3, 4. (a) What command did God give Adam and Eve? (b) How important was obedience to that command?

³ Although they had the prospect of living forever, Adam and Eve were not immortal. To keep living, they had to breathe, drink, sleep, and eat. More important, their lives depended on their relationship with their Life-Giver. (Deut. 8:3) Accepting God’s guidance would be essential for their continuing to enjoy life. Jehovah made this clear to Adam even before Eve was created. How? “Jehovah God also gave this command 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 certainly die.’”​—Gen. 2:16, 17.

⁴ “The tree of the knowledge of good and bad” stood for God’s right to determine ultimately what is good and what is bad. Adam, of course, already had a sense of good and bad; he was created in God’s image and had a conscience. The tree would indicate to Adam and Eve that they would always need Jehovah’s direction. For them to eat of the tree would be to claim moral independence, which would cause enormous damage to them and to the offspring they would produce. God’s command with its penalty conveyed the gravity of such a course.

⁷ God had told Adam: “In the day you eat from [the tree of the knowledge of good and bad] you will certainly die.” Adam may well have understood this “day” to be a 24-hour day. After violating God’s command, he could have expected Jehovah to act before the sun set. “About the breezy part of the day,” Jehovah approached the couple. (Gen. 3:8) He held court, as it were, establishing the facts from the responses that Adam and Eve gave. (Gen. 3:9-13) Then he pronounced sentence on the wrongdoers. (Gen. 3:14-19) Were he to execute them then and there, his purpose regarding Adam and Eve and their offspring would come to nothing. (Isa. 55:11) Although he confirmed the death penalty and the effects of sin began immediately, he allowed Adam and Eve to produce children who could benefit from other provisions that He would make. Thus, from God’s standpoint, Adam and Eve died on the day they sinned, and they actually died within one “day” of 1,000 years.​—2 Pet. 3:8.