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Jesus Adored by Adam and Eve, January 6
And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree.
Genesis 2:9
.
In the midst of the garden, near the tree of life, stood the tree of knowledge of
good and evil. This tree was especially designed of God to be the pledge of their
obedience, faith, and love to Him. Of this tree the Lord commanded our first parents
not to eat, neither to touch it, lest they die....
When Adam and Eve were placed in the beautiful garden they had everything
for their happiness which they could desire. But God chose, in His all-wise arrange-
ments, to test their loyalty before they could be rendered eternally secure. They were
to have His favor, and He was to converse with them and they with Him. Yet He did
not place evil out of their reach. Satan was permitted to tempt them. If they endured
the trial they were to be in perpetual favor with God and the heavenly angels....
It was decided in heaven’s council for angels to visit Eden and warn Adam
that he was in danger from the foe. Two angels sped on their way to visit our first
parents....
They told Adam and Eve that God would not compel them to obey—that He
had not removed from them power to go contrary to His will; that they were moral
agents, free to obey or disobey....
They told them that Satan purposed to do them harm, and it was necessary for
them to be guarded, for they might come in contact with the fallen foe; but he could
not harm them while they yielded obedience to God’s command, for, if necessary,
every angel from heaven would come to their help rather than that he should in any
way do them harm....
The angels charged them to closely follow the instructions God had given them
in reference to the tree of knowledge, for in perfect obedience they were safe, and
this fallen foe could then have no power to deceive them. God would not permit
Satan to follow the holy pair with continual temptations. He could have access to
them only at the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Adam and Eve assured the angels that they should never transgress the express
command of God, for it was their highest pleasure to do His will. The angels united
with Adam and Eve in holy strains of harmonious music, and as their songs pealed
forth from blissful Eden, Satan heard the sound of their strains of joyful adoration to
the Father and Son. And as Satan heard it his envy, hatred, and malignity increased,
and he expressed his anxiety to his followers to incite them (Adam and Eve) to
disobedience and at once bring down the wrath of God upon them and change
their songs of praise to hatred and curses to their Maker (
The Story of Redemption,
24-31
).
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