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Predicament of Our First Parents
31
Eve had been happy by her husband’s side, but she was flattered
with the hope of entering a higher sphere than God had assigned her.
In attempting to rise above her original position, she fell far below it.
In their efforts to reach positions for which God has not fitted them,
many today leave vacant the place where they might be a blessing.
To Adam the Lord declared: “Because you have heeded the voice
of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded
you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your
sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns
and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of
the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return
to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to
dust you shall return.”
God had freely given them good and had kept back evil. But
they had eaten of the forbidden tree, and now they would have
the knowledge of evil—all the days of their life. Instead of happy
labor, anxiety and toil were to be their lot. They would experience
disappointment, grief, and pain, and finally death.
God made the first pair rulers over the earth and all living crea-
tures, but when they rebelled against the divine law, the inferior
creatures rebelled against their rule. So in mercy the Lord would
show people the sacredness of His law and lead them to see the
danger of setting it aside, even in the slightest degree.
A Plan of Recovery for Humanity
The life of toil and care now given to humanity was appointed
in love, as a discipline made needful by sin, to place a check upon
the indulgence of appetite and passion, and to develop habits of
self-control. It was a part of God’s great plan for the recovery of the
human race.
The warning given to our first parents—“In the day that you eat
of it you shall surely die”—did not mean that they were to die on the
very day they ate the forbidden fruit. But on that day the irreversible
sentence would be pronounced, and on that very day they would be
doomed to death.
In order to have endless existence, a person must continue to eat
from the tree of life. Deprived of this, the vitality would gradually