2 Nephi 2:16 - 2:20

2 Nephi 2:16 Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other.

With the existence of the two trees, Adam and Eve now had a decision to make. Which tree would they eat from. There had to be a choice and they had to be enticed by one or the other. If there were no enticements, there would be no choices to make.

2 Nephi 2:17 And I, Lehi, according to the things which I have read, must needs suppose that an angel of God, according to that which is written, had fallen from heaven; wherefore, he became a devil, having sought that which was evil before God.

In Lehi’s study, it was apparent that an angel with had lived with God at one time and had rebelled against him was sent to this world. When he got here, thinking he could mess everything up, enticed Adam and Eve to partake of the tree of good and evil.

2 Nephi 2:18 And because he had fallen from heaven, and had become miserable forever, he sought also the misery of all mankind. Wherefore, he said unto Eve, yea, even that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of all lies, wherefore he said: Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die, but ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.

He became a devil because all he wanted to do from this point on was make life miserable for all mortals. Thinking that he could bring this misery to all of us, he started by enticing Eve to partake of the forbidden fruit. Satan lied to Eve telling her that her fears of dying if she eat of the fruit of that tree were unfounded. Not only would she not die but would have to same knowledge that God himself had or knowing the difference between good and evil.

We do not know of the thoughts or emotional struggles Eve went through to make this decision. I really think it was a very intense experience. On the one hand she knew that to fulfill the first commandment to have children, she had to partake of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Second if she wanted to have the same knowledge to be able to tell the difference between good and evil she had to eat the fruit of the tree.

On the other hand, she knew that if she did, that life was now going to be a struggle. The ideal climate conditions of the Garden would change drastically. The Sun was not going to shine everyday with balmy temperatures. There would be storms and drastic temperature changes. In addition, she and Adam would now have to grow their own food, that it would no longer be provided without effort. They could now have children, but how they would turn out would be problematic.

I am not sure if Eve struggling with the actual decision because I think she was going to do it. The struggle was trying to be prepared herself mentally and emotionally and her husband for the consequences that were sure to come. The decision I don't think was a matter of the violation of a law. I think it was simply a matter of if I do this, this will happen or if I don't do this nothing will happen. The decision was was this something I really want to do.

It could be compared to winning the lottery. You would really like to have a pot full of money, but you know as soon as your relatives know you have won they will be coming by to visit. In addition there will be people trying to get you to invest in their business ventures. Large amounts of money bring all sort of problems so some have said that they do not want any part of winning such things. They like their simple life and don't want to change it.

Don't know why Adam did not seem to want to do this, but we should be thankful to Eve for seeing the eternal benefit of doing so. But again, I can see that this was a difficult decision on her part.

2 Nephi 2:19 And after Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden of Eden, to till the earth.

Well satan convinced Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit and she got Adam to eat of it too. For that they were driven out of the garden and now had to work to provide food and shelter that they now had to produce for themselves in order to stay alive. The garden produced food without their labor, but now they had to work the ground for it provide food.

2 Nephi 2:20 And they have brought forth children; yea, even the family of all the earth.

So now being mortal, they could have children and be the ancestor of all other mortals that are born on this planet.