Daily text, Sunday, October 23. 2016

[Queen Esther]

In the day you eat from it you will certainly die.—Gen. 2:17.

http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/dt/r1/lp-e/2016/10/23

Adam may well have understood this “day” to be a 24-hour day. After violating God’s command, he could have expected Jehovah to act before the sun set. “About the breezy part of the day,” Jehovah approached the couple. (Gen. 3:8) He held court, as it were, establishing the facts from the responses that Adam and Eve gave. (Gen. 3:9-13) Then he pronounced sentence on the wrongdoers. (Gen. 3:14-19) Were he to execute them then and there, his purpose regarding Adam and Eve and their offspring would come to nothing. (Isa. 55:11) Although he confirmed the death penalty and the effects of sin began immediately, he allowed Adam and Eve to produce children who could benefit from other provisions that He would make. Thus, from God’s standpoint, Adam and Eve died on the day they sinned, and they actually died within one “day” of 1,000 years.—2 Pet. 3:8. w14 9/15 4:3, 7