An ancient Mesopotamian myth tells of an island called Dilmun, a pure and clean place with an abundant supply of sweet water and crop-producing fields. It is a place without sickness or death, where all the animals get along famously. Oddly enough, there are no humans on this island paradise!¹

Like a potter, God had carefully and lovingly shaped the first man (Genesis 2:7). In today’s reading, God is a planter, and He is at work planting an idyllic garden paradise in Eden for the man to live in (v. 8).

Like the pleasure gardens that kings of old planted near their palaces, beautifully landscaped and filled with animals and birds, God’s garden contains “all kinds of trees” (v. 9). These are clearly intended for the benefit of people because they are both beautiful (“pleasing to the eye”) and nourishing (“good for food”). Besides being endowed with treasures like gold and onyx (vv. 11–12), God’s garden also receives an abundant supply of fresh water from the four great rivers that flow from it (vv. 10–14). Of these four, the Euphrates and Tigris rivers are well known; they flow through Turkey, Syria, and Iraq today.

In this idyllic garden of the Lord, which He designed to support human flourishing, two trees in particular had names: the “tree of life” and the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (v. 9). The names alert us to the fact that these trees were not just any plants. Rather, they symbolised something profoundly important.

The tree of life enabled human beings to be immortal (see Genesis 3:22). People who ate of that tree would enjoy life perpetually. If Adam had eaten its fruit, perhaps he would have been able to enjoy all of God’s creation for ever.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, meanwhile, should not be misunderstood as the source of good and evil. Rather, its fruit qualified one to decide what was to be called good or evil, what was acceptable or unacceptable. Since the right to determine moral standards belonged exclusively to God (see Genesis 3:22), human beings were not meant to eat of it. As our Father, God is the one who knows what is good for us and what is not. We only need to trust His loving instruction.

¹ Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1–17 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1990), 161–162.