After the first humans disobeyed God, God pronounced three messages directed at the serpent, the woman, and the man. We have seen that the messages, while announcing difficult conditions for humans, carried with them the promise of life. For even if life were to be difficult, it meant that there was life. So at the end Adam recognizes his wife, the woman, as Eve, the one who would be the mother of all the living. Adam recognizes that, with her help, humans will be able to avert fight against death. Now we move on to the final part of Genesis 3.

Hebrew text:

21 וַיַּעַשׂ֩ יְהוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֜ים לְאָדָ֧ם וּלְאִשְׁתּ֛וֹ כָּתְנ֥וֹת ע֖וֹר וַיַּלְבִּשֵֽׁם׃ פ

22 וַיֹּ֣אמֶר׀ יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהִ֗ים הֵ֤ן הָֽאָדָם֙ הָיָה֙ כְּאַחַ֣ד מִמֶּ֔נּוּ לָדַ֖עַת ט֣וֹב וָרָ֑ע וְעַתָּ֣ה׀ פֶּן־יִשְׁלַ֣ח יָד֗וֹ וְלָקַח֙ גַּ֚ם מֵעֵ֣ץ הַֽחַיִּ֔ים וְאָכַ֖ל וָחַ֥י לְעֹלָֽם׃

23 וַֽיְשַׁלְּחֵ֛הוּ יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהִ֖ים מִגַּן־עֵ֑דֶן לַֽעֲבֹד֙ אֶת־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֻקַּ֖ח מִשָּֽׁם׃

24 וַיְגָ֖רֶשׁ אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֑ם וַיַּשְׁכֵּן֩ מִקֶּ֨דֶם לְגַן־עֵ֜דֶן אֶת־הַכְּרֻבִ֗ים וְאֵ֨ת לַ֤הַט הַחֶ֙רֶב֙ הַמִּתְהַפֶּ֔כֶת לִשְׁמֹ֕ר אֶת־דֶּ֖רֶךְ עֵ֥ץ הַֽחַיִּֽים׃ ס

Transliteration:

21 way·ya·‘aś  Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hîm  lə·’ā·ḏām ū·lə·’iš·tōw  kā·ṯə·nō·wṯ ‘ō·wr way·yal·bi·šêm.  p̄ 

22 way·yō·mer  Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hîm,  hên hā·’ā·ḏām hā·yāh  kə·’a·ḥaḏ mim·men·nū, lā·ḏa·‘aṯ  ṭō·wḇ wā·rā‘; wə·‘at·tāh pen- yiš·laḥ  yā·ḏōw, wə·lā·qaḥ gam mê·‘êṣ ha·ḥay·yîm,  wə·’ā·ḵal wā·ḥay lə·‘ō·lām.  

23 way·šal·lə·ḥê·hū  Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·hîm mig·gan-  ‘ê·ḏen; la·‘ă·ḇōḏ ’eṯ- hā·’ă·ḏā·māh,  ’ă·šer luq·qaḥ miš·šām.  

24 way·ḡā·reš  ’eṯ- hā·’ā·ḏām;  way·yaš·kên miq·qe·ḏem  lə·ḡan- ‘ê·ḏen ’eṯ- hak·kə·ru·ḇîm,  wə·’êṯ la·haṭ ha·ḥe·reḇ ham·miṯ·hap·pe·ḵeṯ,  liš·mōr ’eṯ- de·reḵ ‘êṣ ha·ḥay·yîm. s 

NIV:

21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 

22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 

23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 

24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Study:

After Adam named Eve, God provides clothes for them. We saw in an earlier post that when they ate the forbidden fruit, the first humans became aware that they could not serve as priests for the rest of creation without having appropriate priestly garments. Their fashioning fig leaf aprons for themselves should be seen as their response after gaining this knowledge. But they still hide from God, indicating that somehow the fig leaf aprons were insufficient or inappropriate.

Since God provides them with garments made of skin, many have concluded that this indicates not only that an animal was slaughtered, but also that God was trying to show the humans that without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin. Others, wanting to avoid this conclusion, have suggested wild proposals such as that the skins were artificial or that the humans initially did not have skin, but that God now provided that. Still others have suggested that God and the first humans had a discussion, not recorded in scripture, in which they decided that, instead of God killing them, God would kill some animal and then use its skin to cover them. The grasping at straws in the latter two approaches is quite evident. However, none of these approaches is actually correct and all of them are clearly reading Hebrews 9.22 into the text. 

