Don Johnson

Here is how I see it. Many people (I did) think that there was only one command from God in the garden, as this is what they have been taught. But this is not true. There was one negative command, a prohibition, but there were many positive commands.

Doing a prohibited act is a sin, but also not doing a commanded act is a sin.

The man was to till/work and guard/keep the garden (Gen 2:15). The keep/guard is the same word used in Gen 3:24 where the angel keeps/guards the man from the tree of life. In other words, both are active things, till and guard.

One does not ask someone to guard something unless there is something to guard it from. So when we see God saying the man was to guard the garden, we should be expecting some threat to the garden, in the back of our minds.

As we know, in Gen 3 the serpent shows up and starts twisting and changing God’s words. This is a threat to the garden and is where the man should have used his authority over all animals. But he did not, he did not obey the positive command to guard the garden, this is the first person who does not follow God’s plan, but it may take some mediation to see it.