Every Tree

Genesis 2:16-17 (ESV)

16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Adam was told he could eat from any tree of the Garden of Eden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. From every other tree he could eat. Nothing was said about the tree of life. It was left for him to find it on his own. 

That means all the other trees signified ways to live that pleased the Lord, but they did not include the eternal life promised by the fruit of the tree of life. Adam disobeyed and was thrown out from the Garden and access to the fruit of the tree of life was lost to mankind. That tree reappeared when Jesus became the first-fruits of the harvest to come. Man can once again reach for the fruit of life since the kingdom of heaven has drawn near. Each one of us can now choose our own eternal destiny.