15The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it (Gen. 2:15 ESV). 24He 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 (Gen. 3:24 ESV).
Adam was put in the Garden of Eden to do two things: To work it, that is to cultivate the ground, and also to keep it. The bible does not actually say if he ever did both. We can only assume he did. When we think of Adam being placed in the Garden by God to work it, we often wrongly conclude that once he was placed in the Garden, his fall into sin quickly followed. But this may not have been the case. There may have been a great deal of time in which both Adam and Eve lived their lives enjoying the Garden of Eden before they were removed by God on account of their sin.
I don’t have a problem believing Adam cultivated the ground of the Garden. What I am not so sure of is if he ever did the “keeping” of it. Interestingly, the same Hebrew word for “keep” in 2:15 (shamar) is also used in 3:24, translated “guard.”
God wanted Adam to both work in the Garden and to “guard” it. Now what was Adam to guard in the Garden? Well, what was the one tree God told Adam not to eat from? Was it not from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Adam and Eve would be having children and grand-children and great grand-children, etc. Therefore, in order for God’s command not to be violated, Adam was told to “guard” the garden in addition to working in it.
Note: When I have asked others what was in the Garden of Eden worth guarding, some have said “the tree of life” (Gen. 2:9). But remember this: God NEVER told Adam he could not eat from the “tree of life.” He was only forbidden to eat from ONE tree only and that was from “the tree of knowledge of good and evil” (2:16-17). So, I personally believe Adam ate of the tree of life before his fall.
Now remember this folks: Adam already had longevity, right? God said to Adam that in the day you eat from the wrong tree, you will surely die. This means, that if he did not eat from the wrong tree he would not have died. God never said, “Until you eat from the tree of life, you will never live forever.” Nor did God say, “Unless you eat from the tree of life and not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will not live eternally. Adam already had the potential of longevity on earth in which he would not die. The only thing that would cut short Adam’s life was to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
So Adam, I believe partook of the “tree of life” not to have longevity, but he partook of the tree of life BECAUSE he had longevity. You see my point?
Do not think that Adam was ever forbidden to eat from the “tree of life” prior to his fall. He was only forbidden to do so “after” his fall. Adam lost his right to enjoy eating from the “tree of life” after his fall, but not before it. Adam’s life of longevity did not begin when he partook from the tree of life, it began when God first formed him out of the dust of the earth and breathe into him the breath of life. The partaking of the tree of life was put in the Garden for Adam to enjoy BECAUSE he would not die, not to partake from it in order to be given eternal life.
Now remember also this: It is called “The tree of life” (Gen. 2:9; 3:22, 24), not “the tree of eternal life.” So a person like Adam, before his fall, ate from the tree of life, not to get longevity – he already possessed it. But he ate of it because he had longevity from God and to also enjoy the fruit of it. Now of course, understand that we are talking about longevity in the physical and spiritual sense.
When God first formed Adam and breathe into him the breath of life, Adam was at that moment given both physical and spiritual life. When God told Adam that on the day he eats from the wrong tree, he would surely die, God had in mind two kinds of deaths: physical and spiritual. When Adam ate from “the tree of knowledge of good and evil,” Adam died spiritually instantly. He was instantly separated from God. But his physical death did not occur instantly. He did not die until he was over 900 years old. But as promised by God, he did die.
Why then did God put a Cherubim to guard the tree of life from being eaten? Simple. God did not want Adam in his sinful spiritual and physical state to eat from it or else he would remain alive “spiritually” in his sin forever. If such a thing occurred, then Adam could be permanently separated from God in such a state. Sin had to be punished. God is holy and there must be justice – and there was. Remember, God made garments of skin for Adam (God performed the first animal sacrifice, which pointed ultimately to the one sacrifice of His Son yet to come) which took care immediately Adam’s spiritual separation from God – i.e. his spiritual standing before the Lord.
Sin was dealt with on one level when Adam died physically (Gen. 5:5). “It is appointed unto man once to die. . .” (Heb. 9:27). But even though God performed the first animal sacrifice and made for Adam and Eve garments of skin, this was only a “temporary solution” for Adam’s sinful state. You see, the animal sacrifices were never meant to “take away the sin of the sinner,” (Heb. 10:11); instead such sacrifices only “covered the sin,” thus the picture of the garments of animal skins used for clothing. Animal sacrifices simply saved a sinner “on credit,” until Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God paid the ultimate sacrifice and thus paid the debt of all men who had applied to their lives the blood of animal sacrifices.
While in heaven, did Lucifer and the other one-third of the angels have eternal life? Yes. But what cut it short? Lucifer’s rebellion and of those who followed him.
Now let’s go a step further here. Keep this in mind as well. We think of “eternal life” as life that never ends, right? Well, this really is not the case. Every person who dies without Jesus still lives, right? Everyone born will NEVER die in terms of having life that never ends. The issue is– watch this – it’s the QUALITY of life. Where will one’s never ending life be lived? In heaven in the presence of God where there will be joy forever, or in hell apart from the presence of God where there will be pain and suffering forever? We need to understand that once God gives to each person his or her soul, never-ending life starts right then. Now the challenge is to decide what kind of quality of life does a person want? Life with Jesus or life apart from Jesus – it is all eternal.
