Did You Know? - Pt. 2

 

The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. 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 of 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. (Genesis 3:20-24 ESV).

 

There is a wonderful reference in our reading today. I find it interesting to note that when God passed judgment on Adam and Eve for their sin (cf. Genesis 3:16-19) that nothing was really said about the way they would die. It is assumed that they would simply live in hardship and disease or injury would bring about their demise. That is not accurate. Remember, their sin was in desiring to be their own “gods.” That was the deception of the devil. As a result of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they discovered their mortality, which was far from divinity. This would lead God to cast them away from the garden so that they could not grasp immortality for themselves. In our reading God posts “the cherubim and a flaming sword” to keep them from getting what only God could give – the fruit from “the tree of life.”

 

Isn’t it amazing that we find greed and arrogance at the heart of all sin? What God desired to give freely, Adam and Eve believed they could take. If ever there was a picture of the nature of humanity it is this scene.

 

To fully understand this principle we should fast forward to the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry and his conversation with Nicodemus. He comes to Jesus to discuss theology when Jesus tells him he must be born again to see the kingdom of God (cf. John 3:3). Nicodemus replies, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4 ESV). It is a clear revelation that Nicodemus believes there is something he can do for himself to “earn” eternity. All of us make that mistake. We are a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” kind of people. Unfortunately, try as we might, the cherubim and the flaming sword always prevents us from gaining what is impossible for us to gain on our own. It can be given, but never taken. God has been teaching the principle of complete dependence upon Him since the beginning of time. Perhaps we should learn that lesson and trust the grace and work provided to us in Christ!