HomeHopeLife HelpsLife StoryGospelShare

The Garden of Eden and The Forbidden Tree

Genesis 3

Once upon the time, when creating this world, God created a very beautiful garden, named the Garden of Eden or the Garden. This garden had full of fragrant flowers with strange grasses and all kinds of juicy fruits. After that, God created the first two persons in this world and allowed them to live in that beautiful garden. These first two persons were Adam and Eve.

Mr. and Mrs. Adam were the first married couple in the world. God assigned to both of them the authority to manage all animals and to take care of the Garden. Every day they listened to the birds singing, looked at all kinds of beautiful flowers, and swam in the cool rivers. When hungry, they ate the juicy fruits in the Garden. However, their most happiness was that they met God and talked to Him every day. Right now, if we live in a beautiful garden and full of everything like that we probably like it very much, don't we?

Adam and Eve were very happy, they neither have to worry nor afraid of anything, nor they have to work hard. On the other hand, they lived in peace, happy, because God has loved them, been closed to them, and taken care of them every day.

In the Garden of Eden, there were all kinds of fruit trees. In the middle of it, there were two very special trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Conscience. If someone eats the fruits from the Tree of Life, then they will live forever, never die. And whoever eats the fruits from the Tree of Conscience then they will know the difference between good and evil. In fact, the Tree of Conscience was the tree God used to test Mr. and Mrs. Adam to see if they truly loved God and obeyed Him or not.

When God let Adam and Eve to live in the Garden, He said: "You may eat the fruit of any tree in the Garden except the tree in the middle of it, and not even touch it. If you disobey My Words, you certainly will die." God's command was very simple, clearly that: Mr. and Mrs. Adam might eat all the fruits from any tree in the Garden except the tree in the middle of it. However, an unfortunate story was happened.

At that time, in the Garden there was a snake, a very sneaky and cunning animal. One day, the snake came near Eve and made friend with her. It pretently asked: "Did God advise you that you may not eat the fruits in this garden?" Eve answered: "No, God allowed us to eat all the fruits in this garden, except the fruits from tree in the middle of it; God recommended, don't eat fruits from that tree and don't even touch them. If not following to what He said, we surely will die." The snake then said: "No, eat those fruits you won't die! That is the Tree of Conscience. God forbade because He knows if you eat the fruits from that tree, then your eyes will be opened; and you will know the good and evil as He does so."

Do you think Eve believed God's Words or snake's words? This was the time that God tested Eve's faith. Since the snake said reasonablly, Eve looked up to the forbidden tree. She saw its fruits very beautiful, delicious, and she thought: This fruit was not only beautiful, delicious, but also precious, because it would give the knowledge to me. In that moment, Eve forgot God's advice completely. She forgot God said clearly that "if you eat, you surely will die." She stepped near to the forbidden tree, reached out and plucked one fruit, bit a piece and the gave the fruit to her husband, he also ate it.

That afternoon as usual, God came back to the Garden of Eden to meet Adam and Eve, but He didn't see them anywhere. God called: "Adam, where are you?" Heard God's calling, both of them were so afraid and embarrassed; they didn't dare to run out and welcome God as usual. But they knew that they couldn't hide forever, so they slowly stepped out from the bush. Adam said: "Dear God, I heard You were coming back then I was so afraid and hide." Knowing that both of them were guilty, God asked: "Did you eat the fruit from the tree that I had advised you not to eat?" Right away, Adam blamed on his wife and God, he said: "The woman who God put near me gave me the fruit from that tree, so I already ate it." Turning toward Eve, God asked: "Why did you do the wrong thing?" Eve also blamed on another person, she said: "Dear God, because the snake tricked me so I ate the fruit from the tree that You forbade to eat."

Because of disobeying God's Words, both Adam and Eve were guilty with God. Even so, both of them didn't accept their sin but tried to find the ways to blame on other people. From that on, they were dismissed from the Garden. Their life would never be peaceful and happy any more, but it began with full of trouble, sickness, and sorrow. Both of them also had to work very hard to have enough food. But the saddest thing of all was that they no longer lived near beside God, nor they talked friendly with God as they did before.

QUESTIONS:

  1. What were Adam and Eve guilty for?
  2. After being guilty, what punishments did they have?
  3. Please list several situations that we disobey God's Words.
  4. When be guilty before God, what should we do?

To read and listen to other Bible stories, please click here.

Written by Minh Nguyen
Translated by D. Ngo



© 2002 Vietnamese Christian Broadcast and its Audio Content Provider. Used With Permission.