Now watch this: By guarding God’s command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam was doing something that we often forget when it comes to understanding God’s commands. Adam was protecting others from the curse of sin. Someone may stumble into the Garden, see the forbidden tree and be tempted to eat from it. If that were to happen, then God’s Word would have been broken and the result would be death. Adam’s responsibility was to guard the Garden so as to ensure everyone’s protection. That was his job as both a husband and father.
Well, we know what went wrong. Eve took of the forbidden fruit and ate. Where was Adam? I don’t know, but I do know that he was no where guarding the Garden as was commanded to him by God. For if he was doing what God wanted him to do, Eve would have been stopped from falling prey to the serpent’s temptation.
Maybe this explains why Adam so willingly partook of the forbidden fruit from his wife. He realized that he had neglected his responsibility to guard the Garden, and his neglect was his fault that led to his wife’s fall.
You know how some people when they realize how irresponsible they were and how their irresponsibility may have cause the life of a loved one, once they process the enormity of their guilt, they end up taking their own life or try to destroy it in some way to ease the pain and deal with the guilt?
I remember this one young couple on the Mainland who had to deal with their son falling into their swimming pool because the wife took her eyes off of him for a moment. Her son fell into the pool and when she hung up the phone to go looking for him, there he was in the middle of the pool floating face down.
The guilt of knowing that your irresponsibility had caused your son to almost die and become crippled for life is overwhelmingly painful. You often pray to God, “Please, let me suffer for my irresponsibility, not him!”
Perhaps, Adam felt the same way, so to deal with his guilt of being an irresponsible husband to his wife, he willingly ate of the forbidden fruit so he would suffer the same fate as his wife.
I don’t know, I am only using sanctified speculation. But I do know that God told Adam to “keep” the Garden, and I do know what the word “keep” means “to guard” or “protect.” There was only one danger in that Garden worth watching over and that was the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Eve slipped through Adam’s guard and became a casualty. Now remember, God told Adam that whoever eats from this tree will surely die (Gen. 2:17). There were no other women around. When Eve ate of the tree and Adam knew what the consequences would be, there would go his wife and at that time the only woman on the planet.
Here’s the bottom line: God asks of us, fathers and husbands to “guard” members of our families from the forbidden fruit of the world. What kind of job are we doing?
Could it be that working the ground and guarding the Garden goes hand in hand? If Adam had been working the ground of the Garden, would he not also have been in a better position of guarding the Garden? When he should have been working in the Garden, he wasn’t. And the serpent used Adam’s absence to take advantage of his wife’s vulnerability. I have worked as a security guard long enough to know that you cannot guard a place while at the same time leaving your post. Adam left the Garden. To leave the Garden was not forbidden by God. What Adam should have done in terms of protecting his wife was when he left the Garden, he should have took her with him.
When God gives a command, always remember that behind every command uttered by God, there is the element of protection that goes with it. When God says, “Thou shall not. . .,” God is really saying, “I am trying to protect you from some serious consequences.” Therefore, we need to guard the commands of God seriously. We are to keep God’s commands in the sense of holding them close to our hearts so His commands are never out of our sight. To be a good guard means to keep whatever you are guarding within your sight.
Here’s a few more interesting observations. First, Adam was told by God not only to rule over the Garden, but also the earth (Gen. 1:28). So the extent of Adam’s rulership went beyond the boundaries of the Garden. We must not think that the only place Adam was to live his life was within the confinement of the Garden. No, Adam could move about freely outside the Garden.
Second, food was not limited to what was found in the Garden for both man and animals (Gen. 1:29-30). Adam could freely eat of any tree outside of the Garden. He was not limited to eating only what was within the Garden itself.
Third, God was looking for someone to cultivate the ground outside of the Garden before Adam came along (Gen. 2:5). Adam was told to cultivate the Garden too (v. 15). The only difference between working in the Garden and working outside of it was God told Adam to “guard” the Garden, but he was not told to guard the land outside of the garden.
Fourth, Adam was created outside of the Garden and afterwards place in it by God (Gen. 2:7-8). After Adam had sinned, God expelled him outside of the Garden where he was first created and where his body would once again return to dust (Gen. 2:23-24). What I find interesting was that after Adam had sinned, God stationed a Cherubim to guard anyone from eating of the tree of life (v. 24). But why did God have to expel Adam from the Garden? What God wanted guarded was the tree of life so that Adam would not be tempted to eat of it in his sinful state. But the tree could still be guarded without having to expel Adam from the Garden itself.
Perhaps, the Garden could also be looked upon as an illustration of heaven. The “tree of life” would be a type of Christ. Where is the tree of life now? In heaven or paradise (cf. Rev. 2:7; 22:2, 14). The Garden, being perhaps a representation of heaven itself where God, the giver of life dwells cannot contain anything sinful. This is why Satan was also expelled (Luke 10:18). Since Adam and Eve sinned, both had to be expelled from the Garden, never to return again in their natural state. Therefore, the Cherubim not only guarded the tree of life, but also kept sinful man from entering back into the Garden (a type of heaven itself).
Apparently, nothing died in the Garden. When God expelled Adam from the Garden, he was brought back to the place where God had originally formed him. This would be the place where he would eventually die outside of the Garden. Similarly, nothing dies in heaven. All physical death and decay occurs here on earth. If Adam were to reenter the Garden, if would have to do so not with his natural sinful body, but with a resurrected glorified body.
Anyway, I must thank my wife for getting me started on these observations. Most of what I have put in words came from her own bible study observations that she excitedly shared with me. I am sure glad she did.
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