Why did God put a tree in the Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve couldn’t eat from? Did he set them up for failure? 

God created that tree as a unique opportunity for worship. The word worship comes from the Old English word WORTHship. In worship we show God what he’s worth to us. When Adam and Eve refused to eat the forbidden fruit, they showed God what he was worth to them. They, however, selfishly ate the fruit, wanting something more than God. One sin, one bite of the forbidden fruit and BOOM, they were banished from Eden. 

God placed an angel and flaming sword to guard Eden’s entrance. Why? Next to the forbidden tree was the tree of life. Its fruit confirms the spiritual state a person is in. If they ate from it, they’d be eternally sinful. So God, in love, kept them from hurting themselves further by eating from the tree of life. 

Revelation 2:7 reveals its new location: “To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” The tree of life is in heaven. When we eat of it, we’re confirmed in the perfection given to us by Jesus. 

Adam and Eve destroyed their relationship with God by a tree. God amazingly, lovingly, graciously restored that broken relationship by a tree, by the cross. God loves you. He never, absolutely never, sets you up for failure. He leads you into forgiveness.