Hmmm.....what a great question. For sure I can’t speak for God as to “why” He made them, for the “why” behind anything He does is only conjecture on our part - unless scripture clearly tells us why. An example is “why” Jesus came to earth. There are many “whys” to “why” He came that are valid - “to seek and save the lost” for one. But His answer was to Pilate is found in John 18:37 (thank you, Truth Project).
I personally know of no scripture that tells why He created the two trees. But I can surmise a few reasons.
One, while God knows our choices in advance (He does not dwell in time), we are held responsible for making them. Adam was given the simplest of all choices: only one command to live by, and it was nothing difficult at all.
Yet when presented with a lie that offered independence from God, He elected to take it.
So man has done (including you and me) ever since.
However, God provided a sacrifice for Adam’s sin. What was it? God gave Adam & Even skins with which to clothe themselves, and the skins had to come from an animal being killed - the actual first physical death after creation. Symbolic of the future sacrifice of His Son, as was His provision of the sacrifice for Abraham later.
What is the final message in all of this? Grace. It is all grace. God’s grace, God’s mercy, God’s forgiveness, God’s provision.
In the end of the 1,000 year millenial reign, Satan is released, and again deceives the world. Man again chooses the lie - even after a millenium of grace.
Proving what? All is God’s grace, love and mercy, to save His own out of their own selection/choice of being against Him.
The two trees are presented to us many times a day. Which will I choose? Relationship with God, relying on Him for my very being, my thoughts, my wisdom, my thinking, my life? Or, my own intellect, wisdom, strength, etc.
I personally think they were presented then as actual trees, for us today to be a symbol of the choices we have to make every day, so we may never forget. Will the Lord Jesus Christ be my “all-in-all”? Or, will I, wanting my independence, my own will - choose my own wisdom, intellect, strength, etc.
But again, I only “see through a glass darkly” (I Corin. 13:12, KJV)
arlis
We know that when Adam and Eve were in the Garden, Satan was already there. Waiting to tempt them. He had been kicked out of heaven, along with 1/3 of the angels, for his attempt to overthrow God. “The Gap Theory” , the time between Genesis 1:1 ad Genesis 1:2, if believed, would give the reason for Lucifer and his “sons of god” being present on earth before Adam and Eve. And they were responsible for the earth being made “tohu va bohu”, or waste. That being said, the two trees make perfect sense, in the fact that God created man after the rebellion of Lucifer, and placed the trees in the Garden for two reasons: Adam and God’s Plan against Lucifer’s rebellion. IMO.
So God creates people that He knows will do something bad, and holds them responsible for those actions, so He can punish them for it and sacrifice other living creatures? And then sacrifices His son for the bad things that He knew men would do?
Too bad there isn’t a glass that’s easier to see through for you.