Blessed Prohibition

Genesis 3:22-24 ESV

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.

I have always been fond of pets, especially cats, because they seem to be a lot easier to take care of than dogs. But when I was growing up, we always had dogs.

And living in the country like I did when I was growing up, whenever the dogs wanted to go out, we would just open the door and let them run. But one thing that was obvious about our dogs is that if we were outside with them, they would usually stay close to our side, but if something caught their attention, like a rabbit or a squirrel for example, they were going after it and there was no stopping them.

Now at home that was fine, they could run after a rabbit or a squirrel if they wanted to at home, but if we decided to take them out for a walk, that wasn’t ok. We didn’t figure that our neighbors would enjoy it if we had the dogs out for a walk and suddenly them relaxing on the front porch was disturbed by our dogs running in their yard barking, chasing after a rabbit or a squirrel.

But like I said, it is in their nature to do that, and if they decide that they want to chase something down, then there is no stopping them, unless they are somehow restrained.

That’s why when we would walk them, we wouldn’t let them run free, but we would have them on a leash, because what the leash guaranteed was that regardless of what our dogs wanted to do, we ensured that they stayed near us, and did not stray from the straight and narrow so to speak. So, in all reality, pet owners who walk their dogs with a leash are a blessing to their dogs, even though I’m sure that the dog doesn’t always see it that way.

As we conclude our lengthy series of messages this morning from the second and third chapters of the book of Genesis, we see God doing something very similar to the first man and first woman that we did when we took our dogs out for a walk.

And indeed, God continues to put similar restraints on those whom He has saved and set apart for His own purposes as He keeps those whom He has saved eternally secure in their salvation.

But first, let us begin our exposition this morning by looking at what made it necessary to put these restraints upon those whom He has graciously saved. Looking first at the beginning of verse 22, which reads:

Genesis 3:22a ESV

22a Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

“Then” which indicates after God had pronounced judgment upon the man, the Lord God said in His triunity, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil”.

Now, if we look back to several verses ago, particularly in verse five of this chapter, we read of where the serpent had told the woman that God did not want she and the man to partake of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil because God knew that when they ate of the tree, they will become like God, knowing both good and evil.

Now, we said that this translates to having the ability and the authority to determine for yourself what is good and what is evil. And the problem with that is that God Himself determines what is truly good and what is truly evil. He alone has the capacity and authority and ability to determine this.

And because man obtained this “knowledge” through disobedience to the only One Who can authoritatively determine this, the result is that now man is free alright, but the only thing that he is “free” to do is to choose and to love what is evil. Indeed, unless God graciously intercedes and interferes, man will always pursue what is evil.

Therefore, this statement of God is more like a statement of irony. God says that Adam desired to be “God-like”, to be a god himself. Adam had desired the knowledge of good and evil, and when he had received it, the first thing that Adam saw was how inadequate he was, the first thing that he saw is that what he had done was an evil thing.

And because man is now so naturally and fully prone to evil, the only thing that his “knowledge of evil” will lead him to is even more evil. Indeed, from this point forward, the man and the woman will naturally proceed from one evil to the next.

And being in the state that they are now in, God knows what they will naturally seek to do next and thus, God determines to do something about it before it happens.

We see this in the second half of verse 22 and in all of verse 23, which reads:

Genesis 3:22b-23 ESV

22b 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.

So, we know the sentencing that God had given to man, He told man that he would die. But when God had sentenced the serpent, He told the serpent that from the woman’s offspring would come One Who would bruise the head of the serpent.

What this sentencing of the serpent was meant to serve is give hope to the man and the woman, it was meant to give them a hope that though they had radically fallen, in the fullness of time, God would bring forth a Savior Who would save them from their sins.

Thus, the sentencing of the serpent was meant to show man that his salvation would be by the grace of God alone. That God alone would save them. And as they placed their trust and their faith in the grace of God, they would be justified.

Thus, though man was sentenced with death, God would graciously bless him with eternal life.

But as was said, man had radically fallen into sin, and because the man and his wife will proceed from one evil to the next, it is then only natural for man, once hearing the sentencing of God, to want to eat from the Tree of Life.

We must remember a few sermons back when we said that partaking in the Tree of Life resulted in eternal sustenance of life. Therefore, if man would eat from the Tree of Life, he would live forever.

Now, we may hear that and say “Problem solved! God should have let the man eat from the Tree of Life! Because if He would have then no one would ever die!” but there are at least two reasons why it would have been disastrous for man to eat of the Tree.

