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How Did Old Age and Death Come About?Is This Life All There Is?
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After relating the manner in which the first human came to life, the Biblical account shows that the Creator, Jehovah God, started humanity off in a parklike home. He placed before man the prospect of unending life, while at the same time making its enjoyment conditional. God said to the man: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.”—Genesis 2:16, 17.
That was a simple command. Yet is this not what we should expect? The man Adam was alone at the time. Life was simple, uncomplicated. There were no problems in making a living. There were no pressures from a greedy commercial system. Complex laws were not needed to control sinful inclinations within the first man. As a perfect man, Adam had no sinful tendencies.
Simple as this command was, it involved moral issues of serious consequence. Disobedience to God’s command on the part of the first humans would have meant rebellion against Him as Ruler. How so?
It was God’s prohibition that made partaking of the fruit of the “tree of the knowledge of good and bad” wrong. There were no poisonous properties in it. The fruit was wholesome, literally “good for food.” (Genesis 3:6) Hence, God’s prohibition regarding the tree simply emphasized man’s proper dependence on his Creator as Ruler. By obedience the first man and woman could show that they respected God’s right to make known to them what was “good,” or divinely approved, and what was “bad,” or divinely condemned. Disobedience on their part therefore would mean rebellion against God’s sovereignty.
Jehovah God stated the penalty for such rebellion to be death. Was that too severe a penalty? Well, do not many nations of the world consider it within their right to designate certain crimes as capital offenses? Yet these nations cannot give nor indefinitely sustain the life of anyone. But man’s Creator can. And it was because of his will that Adam and Eve came into existence. (Revelation 4:11) So was it not right for the Giver and Sustainer of life to designate disobedience to him as worthy of death? Surely! Then, too, he alone fully recognized the seriousness of the damaging effects that would result from disobedience to his law.
By obeying the prohibitive command, that first human pair, Adam and Eve, could have demonstrated their appreciation and gratitude to God for all that he had done for them. Rightly motivated obedience would have prevented them from becoming selfish and ignoring their Benefactor, God.
The command was of a nature that we would expect from a God of love and justice. It was not unreasonable. He did not deprive them of life’s necessities. There were many other trees from which they could satisfy their need for food. Hence, neither Adam nor Eve had any reason to feel a need for the fruit of the “tree of the knowledge of good and bad.”
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How Did Old Age and Death Come About?Is This Life All There Is?
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Yet, fulfilled upon Adam was the warning: “In the day you eat from [the tree of the knowledge of good and bad] you will positively die,” for God sentenced Adam to death on that day.—Genesis 2:17.
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