Recently I preached from Genesis 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened . . .
I focused on two points: (1) the new awareness Adam and Eve had to their own nakedness and (2) the new awareness they had to the pain of child-birth. Just before that sermon was preached I deleted (being sensitive to time) a third point – a third new awareness that Adam and Eve had as a result of partaking of the forbidden Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That new awareness was of the Tree of Eternal Life.
Check it out - Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" — therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:22-24)
Before chowing down on the forbidden, there is no indication that they had any awareness of the Tree of Life – just an awareness of the Tree of Knowledge. With their eyes freshly opened, scripture indicates that they now potentially had awareness of something that was present all along but previously hidden from their eyes. As a result, God gave them the boot. The tribe has spoken!
Questions scribbled on my heart’s wall:
1. What was God really so hot and bothered about anyway? What was the real threat? Was God jealous? Was He afraid that Adam and Eve would become “gods” – too many cooks now in the same kitchen sort of thing?
2. Could the eviction actually been an act of divine love? The progression through Genesis 3 shows Adam and Eve worsening a bad situation by their own denial and blame-shifting. Before the eviction they get the surprise news of their futures filled with pain, toil and frustration. With their new awareness of the Tree of Life, was God now worried that they might turn to that Tree as "quick fix" for their nakedness, pain, and toil – hoping for relief but instead potentially locking themselves into a permanent and forever fallen situation? How disastrous would that have been?
3. How often, when I’m in a mess, do my home-made remedies only make things worse?
4. The Tree of Life would seem to be a good religious thing – a quick fix for a bad situation. One quickie bite - right? Yeah - we know what happened after the last on-the-go snack. What seemingly good religious things am I apt to turn to for a quick fix rather than walking the difficult paths of discipline and redemption that God might have for my life instead?
5. In what ways may God be trying to protect me from myself today?
6. When I feel “evicted” from what could have been (when I feel the dreams of yesterday have eluded my grasp because of my failures and sins), can I wrap my brain around this idea . . . that somewhere in the midst of this path of discipline may just be the loving hand of the Father rather than the angry boot of fate? How can I let go of what could have been and move forward in what "is"? Can I find purpose and hope in this purplexing path?
