I can't even begin to fathom how God was able to simply speak the world into existence. Just imagine the kind of power it takes to say, "Let there be light" and it happens! Omnipotence, that's all I can say. And wow.
One thing that always stuck out in my mind from the Garden of Eden that I always felt never got much attention is the Tree of Life. We know all about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and how eating of its fruit caused Adam and Eve's eyes to be opened and made them aware and ashamed. For a long time, I thought it was only because they ate of this tree that God cast them out of Eden. However, I have never noticed what was said in Gen 3:22-24...
"Then the Lord God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever'--therefore, the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life."
Sadly, until I started reading through the Bible this time around, I had never fully examined this piece of Scripture carefully. I suppose I felt that I heard it enough in Sunday School as a child that there was nothing left to examine. I always thought that Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden only because they disobeyed God. I always viewed the Garden as a form of Heaven on Earth, and once humanity fell, they were no longer "worthy" to be in the Garden.Therefore, the angel (cherubim) guarded the entrance to the Garden so that they could no longer enter the Garden.
Maybe that's part of the truth, but the end of Genesis 3 shows me that even while humanity was being punished with the curse of sin, God still had compassion on those He created in His likeness. Rather than let the fear of death that was now instilled in humans drive them to eat of the Tree of Life and therefore suffer in their sinful human nature on Earth until the end of time, God showed mercy by preventing them from being able to gain eternal life on Earth. Like many of us when we receive some form of "punishment" or "chastisement" from God, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't realize that He was actually showing His love for them, even in their time of failure.
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