Genesis 3:20-24

Expulsion from the Garden

Introduction

Sin always offers something it cannot give

Sin is against God

Man’s greatest need is the Lord God

Sin offers wealth but brings you into spiritual poverty

Sin offers health but keeps you dead in your sins and trespasses

Sin offers success but let’s you fall from the peril of pride

Sin always offers something it cannot give

Adam was seeking something that sin could not give

Adam sought true freedom in partaking of the tree

But Adam forfeits freedom for bondage

And all of his posterity/progeny/children are under bondage

How impactful this is temporally

Find example from Pil Prog or something CS Lewis

In contrast, Christ offers something that He Himself can give

Eternal life

Forgiveness of sins

Redemptive benefits

Genesis 3:20-24 shows us that though sin was the cause for expulsion from the Garden, Christ restores us to Edenic paradise and communion with God as our Surety, High Priest, and King

Main points

Text

Doctrine

Application

Text

Authority (v. 20)

Reminder of Adam’s role, king

Naming = authority

God’s authority over heavens/earth

Man’s authority over animals

“Eve”

Interesting choice by Adam

Not “deceived one” or “crafty” for falling

Even Adam’s name is an extension of the grace given by God

Eve’s name resembles her calling in life, to bring forth the promised seed

This promised seed will be the ultimate “eve”

He will be the true life

But this promise seed will come through pain and toil

Indeed, the promised seed will endure pain and toil on behalf of His people

Atonement (v. 21)

Covenant God sets a precedence of atonement with shedding of blood

Hebrews 9:22 “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Gracious act of YHWH

God makes the garments for them

Works righteousness insufficient to cover for their sins

Fig leaves could not atone/cover up

They were still naked, exposed to sin

God covers

Leather tunics

Probably more than one animal sacrificed

Perhaps one for each

Foreshadow to the need for sin’s covering from now on

Awareness (v. 22)

“like one of us”

Back to Gen 1.26 and two options

Royal we - including heavenly host

Problem - we are not created in image of angels

Trinity “we”

Perichoresis

One member of Trinity acts, all act

Further act of grace on God’s part

Preventing them from taking the tree of life (eternality) with their sinful state

Would have been plunged into eternal death and torment by partaking

Importance expressed further in v. 24

Annulment (v. 23)

God did not merely “send out” Adam and Eve

Driven out, expelled

God is the one doing the action

They have decided to serve themselves

Divorcing them from His presence

Word used is also used in Leviticus w/r/t divorce

Parallel with v. 24, strength and intensity in the action

“to work the ground”

Reminder of the curse and his destiny

Taken from the dust, returning to the dust

Called to guard/protect the Garden

Now cast out from God’s protection

Abandoned (v. 24)

No longer in communion with God

True abandonment

Kings w/o kingdoms

Priests w/o a temple

Prophets w/o intimate communion w/ God

Eastward direction and its importance

East underscores man’s movement away from Eden

Genesis 4:16 “Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.”

Genesis 13:11 “So Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east. Thus they separated from each other.”

Genesis 25:6 “But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country.”

People of God traveled east to cross Red Sea

Temple/tabernacle faced east

Cherubim and flaming sword

“turned every way”

Repeated sense, constant in Hebrew verb

“guard the way”

God assigns other created beings to guard the tree of life

He is no longer authorized to guard and protect Eden

Doctrine - Gen 3.20-24 is a typological and protological understanding of the nature of God’s redemptive work which culminates in Jesus Christ

Importance of v. 24 as it relates to the rest of OT

Reminder: Two real trees

ToKGE - Covenant of Works, “do this and live”

ToL - Covenant of Grace, “live, now do”

Succeeding probation, Adam would have ascended to the highest and glorious Sabbath rest prepared

Cherubim is blocking the thing the sign signifies (ToL)

Man can no longer access - by himself - the tree of life

God’s graciousness in prohibiting Adam to further plunge into the depths of despair

Cherubim is blocking the blessing of eternal life from Adam

Man cannot accomplish God’s Law, the moral law

How do we know the moral law is here in the Garden?

The moral law is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments

The moral law is the unchangeable outward expression of God’s nature and attributes

Where did communion with God take place and where did He give forth His law?

Eden

Fast forward to Moses

God’s Law is delivered in form (not materially), that is written down, on Mt. Sinai

The people see the Law’s demands and remember it is God alone who redeems them

Where is the Law of God placed?

