Genesis 2:9 Commentary and Bible Study

We note at the end of verse 8 the craftsman terms that keep coming up in these first chapters. There was care and design – ‘formed by God’. In verse 9 you have it again – ‘out of the ground made the Lord God to grow’, and the words used are building words. So there is the craftsman at work, not usually words that we associate with a garden, but they are there. ‘Every tree that is pleasant to the sight’ – it was the most beautiful of places – ‘and good for food’, a variety of fruits which could fully satisfy man’s nutritional needs. Nothing was lacking for Adam’s happiness in this place. He had no shortage of anything he needed, for God had amply supplied every good thing for him so that all excuse for ingratitude and disobedience was taken away.‘The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.’ These two trees were distinguished from all other trees in the garden, but like all others they were real trees. Their significance must be understood from a study of all that is said about the consequences of eating their fruit. Though the tree of life is mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is only referred to twice in the Bible, both times in this chapter, but that does not take away from its importance as the events that follow will show. We will learn more about this second tree in a few verses, but the tree of life is mentioned first. Adam already possessed life, and walked in fellowship with God. He had already been called a living soul or being. He was allowed to eat of this tree. Why then should life be set before him when he already possessed it? Was he already mortal? No, for he was threatened with death only if he ate of the forbidden tree. The tree of life was a symbol of the life he had already received. It was not designed to give him life which he did not possess, but to assure him that God was willing for him to live and to go on living. The phrase ‘tree of life’ does not occur again until the Book of Revelation. Its reappearance their shows that, although it has not been mentioned throughout the whole of the rest of Scripture, it has not been forgotten. Revelation 2:7 says, ‘To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.’ Here is the tree of life which is able to confer life. The tree in Eden perished long ago, but the true tree of life continues and that tree is Christ himself. He alone is able to confer life for he said, ‘I have come that they might have life.’ Neither the tree of life nor the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were magical trees with power in themselves to give either life or knowledge. Life comes through the one symbolised by the tree of life, Jesus Christ, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil derives its name from God’s commandment to refrain from eating its fruit.