Predicament of Our First Parents
31
In their efforts to reach positions for which God has not fitted them,
many leave vacant the place where they might be a blessing.
To Adam the Lord declared: “Because thou hast hearkened unto
the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded
thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake;
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and
thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the
field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto
the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return.”
God had freely given them good and withheld 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 be subject to disappointment,
grief, and pain, and finally to death.
God made man ruler over the earth and all living creatures. But
when he rebelled against the divine law, the inferior creatures were in
rebellion against his rule. Thus the Lord in mercy would show men
the sacredness of His law and lead them to see the danger of setting it
aside, even in the slightest degree.
A Plan for Man’s Recovery
The life of toil and care henceforth to be man’s lot was appointed in
love, a discipline rendered needful by his sin, to place a check upon the
indulgence of appetite and passion, to develop habits of self-control.
It was a part of God’s great plan for man’s recovery.
The warning given to our first parents—“In the day that thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die”—did not imply they were to die on
the very day they partook of the forbidden fruit. But on that day the
irrevocable sentence would be pronounced. That very day they would
[29]
be doomed to death.
In order to possess endless existence, man must continue to par-
take of the tree of life. Deprived of this, his vitality would gradually
diminish until life should become extinct. It was Satan’s plan that
Adam and Eve would eat of the tree of life, and thus perpetuate an
existence of sin and misery. But holy angels were commissioned to
guard the tree of life. Around these angels flashed the appearance of a