East Of The Garden Of Eden

Turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3, verses 22 through 24. We've been going through Genesis 1 through 3, and now we come to the last portion of it. So Genesis chapter 3, starting with verse 22. Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now lest he reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. Now, as I've often read these words, I've often thought of them as focusing on the fact that Adam and Eve, They had to leave the Garden of Eden. And that's not a very nice thought, is it? If, kids, if somebody this morning had come to your house and driven you out of your house and made you live on the street, that wouldn't be a very nice thing to happen. And it certainly was that way for Adam and Eve. And yet, as we look at this passage again this morning, what we'll see is the focus really isn't on them leaving the Garden of Eden. It instead focuses on something even more important, even greater than that. The focus is really on the removal of the tree of life, the restriction of them from the tree of life. And so this morning we'll look at this passage and we'll look at it under these three points. What man has become, what God removed, and then the question of what now. And so as we look at our passage, we see in verse 22 that God is no longer dialoguing with Adam and Eve. That's where we had left off last time as he approached them in his mercy, calling out and then spoke of the punishment that would come because of their sin. But now we have God speaking, but it's not to Adam and Eve. Who is it he's talking to? Well, is he just speaking to himself? Who is the us? And this is where there are various interpretations, but it's probably best to see it as God. God speaking to the angels, to what we could call his heavenly counsel, those who were around him. And we see something similar in Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah is raised up and he sees God with the seraphim and the angels round about. And he talks about what should we do, who will we send. He uses these we and us as he does here in this passage. So God is talking to his heavenly counsel and he notices that there is a change, right? Behold, the man has become like one of us by knowing good and evil. What does that mean? What does it mean that man has now become like one of us by knowing good and evil? Is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? What is it? And again, we can find a variety of opinions on what it does mean here. But what everybody would agree is it relates to that tree of knowledge. Because what was the tree? It was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And it relates to what the serpent had said. The serpent had come and the serpent had said to Eve, God doesn't want you to eat. Why? Because He knows when you do. Your eyes will be opened and you will become a knower of good and evil. And so this change has come about because of that tree and because of what Adam and Eve did at that tree. But what is it? What is it that they have now become? What have they become? And as we think about that, it shouldn't be separated from the thoughts in Genesis 1 of man created in what? In God's image, in his likeness. So there is certainly some way that man was supposed to be like God. That he was his image and his likeness. that we are supposed to be like God. And so, is this a bad thing here, or is this a good thing, that he's now like God? Well, it certainly can't be a bad thing in that it's a reference to his disobedience, because we know that God does not sin. God is not disobedient in that. And so that can't be the likeness that we have here. It can't be that he has done something imperfect to be like God. Because God is perfect. Now we, when we talk, we can be like somebody, and it can be a good thing or a bad thing. But not here with God. And so maybe it's, he's tried to be like God, doing something that he shouldn't have done. Taking a prerogative that only belongs to God. And this is a possible way to think about it. Because one thing that man was different, one way he was not supposed to be like God, is God has no one higher than him. And is that what this is about? That he's become like one of us in him claiming autonomy as Adam and Eve did, trying to be their own gods. Well, I think it's better, and it makes sense of everything we have, To see that God's statement here isn't exhaustive, you could say. He's not telling the whole story, but he's reminding us of what has just happened. That what has just happened helps us see what change has occurred. And so, to go back to the idea that man was created in God's image. He was created as a ruler. That was one of his functions. And one thing a ruler has to do is judge. A ruler often has to judge and say what is right and what is wrong. They have to decide. And when we look throughout other portions of the Old Testament, We see that often that is what's involved in knowing good and evil. It's discerning between good and evil. It's judging between good and evil. And so Adam and Eve, they've become like one of us. They've become like God by being a judge, by discerning, by making a decision. And that's not bad in and of itself. But the question is, what did they decide? How did they use their ruling? Did they do it correctly or did they do it incorrectly? Did they obey God's word or did they listen to the serpent? And we know the answer, that they judged, they acted like God in judging, but they didn't judge as God would judge. They listened to the serpent. And so that seems to be the best way to take that they have now become like one of us. They have had to make a decision. They have had to decide who they would follow. They have had to act as that ruler that God created them to be. And by that, they've shown themselves as rebels. By that, they've shown themselves as sinners. And so, man was