After the fall in Genesis chapter three, we read in verse 23, “So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.”
Okay, so maybe we need to back up a little bit for some context.
“In the beginning.” In the original Hebrew this was the title that referenced the scroll, rather than the beginning of chapter one. Since there is no beginning and no end with God, “beginning” has to be defined by the context and many biblical scholars believe “In the beginning” was not literally the beginning but was a summary statement of what the chapter records of God creating the world as we know it.
Therefore, we could start reading Genesis chapter one as, “God created the heavens and the earth.”
In chapter two verse 7, God created Adam from the dust of the ground (it’s true, he’s just ‘man’ here and hasn’t been named yet) and put him in the Garden of Eden. “The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (v.9).
Before God created a suitable helper for Adam (v.21), He commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (v. 16-17).
Now, it’s important to note, helper is the English translation for the Hebrew word ‘ezer, which not only draws a scriptural comparison to God as “the one who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves, the one who meets our needs,” or an “indispensable companion,” but also expresses, “The woman would supply what the man was lacking in the design of creation and logically it would follow that the man would supply what she was lacking” (M. L. Rosenzweig, “A Helper Equal to Him,” Jud 139 (1986): 277-80).
Hopefully you know the rest of the story.
In the Garden, the Serpent tempts Eve with eating fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and she in turns gives a bite to Adam. This egregious act of disobedience ushers in the fall and we loop back to the beginning of this article with God banishing Adam and Eve from the Garden.
This is where we get to the meat of my viewpoint…
All too often, the sermons I’ve heard preached on this topic claim Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden because they sinned, and God cannot be in the presence of sin.
The belief that God cannot be in the presence of sin may come from Habakkuk 1:13, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.”
Yet, directly following that verse we find, “Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”
Here, the prophet Habakkuk is grappling with what he finds to be inconsistencies in God’s actions with His character. First, He is too pure to look approvingly at evil or favor wickedness, but He allowed Israel’s sin to go unpunished. Second, He is too pure to look approvingly at evil or favor wickedness, but He allowed the Babylonian’s treachery in slaying Israelites who were more righteous than themselves.
Sifting through Scripture, it’s not hard to find one example after another of God being in the presence of sin and sinners. Therefore, we can accurately deduce this was not the reason Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden.
In Psalm 139:7-8, we read, “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, Your are there.”
The depths in this passage symbolizes that which is dark, damp and separated from the visible realm of life.
God is even there!
Keep in mind, this psalm was written by David, the man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22), who murdered one of his elite soldiers, Uriah, to hide his sin of taking advantage of his wife, Bathsheba, and impregnating her (2 Sam. 11, 12).
So, why was Adam and Eve banished from the Garden of Eden?
Prior to the banishment, we read, “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” (Gen. 3:22).
God didn’t banish Adam and Eve from the Garden to punish them, but to protect them.
Yes, Adam and Eve’s sin of disobedience divided them from God because they were banished, and that event was a foreshadow of the separation mankind would experience throughout their lives depending on their daily choices and ultimately, whether they’ll be separated from Him for eternity or not.
Yet, in the Garden, God was working out His Promise Plan in banishing Adam and Eve – even going so far as to place cherubim angles to guard the entrance to Eden – to prevent them eating from The Tree and Life. “After He drove 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” (Gen. 3:24).
You see, because of the sin Adam and Eve committed, if they had eaten from The Tree of Life, they would have been condemned forever, in their sin condition, separated from God for all eternity.
We can accurately describe this separation as, hell.
God’s love and mercy were the reason Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden.
For God so loved the world…
And how would His Promise Plan play out?
In the person of Jesus the Messiah!
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