The Salvation of Adam and Eve, Part Two

A Devotional Series from Genesis

Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)

4/7 Reading Portions: Leviticus 10; Psalm 11-12; Proverbs 25; 1 Thessalonians 4

Genesis 3:22-24

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.

MERCY

Wisdom perverted by the corruptions of sin could be fatal. Were Adam and Eve to stay in the garden, the temptation to eat from the tree of life, forever sealing them to a fate of eternity in a corrupt, unholy condition would be too great. YHVH God wisely commanded that they should not stay in the garden; that they must be kept from the tree of life in the garden; and moreover, because the entire earth was cursed through Adam’s sin, He placed cherubs (cherubim is plural, more than one) and a flaming sword to keep anyone from partaking from that garden tree. This was God’s act of mercy toward sinners, from Adam until Christ’s return.

Again, these three verses reveal the inferiority of Eden’s garden. The garden was merely a foreshadow of a better, holy habitation to come—the new heaven and earth with the eternal presence of Jesus Messiah. The tree of life in Eden’s garden could only extend life’s days. The Tree of Mount Calvary, and its fruit—the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ—is fruit that truly nourishes unto eternal life. Driving Adam and Eve from the garden drives them to the true Hope, Jesus Christ; the fruitful Tree, His cross; and life eternal, justification by grace through faith (Rom 8:28-29). Hallelujah! What a Savior!