always going to become like God by knowing good and evil, discerning between it at this tree, this tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And yet the question was always, which way would he judge? Which way would he decide? And God is dwelling on that. Man, this man he created, in his image, as his ruler, he's used that image to rebel. He's used that position as ruler to raise himself up and disregard God. And so, God responds. What does God remove? So we read the rest of 22 there. Behold, the man has become like one of us by knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. It's not a complete sentence, is it? It just kind of trails off. There's this concern of taking from the tree. And the rest of the sentence, we could say, is really filled out by action. Verses 23 and 24. That's the rest of God's sentence there. We could say, paraphrase, right? Lest the man eat from this tree of life, he must be removed from the garden and the tree guarded, as God then does. And so let's look at that. And as we do that, we'll actually invert what comes in order. We'll first look at what God does. in 23 and 24, and then more closely at why he does that. So what does God do? Well, 23 states very simply, God sent him from the garden, from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. And he no longer has his home in the garden. Now he has a new place, a new place to work outside of the garden. But verse 24, as it elaborates on that, uses a stronger verb there. He didn't just send him out, he drove him out. He drove out the man. And so this wasn't a request of God. Adam, can you please leave now? This was God forcibly expelling them. They didn't want to leave. They didn't want to leave this, their first home. The verb here is used of many hostile clashes. Sarah, when she's angry with Hagar and her son Ishmael, she has Abraham drive them out, throwing them from their house and home. The Israelites, as they come into the land of Canaan, what do they do? They drive out the Canaanites. This is a forceful term. And yet, as we think of that forceful action, we shouldn't see it as God in hostility to Adam and Eve. He drove them out, but he didn't leave them homeless. We noted in 23, at the end there, they're given a new place to now work. They had been in the garden to work, and now they have a new place to work. Verse 24, verse 24 has, in a different version, it reads a little differently. And what it says there is he drove out the man and he settled him east of the Garden of Eden. And I think that's probably a very helpful rendering. God not only drove him out, but he settled him in this new place. It wasn't hostile in the sense of Israel driving out the Canaanites to destroy. But God had to remove him, forcibly remove him, though he did give him this new place to live. And so he drove him out and settled him east of the Garden of Eden. And as we see this action, there's a helpful contrast that we can bring out. And it would be helpful if we could read all of chapter 4. We won't do that. But the first half of chapter 4. Because what we see, and we've seen this looking at other parts, is that Adam and Eve and Cain, they have this many parallels and yet all of these differences. And we can see in that the differences in what God is doing and driving them out. Adam and Eve, they sinned, God came to them, and what did they do? They responded. They, though shifting blame, they confessed. And God restored them, reconciled them. And as we saw in 20 and 21, Adam responded to God, named his wife Mrs. Life, and God covered them with skins. But what about with Cain? He also sinned, didn't he? God also came to him. But what did Cain do? He lied to God. I don't know what you're talking about. Am I my brother's keeper? There was no reconciliation. And so he was cursed. Cursed like his father who he showed his father the devil. And in contrast, we see something later. Adam and Eve, they're sent away from the garden, but they're sent away to work the ground. What happens with Cain? He is no longer even to work the ground as that is taken away from him. And maybe most importantly, he's driven not just from the Garden of Eden as Adam and Eve are driven, but he's driven even out of Eden itself and he lives east of Eden. And most strikingly, in verse 16 of chapter 4, it says that Cain went away from the presence of the Lord. He's not only out of the garden and out of Eden, he's out of God's presence. And so, in our text here, we need to see that God, He's driving them out of the garden, but he's not driving them away from himself. He's removing them from the garden, but he's not removing his relationship from them. But as we read in chapter 24, he not only drives them out, what does he do? He places guardians. He now guards the garden so they cannot return. And these guards are scary. They're fearsome. And there are more than one. Cherubim is the plural form of cherub. That's your Hebrew lesson for this morning. And thus there's at least two of them. This plural, these cherubs. And these cherubs, they're heavenly creatures that we see described various places, often associated with God's presence. Maybe most commonly we hear of it because they were on that Ark of the Covenant that symbolized God's presence. And they were in the temple, in the Holy of Holies. But what is a cherub? What are these cherubim? Well, if I asked you kids to make up a new animal, An animal that's better than any other animal. You might say, well, it would run fast as a cheetah. And it could fly as high as an eagle. And maybe it would have the poisonous bite of a rattlesnake. And it would be strong and have claws like a bear. And so you'd like pull together all of these fearsome traits of various animals to show how great this new animal was that you were thinking of. Well, as the Bible describes cherubim, it uses similar imagery to do that. Everywhere we