One rule for Adam

“And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” Genesis 2:16-17
I think it’s interesting to contemplate on this single rule that God gave Adam when He created him and placed him in the Garden of Eden. Adam was commanded not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This raises a couple of questions.
One question is, why did God put the tree there in the first place? Let’s think about what would have happened if God hadn’t created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam and Eve would have been happy, always enjoying fellowship with God – and never having to make their own choice about whether to obey Him or not, since where there is no law, there is no wrongdoing, because the law defines what is right and wrong (Rom. 4:15, Rom. 5:13). Thus, this single command, was an integral part of God giving man free choice – the choice to obey or to disobey Him. God didn’t create mankind as robots who will automatically love Him. He wants our love for Him to be voluntarily given; it means much more to Him this way.
A second question is, God knew that Satan would try to tempt Adam and Eve, so why didn’t He say, ‘Don’t listen to the serpent’ instead? The answer is simple: Because then, Satan would have used something else. It’s the same with us – the temptations that he tempts me with will most likely be different to those he uses to tempt you, and vice versa. Rather than telling us what to avoid, God tells us proactively what to do and not do. Remember, Satan knows Scripture. He masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). He will appear to be good and offer us pleasurable things, but underneath there is a temptation to go against God and His word. This is why knowing God’s word is so important.