After letting Adam and Eve hear the wonderful promise of a coming Redeemer (the promised Seed), then God told them the sad results of their sin. They were to have sorrow, suffering and hard work during their lives, with death at the end. It became a groaning creation, and even the animal creation has had to share in the suffering. God also cursed the ground for Adam’s sake, and all the thorns and thistles we see are the results of this curse. We cannot help but think of the crown of thorns which wicked men placed on the head of the Lord Jesus, when He was made a curse for us. Yes, He died on the cross to put our sins away, and bring us into even greater blessing than if Adam had never sinned at all.
Then God clothed Adam and Eve with coats of skins, and in order to get these skins, the animal must be killed. This pointed on to the Lord Jesus, who died for us, that we might be clothed in a robe of righteousness suited to the presence of God. Any other robe or covering that a sinner can have is only “filthy rags” before God (Isaiah 61:10 and Isaiah 64:6).
The Tree of Life
If God had allowed them to eat of the tree of life and live forever in this world, it would have been terrible. So He drove them out of the garden and would not let them return. But God had something much better in His purposes of grace. In Revelation 22 we read about a new scene, and all in that city can eat of the tree of life, for “there shall be no more curse.” The ones who enter there “have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14).
God placed Cherubim and a flaming sword at the entrance to the garden to keep the way of the tree of life. These are types or symbols to bring certain things before our minds. Now God uses a great many types in His Word, but He does not want us to form our own opinion about what they mean, or we might make some bad mistakes. The meanings of these types are found in the Bible if we read it carefully and prayerfully. The Cherubim speak to us of God’s righteousness in the government of this world. God must act in righteousness and punish sin. We deserved the punishment, but the “flaming sword” of God’s judgment fell on the Lord Jesus at the cross (see Zechariah 13:7), and He bore all the sins of those who believe, and now we can sing:
Death and judgment are behind us
Grace and Glory are before
All the billows rolled o’er Jesus
There they spent their utmost power.
Dear young reader, can you say that Jesus bore your judgment? For if He did not bear it for you, then you must bear it yourself in Hell forever. You will be kept out of the heavenly city, where only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life can enter.
Further Meditation
1. Why did God drive Adam and Eve out of the garden?
2. Why would it have been terrible for God to have let Adam and Eve eat fruit from the tree of life? Why would it be terrible for Him to let one sinner with one stain of sin into heaven?
3. The cherubim mentioned in this chapter are one of a group of angels. You can find out lots more of what the Bible has to say about angels in the pamphlet Angels by J. Williams.