The Tree of Knowledge of the Good and Evil - verses 16-17.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was put in Paradise so that man could be tested. Man already knew the good, because he was created in holiness and also knew God.

He could only hear or experience the evil by disobedience to God. In verse 17 we hear of the only restriction imposed on man, and therefore the only temptation to sin. Not taking into consideration the nature of the tree, eating the fruit was disobedience. This would bring about death and the knowledge of evil. There are several things we should keep in mind about this first test:

Adam was warned of the awful consequences of the sin. On the day that he ate of the prohibited fruit he would die spiritually {Ephesians 2:1]. Because of Adam’s sin,man is now spiritually dead, or dying spiritually, and suffering the risk of the second death [Apocalypse 20:14].

Why does man grow old and die? We can never understand the physical process, but through the Scriptures we know the spiritual cause. All this knowledge shows how arbitrary and irrational Adam’s sin was. This was not a small sin, but a betrayal against the benevolence and the fair authority God.

Conclusion
Before the fall of the man, the world only knew life. Now that death reigns, God talks about life in Jesus Christ.

In chapter 3, Satan enters the scene. As there was no human being available to him, since Adam and Eva still had not sinned, the enemy used the snake that was in the first form. The Devil used misleading propaganda for them to sin.” You will be like God, knowing the good and evil”. He only shows the temporary, immediate, and apparent benefits, hiding the profound harm (Gn.3 and Mt.4). An immediate vision can make the sin something very interesting. Thus, for an immediate pleasure, the future is sacrificed. This was the case of Esau when, for a meal, sold his right of primogeniture (Gn.25.29-34; Hb.12.16-17).

The knowledge of the good and of the evil might seem something desirable. However, the knowledge of the evil, in the human case, meant the acceptance of the evil, a deep and bitter experience with the malignant.

Man did not know the depth of the abyss in which he was entering. Many people are still looking for more deep knowledge of the evil. There are those that are dedicated to the occultism. Paradoxically, perhaps imagine that the evil is good.

But everything that is connected to the ambition (Gn.3.6; I João 2.15-17; Tg.1.14-15), the desire to earn more and more and more, beyond everything that God already gave. The desire, in certain measure, is legitimate, but the greed can lead man to the depths of hell. How do we know the difference? Greed is the desire for the forbidden, for what belongs to others, or the unbridled excess of material possessions or carnal pleasures.

Desiring more than what was allowed; man lost what God had given graciously. How many young people lose their lives for wanting the pleasure of drugs and sexual lewdness early? They lose all the pleasure of life for the pleasure of a moment. The sin is a form of losing what God gave us, but this is not the worst.

The sin makes us lose God, and the pleasure to be in his presence. God does not take from us what He gave. We ourselves destroy everything, as did the prodigal son with the paternal inheritance.