[45]The fact that Eve was deceived and thereby induced to violate the law of God in no wise changed the law or affected its enforcement.  Adam deliberately ate of the fruit and he was also in the transgression. —­1 Timothy 2:14.

[46]After they had violated Jehovah’s law, Adam and Eve hid amongst the trees in Eden.  Jehovah spoke to Adam and asked:  “Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” Adam responded that Eve had given him the fruit to eat; and Eve said that the serpent had deceived her.  They both stood before Jehovah and confessed their guilt.  The majesty of the law of Jehovah must be upheld.  His law being unchangeable (Hebrews 6:18), there remained nothing to do but to enforce that law.  Then Jehovah pronounced his judgment against them, the record of which reads:  “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:  cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken:  for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,”—­Genesis 3:16-19.

[47]Thus the perfect man forfeited his life.  He had been endowed with perfection of home, liberty, peace, happiness, and life everlasting on earth.  Now he must die and return to the dust from whence he was taken.  God did not put him to death immediately, but permitted him to have 930 years of experience that he might learn the baneful effects of sin.  Eden contained perfect food that would have sustained the perfect man and he would not have died had he remained in Eden, unless Jehovah had put him to death in some direct manner.  But God drove him out of Eden, took him away from the perfect food, caused him to gather his food from among the thorns and thistles and from other imperfect elements of the earth that were found outside of Eden; and in this condition he continued to sicken and to die until at the end of the period of 930 years he was dead.

[48]A kind and loving parent sometimes inflicts punishment upon a child because the child has violated a rule.  The parent punishes the child not because he loves to see the child suffer, but for the good of the child, in order that it might be disciplined and might learn the proper lessons.  If the child always did good and never did evil it would not merit nor receive any punishment from a loving parent.  One of the chief purposes of Jehovah in dealing with mankind in the manner he does deal with them is that humankind might be disciplined and learn the lessons of good and the effect of doing wrong, and thus learn to appreciate the love of the heavenly Father.