God’s Mercy in the Death of Adam and Eve

God prevented Adam and Eve from eating from the tree of life and living forever after they sinned; this was nothing but a display of God’s great mercy and grace.

I am currently reading through the Hebrew Torah (the English translation, of course). By the time we get to Genesis 3:22, Adam and Eve have been duped by the Serpent, eaten the forbidden fruit, and God has spoken curses on their lives.

Then God decides to kick them out of Eden:

“And the LORD God said: 'Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever.’” (Genesis 3:22)

I was poring through commentaries trying to understand what God means when He says man “has become as one of us” in this passage. By eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve did become like God in at least one way, and this is clearly stated in the passage. They now had “knowledge of good and evil.”

By disobeying a direct command from God, the first couple gained an intellectual knowledge of what sin is (disobeying God). But in the process, they had fallen morally. In seeking to be equal to God, they ended up less than human.

And now they were about to find out what sin looks like. God decides to kick them out of Eden and blocks the way to the tree of life “lest they eat from it and live forever.”

I am learning that this was a most merciful act by God. In denying the fallen man access to eternal life, God was sparing man hell. For this is what hell is — living forever in our sin and facing the full consequences of our sin.

Our short lives are an act of mercy. To live long in this body of sin is to suffer beyond imagination. To live eternally outside the will of God is to be forever denied ultimate good and joy. In one sinful bite, paradise had become hell and God’s plan of redemption was already playing out in the exit of Adam and Eve from the garden.

This lesson is quite encouraging, and sobering. God was not threatened by the possibility of Adam and Eve living forever, He was grieved by it. It was an act of great mercy to kick the couple out of Eden. In human terms, God was amputating an arm to save a life.

But this won’t always be the case. The Bible says that unless we come to Him, unless we confess we are great sinners and Jesus is a great saviour, the Cherubim will finally be asked to unblock the way to the tree of life.

Someday we will walk back into Eden and “take a bite from the tree of life” and live forever. But will you do it in the shadow of your sin or will you do it in the shadow of the Cross? Your answer to this question makes all the difference in your life.