Garden of the Gods: Eden, the Garden of Failure and Redemption

^3:1 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals Yahweh Elohim had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did Elohim really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

² “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. ³ “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. Elohim said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

⁴ “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. ⁵ “Elohim knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like Elohim, knowing both good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5)

Adam and Eve failed the test. They desired autonomy, self-rule, to be their own god, to be able to determine good and evil for themselves. The fruit from the garden tree was to be their pathway to divinity but it became the rut of degradation.

⁸ When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard Yahweh Elohim walking about in the garden. So they hid from Yahweh Elohim among the trees… (Genesis 3:8)

The couple thought to hide among the trees of the garden when they heard the sound of Yahweh walking in His garden, coming no doubt to fellowship with them as He had so often before. Thankfully He found them and wrenched a confession of sorts out of them. They trusted in His promise of redemption and He clothed them in the skins of sacrificed animals. But there were consequences for their failure, expulsion from the garden to a world subjected to futility, the ultimate futility being physical death.

²² Then Yahweh Elohim said, “Look, man has become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” ²³ So Yahweh Elohim banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. ²⁴ After sending them out, Yahweh Elohim stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-28)

Redemption took place in the garden but couldn’t be lived out in the garden. That would have to wait for the victory of the woman’s seed over the serpent and the restoration of the perfect garden with the tree of life (Revelation 22:1-3).