In the ark

Where is the ark placed?

In the Holy of Holies

What is the significance of HoH to Eden?

Represent same place

Rivers of gold, just as tabernacle is laced with gold

What is guarding the top of the ark?

The cherubim

How can one get to the Law of God?

Through atonement, through the mercy seat

Key point: In order to access that perfect resemblance of Gods law made manifest in the 10 commandments, the same thing Adam was obligated to obey, one must receive atonement

Christ Himself not only obeyed the Law to perfection, but suffered the curses of the law, and sacirificed Himself for the sins of His own people

He Himself tears apart the veil of the temple and gives us access to God Himself

Matthew 27:51 “And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.”

Hebrews 6:19 “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,”

Hebrews 9:3 “Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place,”

And because of Christ’s sufficiency alone, he has granted us the write to eternal life, to partake of the very tree our first parents were barred from

Revelation 22:1–3 “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.”

Revelation 22:14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.”

Application - Behold the Grace Given to You

Use 1. Finding forgiveness in the redemption of Christ

Christ indeed suffered the cruelest of penalties on behalf of His people

His obedience goes far beyond that of Adam’s disobedience

He obeyed the moral law in full, and accomplished its demands of perfect, perpetual obedience

Adam’s curses upon Christ, the Second Adam

“cursed is the ground”

Christ endured all the miseries of this life

Endured hunger, thirst, toil

He had to walk upon His own creation which was once “very good”

“in pain you shall eat of it”

What greater pain did Christ endure than the mocking and beatings

“thorns and thistles”

Christ wore and bore thorns upon His own head

Wore the curse upon His head, a mocking crown

“sweat of your face”

So great was Christ’s distress and willingness that he sweat in Gethsemane

Bearing the heavy cross

Did it so we could partake of His body and His bread

“return to the ground”

Christ was placed in a tomb, died, descended into hell

All of this He did for His own sheep

John 10:14–15 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

Rejoice in Christ’s atonement that you are no longer separated from God but restored, reconciled, and redeemed.

Your past sins are forgiven in Christ Jesus

Promise and guarantee

You know yourself better than anyone else

You know your unworthiness to be forgiven

You know the impossibility of balancing your account

Yet it is a promise of God that as far as the east is from the west so also is his forgiveness and steadfast love

Your present/future sins are forgiven in Christ Jesus

Even your daily struggles, Christ went to the cross for them

Not a license to sin, not permission to “do now, ask forgiveness later”

Hebrews 7:25 “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”

Use 2. Finding comfort in the providence of God

v. 21

God provided everything needed for the covering

The animal

The blade

The tanning

The stretching of the leather

The measurements

The proper fitting

God would have been just to tell Adam to cover himself

But Adam only felt shame, nakedness, and wrath

God doesn’t tell us to cover ourselves but He Himself covers us

Small glimpse of how redemption will be accomplished and applied

Solely, 100% a work of God from start to finish

From the slaughtering of the animal to the wearing of garments, God was involved

God’s provision brings us back to Eden

Contrast to expulsion from the Garden to the east

NT significance

When Jesus is born a star shines above and come from the east to worship the true King

The Redeemer has come and the return to Eden through Him is now here

God says to all

Here I am, come all who are weary and heavy laden, and I shall give you rest

God’s provision is a great comfort

If God gives us our greatest need, salvation, he will give us the rest of our needs

What we think we need is often not what we actually need

Anxiety/worry is done away with in God’s provision

Use 3. Finding peace in God’s covenant

Christ’s redemption restores us to that blessed state

Where Adam was divorced from God and throne into the wilderness, the place of chaos

Christ divorces us from our sin and weds us to Him

No longer slaves to sin but slaves to Christ

Where Adam’s freedom left him bound to sin our bondage to sin has been freed by the Second Adam

How should we act as those separated from sin?

Putting sin to death

Conforming to the image of Christ

Relying upon God’s continued grace

Finding strength in the Holy Spirit

Goodness of the Law gives us an awareness to our sin and depravity

Spirit enlivens our hearts and minds

Uses the Gospel to give us awareness of our true evil and affront against God

Provides us the Spirit to renew our wills and confess the glories of Christ

Continued use of the Law for believers

Rule of life

Duty to God

What we owe in response to the love that was shown