Expulsion from Eden – Genesis 3:22-24

It seems that humankind has, from the very beginning, been seeking the garden we lost, trying to build our own utopia, our own paradise society on earth.  All such attempts have failed because our inherent sinfulness always leads to a failure of unity and a failure of perfect governance.  We need Jesus.  We need his redemption, we need his resurrection, and we need his leadership.  We are no longer worthy of the garden in and of ourselves.

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 of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 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 3:22–24, ESV)

In what sense are Adam and Eve now like God, that is, knowing good and evil?  Isn’t this what Satan promised them, that if they ate from this tree they would be like God (3:5)?  Was Satan lying or telling the truth?  Well, it is obvious that Adam and Eve have not become like God in a good way, or in the way they expected.  Rather, they have now experienced evil, are aware of it in a way God is, but that is not for their good.  It has cost them their union with God in covenant.  And now it will cost them unending life.

Have they been eating from the tree of life already?  Or would this be the first time if God didn’t expel them from the garden?  Either way, what is the intent of this statement?  Is it that the tree of life symbolized eternal life and God did not want Adam and Eve to think they could get life that way, or is it that the tree actually confers life by eating from it?  In favor of the latter view is that God says if man eats of it he will live forever.  Perhaps the fruit of this tree contained some enzyme or other chemical that continued to restore human vitality.

But for Adam and Eve to live forever with redemption, but not the perfection that would have been granted them had they obeyed, and in the futility that God had imposed on earthly living, would not be a blessing but a drudgery.  So God expels them from the garden and from access to the tree of life.

He places cherubim (more than one cherub) to guard with a flaming sword against entry.  Cherub is a “kind” of angel, one of whose jobs is to guard the holiness of Yahweh (Isaiah 6) and lead in Yahweh’s praise.  Seraphim are another “kind,” as is an archangel.  There are ranks of angels who are first introduced here in Genesis.  We can piece together data from across Scripture to propose that angels are each individual creations of God who do not reproduce and who were created in God’s image prior to Earth’s creation, some of whom defected from God (under Satan’s leadership, the greatest angel to rebel), and are forever lost, whereas the “elect” angels, those who did not rebel, are forever sealed as God’s righteous servants, but whom mankind will eventually rule over as God’s vice-regents.