And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;

       but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,

       for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die" (Genesis 2:16-17).

 

The Lord did not place the forbidden tree in the Garden in order to cause man to fall.

       And the LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.
 

       And out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; 

       Now no shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted,

       for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth; and there was no man to cultivate the ground.

 

       But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.

       Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground,

       Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.

       And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done;

       and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

 

       Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,

       because in it He rested from all His wo

       And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it;

       and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Genesis 1:27).

 

Man was originally created male and female. After the woman was taken from man, it would take both the man and the woman, in unity, to reveal the image of God. No man can fully reveal the image of God, and neither can any woman. We need each other, and this is why one of the primary assaults of the devil is to deceive men and women into thinking that they do not need each other.

       "and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth,  and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth" (see Genesis 1:26).

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness (Genesis 1:26).

 

What greater honor could there possibly be than to be created in the image of God? Man is the crown of God's creation. Man is the one to most reflect His nature; this is the ultimate purpose of man. If there is any way for us to measure the success of our lives, it would be by how well we have reflected Him in our lives. For this reason we read in Romans 8:28-30:

       Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind:

       cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind;" and it was so.