Genesis
3:22 ¶ And the LORD God said, Behold,
the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put
forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth
from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the
east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every
way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
So, something
Satan said was true. This knowledge that came from disobeying God in the one
thing that was forbidden to them gave man the understanding to oppose God and
hinder that fellowship they had with Him. The essence of human knowledge is and
has always been an attempt to overthrow God’s will. Man was to be a tiller of
the ground after the Fall but man created cities, which we will discuss later,
and a great many employments and diversions not given by God. Scientific
knowledge that results in medical and social advances is designed to either
overthrow God’s organization of life or to “improve” upon it. That is not to
say that it would be Godly now to abandon modern medicine and move to the
wilderness any more than realizing that your divorce and remarriage were a sin
so you should make the situation worse by abandoning your current spouse and
children. It is just to say that this is part of our nature now, not to look to
God as the source of our health and life but to look to our knowledge. I suspect,
though, that when we think that we have prolonged our life by exercise (which I
enjoy immensely) or healthy eating (which I do not) we may be fooling ourselves
and that we do not or cannot thwart God’s will. The fact is that once a person
reaches 50 he has the same odds of living longer as a man or woman in 1960 as
life expectancy then was brought down by infant and child death which is what
we have done well in abating on the one hand but with abortion have rendered
almost meaningless. If abortion were factored in, which we would never do,
there probably isn’t much difference between life expectancy in 1900 and now.
A
human being, tainted by sin, deteriorating with each generation, who lived
forever in that state would, after a time, be quite a hideous creature indeed.
The choice was to obey God and live forever or disobey God and die. Even a
physical body, as those persons living on earth in eternity will have, will
need of the regenerative powers of the tree of life that God made for the
renewing of their flesh but partaking of that tree will only be permitted when
sin is not present. There is some argument as to who will need to partake of
the tree of life. Some dispensationalists say that only those people living on
the earth will while others say that all of those who are given a “resurrection
body” will, at least referring to those persons who are saved, not in the lake
of fire.
Revelation
22:1 ¶ And he shewed me a pure river of
water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the
Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of
it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare
twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of
the tree were for the healing of the nations.
In any event, the
body we receive will be different than the one we walk about in now that is
tainted by sin against God, as Paul emphasized.
1Corinthians
15:35 ¶ But some man will say, How are
the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? 36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not
quickened, except it die: 37 And that
which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it
may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: 38
But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his
own body. 39 All flesh is not the same
flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another
of fishes, and another of birds. 40
There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory
of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41 There is one glory of the sun, and another
glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from
another star in glory. 42 So also is the
resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in
incorruption: 43 It is sown in
dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in
power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it
is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual
body. 45 And so it is written, The first
man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not first which is
spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth,
earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are
earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption.
The blessing of
living in the Garden of Eden which God had made was now denied to man. He was
cast out to try to extract a living from a cursed ground. Mankind was unable to
reenter or, perhaps, even see the Garden of Eden. The word paradise is interesting to consider in this regard. We find it
here;
Luke
23:43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I
say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
2Corinthians
12:4 How that he was caught up into
paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to
utter.
Revelation
2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to
eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
The word paradise comes from a Persian word for a
park, a hunting preserve, a pleasure garden, in a manner of speaking. Eden,
with its tree of life, is in Heaven itself now. There is no way for man to
return to Eden or to a state of innocence before God without the redeeming work
of Christ on the Cross and in the Resurrection.
The cherubims that
prevented Adam and Eve or their descendants from returning to Eden are
spiritual creatures, usually invisible to us, which are probably prototypes for
types of beasts. In other words, life on earth is patterned after them. Read
Ezekiel, chapters 1 and 10, and then Revelation 4 for descriptions. Clearly,
there are animals in the spiritual world. For example, Elisha’s prayer in
2Kings 6:17 showed that, unseen to a person in his natural state, there were
horses and chariots surrounding the city.
The flaming sword
may represent the word of God, which is the key to eternal life in that all of
the things we must believe for salvation are found in it and it is through it
that God speaks to the Christian.
Ephesians
6:17 And take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Hebrews
4:12 For the word of God is quick, and
powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Some commentators
bring up references to a representative of God standing with a drawn sword in
his hand. However, since we cannot return to partake of something we cannot see
and since that tree of life is now in Heaven itself that seems unlikely that the
flaming sword is there now to keep us physically out. We have access to the
Tree of Life by way of our acceptation of the promises found in God’s word,
likened to a sword.
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