Genesis 3:20-24 — 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

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 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.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 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.

Genesis 20-24

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. (v. 20) Interestingly in January of 1987, three scientists, Rebecca L. Cann, Mark Stoneking, and Allan C. Wilson published an article in the journal Nature that announced that everyone in the human race descended from one mother. They called her Eve. Now they’ll argue about when she existed, and where she resided, but isn’t it remarkable that even science today recognizes that all of the human race is descended from one mother? I believe that over time, as scientific methods improve, science may ultimately confirm the accuracy of the bible.

The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (v. 21) God, in His grace and mercy, clothed Adam and Eve, not for His benefit, for Hebrews 4:13 says, Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. But God in His grace clothed Adam and Eve for Adam and Eve’s sake. Close your eyes and envision with me that your going out into the woods, finding fig leaves or leaves of any kind for that matter, and attempting to clothe yourself with them. Obviously it was a pathetic attempt made by Adam and Eve then, and still today, whenever you or I attempt to cover our sin in our own energy, it’s feeble at best. God had to do it, God had to clothe Adam and Eve after their sin. God offers to clothe us today. He provided His Son and offers Him to us so that we can be clothed with His righteousness if we but ask. (Isaiah 61:10, Revelation 3:20)

Now close your eyes again and imagine with me what Adam and Eve saw when they turned to look back as they left the Garden. There at the East side of the Garden they saw the bloody remains of the animals that were sacrificed so that they could be clothed, and they saw cherubim standing over the sacrifice. It’s interesting that later we see the same picture of cherubim and sacrifice in the tabernacle, and then again in the temple, and then again at the empty tomb where two angels would stand post over the slab stained with the blood of Jesus Christ. Animals were sacrificed to clothe Adam and Eve and Jesus died died for your sin and for my sin because, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22) Sin requires sacrifice.

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.” So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 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. (v. 22-24)

Thank God for driving Adam and Eve out of the Garden and blocking the physical way to the tree of life. Can you imagine what it would be like to live forever in this world polluted by sin? Apparently God could. His grace and mercy continues in that He found a way to limit the pain from all of the sin, guilt, shame, and destruction that all of humanity would endure after the fall of man. Because Adam and Eve no longer had access to the tree of life they would, mercifully, die after a time and enter into their rest.

Since the fall, the way, the physical way, to eternal life with God has been cut off.

But in His grace God provided another way. Only one way, and not a physical way, but a way none the less. Jesus said,