God created man and placed man before
the tree of life. By looking at Genesis alone we could not easily see the significance of this. But by the time we come to the New Testament we can more and more clearly see that
the tree of life represented God Himself to come INTO man.
So, let's pick up some hints along the way to show that God created man a
vessel to contain God on the "inside".
First we have man created and placed before
"the tree of life". It was in the midst of the garden. And so I say God created man and placed man before the
tree of life.
" And Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there He put the man whom He had formed.
And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." (Gen. 2:8,9)
"Good for FOOD" was
the tree of life. This means God as life was to be taken INTO man to constituted man's whole being with the divine nature of God.
God made man to take God INTO himself as his inner content. Does this mean that man without God on the inside was sinful, evil, fallen ? No. not at first. Man was created -
1.) very good
2.) innocent
3.) neutral between God and anyone
other than God.
The very good, innocent, and neutral man was placed before two principles of existence represented by the two trees -
One source -
the tree of life stood for God as life to man's vessel.
The other source was
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represented independence from God.
Man was a vessel; a container. Man was a vessel created in the image of God.
Thinking of this helps us - As a glove is made in the image of a hand, so man was made in the image of God. This was so that God fits comfortably within man even as a living hand fits comfortably within a glove shaped in its image.