The first, and most important reason why it would have been disastrous is because in partaking of the Tree, what man would have been attempting to do is remedy the problem himself. It would have been an attempt at a works-based salvation, a self-inflicted salvation if you will.

The salvation of man has ever been owing to the grace of God and that alone, and thus the man and the woman attempting to save themselves through partaking of the Tree of Life would have been horrendously offensive to God and the result would have been terribly wanting.

And the second reason why it would have been disastrous for man to eat of the Tree is because of what a miserable existence man would have brought upon himself had he partaken of that Tree!

This would have meant an eternal existence lived in the depths of depravity. It would have meant an endless existence filled with pain, sorrow, disease, depression, and all forms of sin.

Thus, God knew that He must remove Adam and Eve from the garden in Eden for their own good.

“Therefore”, our reading says, because Adam and Eve would only proceed to do those things which would lead them into eternal ruin if they remained in the garden, “The Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden”.

And thus, God sent the man and his wife out of Eden, our reading says, “to work the ground from which he was taken”.

In that statement, we see two vital truths. The first is the recognition that man was taken from the ground. Man is ever reminded of his humble origins, for springing forth from the dust, he ever recognizes that he owes the entirety of his existence to God alone.

And we see also that man was to work this ground. And we know that just because we work the ground, the only reason why vegetation springs forth is because God causes it to spring forth.

Therefore, man not only owes his existence to God alone, but he also owes his sustenance to God alone as he works the ground and realizes that his sustenance comes not from his own acts, but from the grace of God.

Thus, removing the man and his wife from the garden was to drive the couple to ever humbly recognize the dependence that they must have upon God.

But though God had made this determination, the man was still loth to leave the garden.

We see this at the beginning of verse 24, where we read, simply:

Genesis 3:24a ESV

24 He drove out the man,

As we have said, God pronounced the judgment of death upon Adam, and knowing that the Tree of Life was within the garden, Adam was in no hurry to leave, even after God had made His determination. Therefore, God had to drive the man out of the garden. God had to force the man to do what was good for him.

This speaks of how God has been faithful to save His elect people ever since. As we know, God has been pleased to save an elect number of people to salvation from before the foundation of the world. But the elect, just like anyone else, is born into this world rebelling against God, just like Adam and his wife.

Therefore, just as God called Adam to leave the garden for his own good, yet Adam was not willing, so do the elect, before the appointed time set by God, hear the gospel call, know that the call is good, and yet insist on saving themselves.

And as God was obliged to drive the man out of the garden that he may find true salvation, so must it be that God first changes the hearts of His elect people. And when He changes their hearts, they are drawn to Him, driven to Him.

And indeed, what a blessing it is to be driven to God! For unless God drives us to Him, makes us come to Him, we will never come to Him.

But then God continues to add blessing upon blessing to those whom He saves, just as He added blessing upon blessing when it came to Adam and his wife, Eve and their prohibition from the garden. We see this at the end of this 24th verse, where we read:

Genesis 3:24b ESV

24b 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.

So, God drove Adam and his wife from the garden because they were not willing or even capable of leaving of their own accord, which was a blessing. And it was a blessing because had Adam remained and ate of the Tree of Life, he would have been damned forever. Therefore, being driven from the garden was the best thing for Adam, it was indeed a blessing.

But here too we see yet another blessing being added to Adam and Eve as God places a cherub with a flaming sword at the east of the garden which kept the couple from returning.

Now, you may wonder how that can be a blessing! But as God had to drive the man from the garden so that he would not eat of the Tree, so would the man, if left to himself, return to the garden in order to eat of the Tree, and thus be damned.

Therefore, for the good of the man and the woman, in order to keep them from so easily throwing themselves into damnation, God forcibly prohibited them from reentering the garden.

Beloved, the beautiful doctrine that this reveals to us is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, the eternal security of the believer. For just like Adam and Eve, though we are saved, still, left to ourselves, we will return to the muck and the mire of the vanity of self-salvation.

We trust in the Lord Jesus to save us, but left to ourselves, we will abandon that trust in but a moment, think that our salvation is in accordance with our own “strength”, and be damned forever.

Therefore, through grace, in accordance with unspeakable, incomprehensible love, God maintains our salvation. He maintains our salvation in that as He placed the cherub at the east of the garden to keep the man and his wife from reentering, so does He place guardrails around us to keep us from foolishly wandering off into eternal damnation.

Yes, my friends, as God receives the glory in saving us, so does God receive the glory in maintaining us. From beginning to end and to all eternity, salvation is of the Lord!

Let us worship Him accordingly!

Amen?