garden. Jesus chose the Father's way in a garden.

The tree of the cross. The law said that a man hanged on a tree was under God's curse (Deuteronomy 21:23). Paul applies this to Jesus: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). Peter says He “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

The serpent crushed. God promised that the woman's Seed would bruise the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). “And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly” (Romans 16:20).

Application. Every temptation asks the old question: will you decide good and evil for yourself, or trust what God says? Hide His word in your heart (Psalm 119:11), and run to Jesus, who won where Adam lost.

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