“And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.” (Gen. 3:22)
“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” (Rev. 2:7)
“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” (Prov. 16:9)
How long would Adam have lived? If he would have eaten from the tree of life, how long a life would he have had, forever? Was the tree of life relative only to the flesh of man? Apparently not, for when we are offered it in heaven, we will be glorified at that time, and we know that the flesh and blood will not inherit heaven (1 Cor. 15:50) our bodies will be changed, they will never die, so Adam eating of that fruit may not have had any affect upon his flesh.
I do not know, no one does, that’s why it is called conjecture, and can be used as no more than a contemplation point in hopes of directing us to greater truths that can be validated in the Word of God.
If it is sin that is the destroyer of the flesh, which many wise and godly men profess, then the question must arise, would Jesus Christ still be alive today if he had not been crucified, for there was no sin in our Savior, and if so, at what age or point would the flesh that He inhabited stopped aging?
There was a specific reason that the Almighty placed the commandment of Genesis 2:17 upon our first parents, “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.” Satan would have had nothing to tempt them with if that singular commandment had not been given, yet I offer another point of conjecture, why wasn’t our adversary wise enough to offer them the fruit that was not forbidden to them, the tree of life, and then the one of the knowledge of good and evil? Would not it have been best to assure that they would live forever in that continual state of sin after eating of the one they were commanded not to eat of? But then we must return to the topic of our Lord’s flesh, “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.” (Heb. 10:5) and the length of the life of it, relative to Him having no sin.
This short, poorly written letter is not about these two fruits, it is not about the body of our Lord Jesus Christ before He walked out of that tomb, it is not even about whether or not Satan was correct in his actions on that fateful day, it is about the Lord directing the steps of man, of all mankind. One must agree that before the fall Adam and Eve were acceptable in the eyes of the Lord, He made them with no fault, with no sin, the same as He did all the angelic beings, including Lucifer. There was an indeterminate amount of time when all in heaven and on earth was good, in fact the Most High Himself says that it was very good. (Gen. 1:31) Lucifer was made perfect, Adam had no sin nature, yet both rebelled, and by their own free will.
And I offer you here what I have been shown up to this point in my walk with the Lord, God directed their steps to do so. All of this started with one single thought that came into the mind of Lucifer, at some point in time he questioned the Almighty’s authority over him, his free will was exercised, and he came to the conclusion that he did not have to obey if he did not want to.
That moment in time defines the entire course of all God’s creation, but the question is this, did God direct the thoughts of Lucifer in that moment?
I leave you with these thoughts in the hope that it will allow you to see more clearly the Sovereignty of Him who created all reality. Did Lucifer have a choice, did Judas Iscariot? Did the Lord Jesus Christ Himself have a choice when it came to the cross? Are you accepting the will of God in your life, or are you acknowledging it?
Does God direct the steps of His creation, or do we truly have free will?
