RELATIONSHIP

The Eternal God developed a relationship with those newly created beings—human beings. He placed them in a paradisiacal garden and entrusted them with the task of caring for the place.

The idea of caring for the garden here does not carry the connotation of exhausting labor. It was a natural and pleasurable activity. The physical condition of those first humans was perfect, and there was no fatigue at all.

Genesis 3:8 seems to suggest that Yahweh visited the garden in the cool of the day to commune with the human couple. Their natural condition was to live naked, without any clothing, but this brought them no shame because they were as pure as babies, devoid of any malice.

All He asked for was just one small sign of obedience—an act of voluntary love:

“And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die'” (Genesis 2:16-17 NIV).

It would have been enough to simply obey this “simple” command, and their communion with the Creator and human well-being would have continued indefinitely. But something unexpected and terrible was about to happen.