First thing we observe is that even after they have sinned, God seems to have no issue with having a conversation with them even though they are wearing fig leaf aprons that they have discovered are inappropriate. It is they who were hiding from God not the other way round. Indeed, knowing that they have sinned and are hiding themselves, it is God who actively seeks them out. We often hear statements like ‘God cannot stand in the presence of sin’ or the reverse ‘sin cannot stand in the presence of God’. However, it seems that God had no problem with having a conversation with the man and the woman after they had sinned. 

The simple fact is that, after eating the forbidden fruit, the first humans realize that they are not wearing clothes appropriate to their office as priests. Their nakedness was drawing attention to their being creatures of God rather than pointing the rest of creation to God. So they hastily make the fig leaf aprons. But they find these aprons somehow inadequate and hide themselves from God. God address this issue by clothing them. It has nothing to do with the shedding of blood à la Hebrews 9.22 but is simply God telling them, “I will provide you with clothing that is adequate to your calling to be priests. That way you will know that, even though you have disobeyed me, you are still required to fulfill the purpose for which I have created you.” In other words, God’s act of providing apparel to the humans is his act of restoring them to their original vocation by himself providing adequate vestments for their priestly duties.

God then says, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” There is something unwholesome about allowing humans to eat from the tree of life after they had eaten the forbidden fruit. They had taken a shortcut and were now in a thoroughly confused state. They knew the difference between good and evil, but did not have the moral fiber to always choose good. And in this state it would be horrible for them and for the rest of creation if they could eat from the tree of life and life forever. The humans, always mortal, needed to be allowed to experience their mortality so that their inability to consistently choose good would not further and irrevocably damage creation.

So God sends the humans into exile from the cultivated garden, now to attempt to cultivate the ground outside the garden, the ground that still needed to be tamed. The humans would now know the difference between the pristine learning environment of the garden into which they were initially placed and the unkempt, adversarial environment into which they would spend the rest of their days. 

The last verse indicates how God ensures that humans do not have access to the tree of life. He sends the humans eastward and then entrusts Cherubim to guard the entrance. He also places a flaming sword that move menacingly, threatening severe harm to anyone who would dare enter the garden. 

If we were to ask about the location of Eden, we should first note that the word קֶדֶם (keh’-dem), translated as ‘east’ in many translations, also means ‘front’ or ‘entrance’. Moreover, the verse could equally be translated as “After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side the Garden of Eden, cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” The missing single word ‘of’ makes the location of Eden even more obscure. Are the cherubim at the east/entrance of the garden or vice versa? Perhaps the confusion is intentional so that humans would not go on pointless journeys attempting to locate the garden.¹

The point the text is making is that something of immense value was lost as a consequence of the disobedience of the first humans. We have been exiled from the garden. And so great is this separation that we will never even be able to locate the garden, let alone re-enter it. 

Prayer:

Gracious, loving Father. You have always dealt with us in grace and we are inexpressibly thankful for that. Enable us to recognize that our banishment from the garden was not a punishment but grace on your part because it would not be good for creatures like us, who do not have the fortitude to always choose good, to live forever. Enable us to know that, in our current state of moral ambivalence, our mortality is actually a gift from you to us and to the rest of creation. But empower us to take our mortality seriously and use the years we have to learn from you how to choose good over evil. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. 

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^{1.Despite this, people like Marilyn Agee, self-styled ‘prophecy expert’, have thrown caution to the wind and have used fanciful hermeneutics to force meanings onto various scriptural texts. In addition, she mentions a Babylonian inscription about the tree of life, but gives no references. This is because such an inscription does not exist! Once we decide that scripture is a ‘coded’ book that we have to ‘decode’ we can read any meaning into the texts and even mislead if needed. (See Marilyn Agee. Cherubim and the Flaming Sword. (Accessed on 19 July 2019) Please note that the page is not secure and your browser will most likely block it. If you wish to see the original, you will have to click on ‘Advanced’ on the warning page and then on ‘Proceed’. ↩}