read about them, they are these creatures that are combo creatures, we could say. They are composite. They often have the parts of a lion to show their ferocity, the parts of a bull to show their strength, the wings of an eagle or the face of an eagle so that they can fly, and also even human characteristics. They're always described in this way. One place is in Ezekiel's vision at the beginning of his book. And we get this combination to show how mighty they were. How scary it would be to meet one. How ferocious it would be. But God not only places there these cherubim, he also places a flaming sword. Now, I know, as I've often read this, I've thought of the cherubim as holding this sword, swinging it every which way. The problem is that usually cherubim don't have swords. They don't need swords. It's like trying to give a sword to a bear or a lion. They have claws. They have fangs. They don't need a sword to be fearsome. to be a defender. Instead, what others have suggested here is maybe more the image with this flame, this flaming sword, is that of lightning. That of a path with these two massive cherubim on either side and this web of lightning between going every which way. An awesome display of power, of security, of holding this path. But the point is that Adam and Eve had no hope, did they? They couldn't go back. They couldn't return. What would meet them if they went? There is certain death at the hands of these guardians of God. So why does God thrust them out? Why does he place this armed guard, this undefeatable guardians? Why does he do it? Is it part of the curse? Is it part of God's punishment on Adam and Eve? Well, I would say not exactly. Because we should notice that their banishment from the garden, it's not amongst the list of curses in 14 through 19. Instead, it's here. It's added at the end. And the reason given in verse 22, as we saw, is to restrain Adam and Eve not from the bounty of the garden, but to restrain their hand from eating of the tree of life. And we could also notice in 24, what is the path that these guardians guard? It's not the path to the garden, but it's the path of the tree of life. So often, as we think of God sending man from the Garden of Eden, we think of it as if God was sending him out from that lush place full of bounty to a hard land where he has to struggle. And that is a change that takes place. We talked about that in conjunction with God's curse on the ground in 17 through 19. But it doesn't happen because of a change of location. Before mankind's sin and this curse on the ground, all of the earth would have been a place of bounty for man. his cultivating would have produced great amounts for him. As God blessed him, as God blessed him in his providence and made him fruitful. And thus, a movement from the garden by itself was not a movement from plenty to need. The change was the way God cared in his providence. Because of God's curse on the ground, the same ground would now not produce the bounty it formerly did, but it would produce thorns and thistles. And thus, I don't think there's any reason to think that the changes brought about by this curse on the ground that they wouldn't also have been true inside the garden. Because of man's sin, thorns and thistles, they would have even grown in that Garden of Eden. Insects would invade and ruin the fruit. Disease would threaten the trees. All the work and toil that goes with the grove of trees, as some of you especially know, that would have been true after the curse of the ground in the Garden of Eden. And thus, God doesn't have to send Adam and Eve from the garden for them to experience His judgment on their sin. They would have experienced it even there. But He does have to send them out to show them what they've forfeited by their sin. The right to eat from the tree of life. That reward of eternal life. God had created man, and He had set a goal or a reward before Him. We see that in Genesis 1, as God sets that pattern of work and then rest. The seventh day, the Sabbath, as that pointer to eternal rest, heaven itself. That thing that we await at the completion of our labors when they're judged good. And in Genesis 2 and 3, God had given another sign to Adam and Eve. Another sign of that reward. The tree of life. It was placed before Him. Placed in that garden. As an indicator of His reward for obedience. that reward of eternal life, heaven again. But Adam wasn't obedient. He hasn't earned that reward. Instead, what did he earn? Nothing but death. Hell itself. And so, just as God had placed that tree of life in the garden to put that reward before Adam, He clearly removes it from him, bars him from him. Adam is thrust out of the garden, and the way to that tree of life is now guarded, lest he try and take it. Adam has no right to eat from it because of his sin. And when we think of that tree of life, we shouldn't think of it as sort of a magical tree, as if the tree itself possessed this quality of life. We mentioned the same thing with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Instead, God had chosen to work through these trees. And thus, many speak of the tree of life and compare it with the sacraments. Say it has this sacramental character. And so we can think of the Lord's Supper. We have the bread. We have the wine. And we don't think of those as magically doing something to us. No, it's God has chosen to work through them. The same thing of the water of baptism. And so thus it was with this tree of life. God would use it to bestow his reward on Adam if he would have been obedient. And thus, God could have done a number of things to remove it from Adam. He could have chopped it down, burned it up, got rid of it in some way. But, he instead has it remain for a while to teach Adam, to teach us, That reward that was set before him, he's now cut off from it. And there's nothing, absolutely nothing, he