The Tree in the Midst of the Garden Meaning?
1) Direct Answer
It means the two great choices God set in the very center: the Tree of Life (Christ, God’s own Life and Word) and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Satan’s reasoning). In the “midst” of the garden stood life by the Word or death by unbelief.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- The Bible says there were two trees in the midst: “The tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:9). Eve later refers to the forbidden one as “the tree which is in the midst of the garden” (Genesis 3:3).
- God’s command: “Of every tree… thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it” (Genesis 2:16–17). The issue was obedience to God’s Word.
- When they chose the wrong tree, “their eyes were opened,” shame entered, and death followed (Genesis 3:5–7; Romans 5:12).
- God then guarded the Tree of Life with cherubim and a flaming sword (Genesis 3:22–24), showing that life is now only by God’s appointed way.
- The Tree of Life is Christ. “In him was life” (John 1:4). He said, “I am the life” (John 14:6). Wisdom is called “a tree of life” (Proverbs 3:18), and Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24).
- Access to the Tree of Life is promised again to the overcomer: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life” (Revelation 2:7), and it appears in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:2,14).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Now notice: it wasn’t an apple. Eating fruit doesn’t open spiritual eyes, bring moral shame, multiply sorrow in conception, or create two opposing seed lines. Yet Genesis 3:15 declares two seeds at enmity, and 1 John 3:12 says Cain “was of that wicked one.” That shows the forbidden “knowledge” was Satan’s corrupt approach to life and reproduction, not a harmless bite of produce.
- The serpent was cursed to go on his belly (Genesis 3:14), meaning he was different before the curse. Through that subtle beast Satan introduced a carnal, unbelieving union, and death followed. Adam and Eve were to live by every Word of God; instead, Eve received the serpent’s reasoning against the Word (2 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:14).
- So the “midst” marks the center of decision: Will man live by God’s revealed Word (Tree of Life), or by a mixture—good and evil together—offered by the serpent (tree of knowledge)?
4) Reinforcing Statement
You see, the question of the garden is still the question today. Choose Christ the Word and live, or mix the Word with human reasoning and die. The way back to the Tree of Life is opened through Jesus Christ, and the overcomer will eat of it again.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The True Easter Seal
61-0402 §67
Now watch. At the garden of Eden, to keep people from getting back to that tree, God set an angel there as a seal, with a sword, turning all ways, to guard that tree. And when he made his worship, and he came down... Now remember, who was at that tree? Who was that tree? It was Jesus. The tree of death was your mother. She brought you here in natural life. Christ is the birth through spiritual life. All that live by the woman, die; all that's borned of the man, lives. All that comes by the woman is natural; all com...
Future home of the heavenly Bridegroom and the earthly Bride
64-0802 §198
The same tree... Now like Adam there was a tree of life in the garden of Eden that he might've eaten from, if he hadn't of fell. That tree of life reminded him all the time that his new---his youth was continually going on. See? Same will the nations. The leaves will be for the healing of the nations. Notice, not the sickness now, he'd have the same rights that Adam did, like the dove with the holly leaf, it's all ... each king taking a leaf.
The End Time
54-0307A §41
Now, then Cain came and knelt down, built an altar. I'd imagine they come to the east side of the gate, for there's where the Angel stood with His flaming sword, guarding the tree of life. By the way, He was guarding the people away from the tree of life. Now, He's here trying to drive the people back to the tree of life. Jesus was that tree of life. The woman was the tree of death. We're the fruit of our mother; she was a fruit tree. And when we come here ... by woman come death, and by woman come life, also which...
Christ is the mystery of God revealed
63-0728 §199
(notice) making it known. Now, my, there's just so much here, we could just keep on going. Notice, the tree of Christ, the body in the Garden, making now---making His mystery known to this bride tree (watch) redeemed by Christ, the second Adam (you believe He was?), going back home to Eden with His fallen wife---redeemed back home again. That's Christ and the church today---taking His wife back. See the threefold mystery now? God manifested in Christ; Christ manifested in the church; all together to bring back the...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 10:E-7
Death had entered. How do we know? Do we not hear the voice of the Spirit raised in that first age for all who will hear, as He is calling. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the Tree of Life in the paradise of God." The church had already imbibed too deeply of the tree of death (or the denominational false vine) whose end is the lake of fire. But there are no cherubim with flaming swords to guard the Tree of Life now. God does not now depart from the midst of the church as He departed from Eden. Oh, no,...