Introduction
     And Elohim said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb-yielding seed, and the fruit tree-yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth,” and it was so. And out of the ground made Yahweh Elohim to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
    And Elohim commanded the man He created saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, Genesis 1:11, 2:9, 16-17. (The King James Version used throughout.)

Man, Endowed with Power to Choose
     Here, Yahweh endows man with free will and the power to make choices. Everything Yahweh had created, from day one through day six … from the flora to the fauna, to man in His own Image, He saw it was good. The evil that was present in the garden of Eden was related to ha shatan (Satan) of whom it is said in Ezekiel 28:13 and 15, “Thou has been in Eden, the garden of Elohim … Thou [wast] perfect in all thy ways from the day thou wast created, til iniquity was found in thee.”
    Initially, man, and the woman whom Yahweh had created out of the man, chose to live in obedience – choosing not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. His opportunity to exercise this gift of free will came when Elohim brought the beasts of the field and the fowl of the air to him, to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof (Gen. 2:19). This prerogative extended him by the Creator evidences that he had not yet, eaten of forbidden fruit. Moreover, assigning names to every beast of the field and to every fowl of the air hardly qualifies as properties belonging to eating forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – forbidden fruit that is presented as good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desired to make one wise (Gen. 3:6). Clearly, man initially chose to be obedient and thus, good.
    And so long as man remained innocent and unaware of the distinction between good and evil, the evil associated with ha shatan posed no threat to his holiness. Man did not realize that he was doing good; he simply knew that he was being obedient. By his obedience, he was living in the Image of Elohim – holy and good, and as Genesis 1:31 affirms, very good.
    Nevertheless, inherent in the exercise of free will is choice. The only way that Yahweh, and the man, could know whether or not man would with free will exercise his choice in obeying the Creator, was to have positioned the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden and given him opportunity to exercise his choice. It follows therefore, that for Yahweh to have created man but not to have created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, could not prove to Himself, neither to the man, whether he would choose to continue his obedience to the Creator. And so, the adversary existed, nay, co-existed with the man … yes, to try the man, whether or not, he and his progeny would exercise this gift of free will.

Choose You This Day …
     Now, some erroneously conjecture that Yahweh tempted Adam by placing in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9). However, Scripture tells us in James 1:13 that Yahweh cannot be tempted with evil, and that He neither tempts man. He simply gives man opportunities to either choose to do right and be obedient, or to do wrong and be disobedient.
    Yahweh presents before every living soul, that same choice His prophet Joshua, and Moses’ successor in the wilderness, provided the children of Israel: “Choose you this day whom you will serve” (Josh. 24:15) and appreciated as but a reiteration of Yahweh earlier calling heaven and earth as two witnesses, to record a particular day on the which He set before Israel, life and death; blessing and cursing; and then urged Israel to choose life that both they, and their seed might live (Deut. 30:19). Indeed, Yahweh says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” saith Yahweh, “thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon Me and ye shall go pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. And you shall seek Me and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart,” Jeremiah 29:11-13. Oh, that this people then at Sinai, and since, had honored their thrice-spoken pledge in saying, “All that Yahweh hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exod. 19:8, 24:3, 7).
    But when Adam and Eve chose to yield to the serpent’s deception, cunning and subtlety and put their hand and their lips to eat of the forbidden fruit, they committed the first recorded sin by the species, and incurred to themselves, its wages of death (Rom. 6:23). There being nothing unclean of itself (Rom. 14:14), it was not the tree that made man capable of sinning. The tree only revealed that man had the capacity, through his exercise of free will, to permit evil to manifest itself through him.
    The warning given him from the beginning, was that “in the day thou eatest of it, thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17) – the adversary’s assurance to the contrary, notwithstanding (Gen. 3:4).

Death Reigned Until …
     Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned … even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression” (Rom. 5:12, 14).
    Nevertheless, But not as the offence, so also [is] the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of Yahweh, and the Gift by grace, [which is] by One Man, Yahshua Messiah, hath abounded unto many. And not as [it was] by one that sinned, [so is] the gift: for the judgment [was] by one to condemnation, but the free Gift [is] of many offences unto justification.  For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the Gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Yahshua Messiah. Therefore as by the offence of one [judgment came] upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One [the free gift came] upon all men unto justification of life.  For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Yahshua Messiah our Master. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Yahweh forbid. … Romans 5:15-6:2a. 
    And since through that action, by one man came sin, and death by sin and was so, passed unto all men, because all have sinned and come short of the glory of Elohim (Rom. 3:23), so by the obedience of One, as Romans 5:19 states, shall many be made righteous.
    For as in Adam all die, even so, in Messiah shall all be made alive, 1 Corinthians 15:22 – that is, for all those who choose Him; that is, to such as keep His covenant, and to those that remember His commandments to do them, Psalm 103:18. (emphasis ours)
    Then, we will no longer be sinners through Adam, but saints through Yahshua (Rev. 14:12).

The Paradox of the Trees
     In the words of the old standard: “Yield not to temptation, for yielding is sin.” Always, what’s forbidden by commandment is transformed by the adversary to appear good, pleasant, and desired. To acknowledge this is to understand the wiles of the adversary and the advantage he seeks in overcoming our obedience to the commandments given us by Yahweh.
    Here is the paradox of the trees. Where good is, evil is always present (Rom. 7:21). In a time out of time, before the earth itself was without form and void of life, that anointed cherub, fallen because of iniquity having been found in him – for he said, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of Elohim … I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High” (Isa. 14:13-14) – and which afterward found his place in Eden, implies that in the created order, if the Garden should be planted with a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then evil preexisted before man.
    Yahweh’s observation in Genesis 3:22, “Behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever,” implies that man could have that same capacity as his adversary, to yield to pride and an haughty spirit … wise in his own conceits (Rom. 12:16) thinking himself to be something when he is nothing (Gal. 6:3), and experience as his adversary, the same outcome of falling into perdition (Prov. 16:18).
    Therefore, there will always be that choice needing to be made between eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or from the tree of life; a choice to be made between life and death; a choice to be made between blessing and cursing.
    Moreover, there is a paradox that resides in the Creator, too. For the creation narrative in Genesis, chapter one, is punctuated with these words: “And Elohim saw that it was good.” And yet, Yahweh says through the prophet Isaiah, “I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil: I Yahweh do all these things,” Isaiah 45:7.

Conclusion
     Yahweh preserveth all them that love Him: but all the wicked He will destroy, Psalms 145:20.
    “I will be like the Most High,” (Isa. 14:14) … become as one of Us (Yahweh and Yahshua, “the Image of the invisible Elohim, the Firstborn of every creature,” Col. 1:15) to know good and evil, that’s the root of all evil.
    But the will of Yahweh is for good to come upon His children through prosperity in Grace given through the shed blood of His unblemished Lamb, His only begotten Son, Yahshua Messiah – that they should be blessed who do His commandments; that they may have right to the Tree of Life enter in through the gates into the city (Rev. 22:14) when His Kingdom rules on earth. Amein.