can do to get back to it. And as a side note, all of this can help us answer, I would say, a commonly asked question concerning the Garden of Eden. Where is it now? It's a fun thing to ask. Where's the garden? Well, in light of this, I would say that that's the wrong question to ask. The question is not where is the Garden of Eden, but where was the garden and what has happened to it. The garden and the tree of life, they weren't some magical place that continues for all time with the cherubim still there. and the flaming sword. Instead, I think it's better to see them as a place and a tree that God used at that time, but that eventually were destroyed and disappeared. And in this, they're very much like the other holy places that God has used. There are many ties between the Garden of Eden and the temple and the tabernacle. And yet, where is the tabernacle? Where is the temple now? They're both destroyed, aren't they? Now, we may know pretty close where the temple was, where it was located. We have some idea where the tabernacle was located in Shiloh. But does that make those places holy or special now? The Orthodox Jews would say so. They don't walk anywhere around there just in case they stray into the place where the Holy of Holies used to be. And yet, we don't think that way. That the Garden of Eden, the temple and the tabernacle, they were used of God, and yet now, now, the place where they used to be, It is no more holy. It is no more special. So what now? God had created man in his image. Made him this ruler over all his creation. Placed him in this garden of plenty. Made him the guard there, the one to tend it and keep it. Put before him this image of his reward, rest, eternal life. And yet, now in our passage, we come to the end of this sad saga in many ways. Adam and Eve, they're outside the garden. They are now the ones who are being guarded against. They're barred from that tree. They're punished to live a hard life on a cursed ground until they die and return to dust. And yet, one thing still remains. They still have a relationship with God. Commentators sometimes speak of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the garden as a separation from God. But that isn't what our text says. And as we mentioned earlier in Genesis 4, we see a contrast with Cain. As he rejects God's coming to him in grace, he is separated from God. He moves away from God's presence. Doesn't that show that he was in it before? That Adam and Eve were still in it? There is certainly a change brought by sin. Isn't there? A lack of intimacy. A lack of openness. But that already happened in the garden. Adam and Eve already ran from God. They already hid from God in the garden. Adam and Eve, they had no hope in themselves. According to their own strength, their future was bleak. as they would live their few short lives in pain with only death awaiting them. They had no means of wresting more from this life, no means of reaching out their hand and again taking from that tree of life. But they did have a hope in God. A God who had been merciful to them, though they had spurned Him. A God who had come graciously to them in their rebellion, even though they were in fear and dread of Him. A God who had spoken of life and the future, even as they had earned nothing but death. And that God also showed to them how costly His mercy was. What was necessary for Him to have this display of grace? Sin had created this barrier between God and man. That reward of eternal life would have to be earned by another. And in our text, we see this in that guarded pathway. That pathway to the tree of life. The way that was blocked by these fearsome cherubim with this flaming sword, it was only by passing through this way of certain death that another would be able to gain access to that tree of life. And in Israel, similar imagery is used in the tabernacle, in the temple. These fearsome cherubim, they again are there in that holy of holies. And yet, what was the only way to enter? Through death, through the sacrificial system, through the altar, you had to pass by. God was showing them and showing us that it was only through death that reconciliation could take place. And it was God Himself who would accomplish it. God became man to show us His mercy and grace. Jesus Christ, the God-man, He came to endure God's wrath against sin. Displayed in our text in that cherubim and the flaming sword. Shown in the sacrificial system. Jesus Christ came to do that and He came to obey. to obey and earn eternal life, the right to eat from that tree of life. And he did it for all those who repent of their sins, all those who believe in his name. Adam and Eve, they still had a relationship with God, and because of that, they still had hope, even though they were exiled from the garden. They had hope because of what Jesus Christ would come and accomplish. And you and I, we can also have a relationship with God. We can also have hope because of what Jesus Christ has already accomplished. But you must turn. You must repent and believe. For those who do not, they remain outside. They remain outside that guarded way. And thus, John in the book of Revelation picks up much of this language. He writes in Revelation 22, verses 14 through 15, Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and adulterers and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. Turn to Christ so that you may have that right to eat from the tree of life and thereby live forever. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, may we never take your mercy and grace for granted, but dwell ever on how costly it is. And may that cause us to dwell again on the depths of your love and place our faith in you our trust in You our hope in You not in this world around that is fleeting but in Your words to us Your promises that are true guard us this week as we go out we pray in Jesus name Amen