"The Lord God commanded the man, saying . . . but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you will surely die" (Ge 2:16-17). This was a command. Also, there was no explanation and only the consequence of death was stated. It was a matter of trusting God and obeying and "surely" dieing made the result clear. One would assume that when taking care of the animals in the Garden of Eden it was noticed that they died when reaching end of life, so death would not be unfamiliar. Also, you would think they'd be cognizant of God's wisdom and authority inherent in this command. Furthermore, they should have been aware that disobedience would produce a serious result. In a hockey game there are rules, and breaking them leads to a penalty that is served in the penalty box, which in this instance is death. In the game, the length of the penalty depends on the seriousness of the infraction, but in God's command, no time is stipulated. It is a principle based on the Creator's standards. Moses later explained it to Israel saying, "'It shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe and do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you'" (Dt 28:15). "'See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity'" (30:15). "'Keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live'" (:16). "'But if your heart turns away and you will not obey . . . you shall surely perish'" (:17-18). If disobedient "'the Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke, in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me'" (28:20). It would be rebellion against a holy God. It would be equivalent to breaking God's law because "everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness" (1Jn 3:4). If breaking the law was condoned then it would be a slight against God's character. God said regarding Judah's transgressions, "'I will not revoke its punishment because they rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept His statutes'" (Amos 2:4). "'All souls are Mine . . . [and] the soul who sins will die'" (Eze 18:4). "So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died" (Ge 5:5). One could argue that these are only isolated cases. However, "the Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one" (Ps 14:2-3). "If a man has committed a sin worthy of death . . . and you hang him on a tree . . . you shall bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God)" (Dt 21:22-23). "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-for it is written, 'cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'" (Gal 3:13).