Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden

Source: Genesis 2 and 3

In the beginning, the world and all living things that we know about today did not exist. However, God did exist, and one day God set about creating the universe, the world, and all living things. God did all this in six days, and on the seventh day He rested. God's greatest creation on the sixth day was the first man and woman. God created the first man, Adam, out of the dust of the ground, and breathed life into him.

The man, Adam, was different than all the other creatures God had made. Adam could think and reason, and had a living soul, which the other creatures did not. In fact, God created Adam to have fellowship with him, and He placed Adam in charge of the animals God had created. But Adam was alone, and God saw this. He soon caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, and he took one of his ribs and used it to make the first woman. God presented the woman to Adam. He called her Eve and took her to be his wife.

God created a beautiful garden in Eden for Adam and Eve to live. God made many trees with different fruits to grow in this garden. God gave Adam and Eve permission to eat of all the trees in the garden except one: the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam that the day he or Eve ate from the fruit of this tree, they would surely die.

One day, Satan, in the form of a serpent, approached Eve. Satan asked Eve what God had told her about eating the fruit of the garden. Eve said that God had told her and Adam they could eat the fruit of all trees except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Satan lied to Eve. He told her that eating the fruit would not kill her, but instead would make her as wise as God. 

Eve saw that the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was good and pleasant, and ate of it. She then gave some to Adam, and he ate it also. All of a sudden, they realized that what they had done was wrong. Adam and Eve became afraid and tried to hide themselves in the garden. However, God knew what they had done, and He soon came looking for them. When He discovered they were hiding, He asked what they had done. Both Adam and Eve made excuses for what they had done, but did not confess that they had sinned.

As punishment God cursed the serpent by condemning the serpent to always crawl in the dust. God told Eve that she would be punished with painful bearing of children and also by being second to Adam, instead of being his equal. God told Adam that instead of a life of light work in the garden, he would have to work hard and toil and sweat just to survive. Also, while Adam and Eve would not die immediately, their earthly existence would come to an end someday and they would die.

As a final punishment, God drove Adam and Eve out of the beautiful Garden of Eden, never to return. Even though Adam and Eve had been severely punished, God still cared for them, but their relationship with God was changed forever because of their sin.