The Bible: One Bite at a Time Expository Sermon Series Notes Genesis to The Revelation Sid Galloway © 1999

Tree of Life: Off Limits  Genesis 3:20-24

Audio Tape # 30   June 4, 2000         (Notes Updated June 9, 2000)

Review: (Gen 3)

Weekly Memory Verse - Genesis 3:24 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."

The Text: Genesis 3:20-24 (Strong's #'s in parentheses)
20 "And Adam called his wife’s name Eve (2332, Chavvah, "life"), because she was the mother of all living (2416, chay = life).
21 Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made (6213, asah) tunics of skin (5783, owr - leather) , and clothed them.
22 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 (2416, chay), and eat, and live (2425, chayah) forever (5956, olawm, everlasting)”
23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.
24 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."

Exposition and Commentary - (Gen 3:20-24)

VIII. Barred from the Tree of Life (Gen 20-24)
A. Eve, the Mother of All Sinners

- Adam = The Hebrew term means "red", and is closely associated with the term for ground or red dirt (adamah). So you might say that Adam's name is "Mud". God's name YAHWEH (Jehovah) comes from the Hebrew verb, "to be" (havah). God's name means "I AM", and it proclaims God's self-existence. Adam's name on the other hand proclaims that man is not self-existent. Adam's name proclaims his finite dependence on God. It is a humbling reminder that God is creator, and man is the creature. Yet from the rebellion of Lucifer and Adam to the culmination of this age in the rise of the Anti-Christ, man's sin nature attempts to build his self-esteem until it reaches the throne of godhood. (Remember the false promise of Deepak Chopra, the reigning modern psychiatrist-guru offering to help you become "I AM".)
- Eve = The Heb. term means "Life". Her name proclaimed that from her womb all human descendants would come. Remember that Jesus said that Moses wrote of Him when Genesis was penned (Luk 24:27, 44). So, it might also be that Adam named her as a prophetic reminder that from woman would come a single "seed" (Messiah, the Savior) bringing life to a world now corrupted by death (terminal entropy).
- 'em = The Heb. is the normal term for mother, yet this simple description of Eve stands in direct contrast to the ancient lie of evolution. Humans did not come from fish to reptiles to apes to people. Humans came from God, who created (bara) the first husband and wife, father and mother, a new kind.

* Also, this reference to motherhood exalts the rank, role, and awesome responsibility of all mothers. But Satan, the father of liars, has tried to subvert and destroy God's design for the family over the past 6,000 years of human history. Today, with the help of the media and its technological pulpit promoting anti-momma propaganda, Lucifer is more effective than ever.
** Did you know that the only woman to ever serve as a judge in Israel, Deborah, was described as the mother over that nation (Jud 5:7). Why? In Isaiah 3:4-12 God warns that when men fail to exercise the God-given authority that FATHER God gave them, then their children will rebel and "women will rule over them". Folks, Deborah became the Momma over a bunch of passive, wimpy, immature men of Israel. They acted like little boys, who were too selfish and afraid to take the lead, and Barak was their pinnacle model of spiritual impotence. So when modern pseudo-scholars use Deborah to justify Christian feminism, just remind them of why she had to rule, and what the best solution would be. The best solution is to return to God's design for the home, the church, and the nation. Guys, it's time to gird up your loins and lead like men. Ladies, it's time to build homes that serve as a genuine refuge of God's nurturing love for your husband and your children.

B. Covered both Body and Soul ("God made coats of skin and clothed them")

- Sin caused separation between God and man. The consequence was terminal entropy, death. Adam became separated from his self-existent Creator, and even the ground (adamah) and the rest of the environment no longer functioned according to God's original order. You might say the weather report that day warned of, "Entropical Storms". Entropy would lead to temperature extremes and violent catastrophes. So God in His mercy and grace gave to our fore-parents protective clothing (Hebrew = coats of leather).
- Not only did God provide for their physical bodies with these clothes, but as we've studied before, these bloody animal skins foreshadowed GOD'S WAY HOME - THE WAY OF HIS SON, THE LAMB OF GOD (The Cross).

* The gift of eternal life from the self-existent Creator was forfeited by man's sin. The just punishment must be death: eternal separation from God who alone is life. Man must have a substitute to bear his punishment of death, in order to again receive the gift of eternal life.
* Please remember that the Bible does not say that God directly slaughtered the animal that provided the skins. Throughout the Word, God's consequences are most often the withdrawal of His sustaining Hand, which then indirectly causes disorder, death, and decay. The animal may have been killed by another animal, as competition and survival of the most violent now became the way of the WILDerness.

- Note the repeated contrasts between "life" and "death" throughout these early chapters of Genesis. All of the Bible, all of history (His/story) contrasts our Creator who is the only self-existent "I AM", in opposition to rebellious creatures who are merely "i am" wannabees. There's not much self-esteem you can muster out of the truth that man is merely self-deceived dirt, created in God's image to reflect all esteem back to God alone (soli deo gloria). Jesus in John 8:31 ff made it quite clear. There is a truth that will make folks free from slavery to self. That truth says that we are rebellious sinners and that only the Son of God is good. The truth leads to Christ-esteem, not self-esteem.

C. Eternal Life Withheld: "lest he ... take also of the tree of life, and eat, and life forever"

- "Us". Some commentators see this as a reference to God and the angels, but most conservative scholars (students of Scripture) believe the "Us" refers to the three persons of the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
- YAHWEH Elohim in intimate communication among the Godhead said that Adam had become like them in that he now knew good and evil. God not only is self-existent, but He alone is autonomous (Self-law). God's Word is Law, Truth, Righteous, and Good. Adam chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so he could independently choose what he thought was right and wrong. He tried like Lucifer (Isa 14; Eze 28) to be autonomous, a law unto himself.
** For those of you who are philosophically inclined, Adam chose an epistemology apart from, or at least in addition to, God's Word.
- Now Adam was in a state of sinful rebellion and separated from God who alone IS eternal life. If Adam would have eaten of the Tree of Life, he would have lived forever, physically, in this horrible, corrupted state, and creation would have been eternally contaminated. God in His mercy and His Holiness chose to withhold the source of physical, eternal life. And in His grace, He allowed mankind to slowly die having many opportunities to repent and seek GOD'S WAY HOME.
- The Bible speaks of the Tree of Life numerous times, culminating in the Revelation where it is contrasted with the Second Death.

* Tree of Life: (Gen 2:9; 3:22-24; Pro 3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4; Rev 2:7; 22:2, 14). (Also the water of life: John 4; 7:37-39; Rev 21:6)
* Second Death (Rev 20:14; Mat 10:28; Rev 21:1-8) The Second Death is the final consequence for rejection of God's Way Home. Scripture says that death and hell will be thrown into the Lake of Fire, and Jesus warns that in this final judgment both body and soul are destroyed (Mat 10:28). As the judgment is pronounced and the sentence about to be carried out, those who have rejected God's Way will not repent. Some will weep with self-pity claiming, "This is not fair, I deserve better than this.", and others will gnash their teeth in bitter hate toward the only true God who proves He alone is "I AM", and they are not.

- Cherubim = plural form of cherub = the highest of the angels who are presented in the Bible as standing around the throne room of God, and serving in both judgment and purification. (Psa 104:4; Exo 25:20) (Eze 28:14, 16, Isa 14 possibly refer to Lucifer as one of the cherubim).
- Flaming Sword. Both terms refer to judgment, purification, and God's hand of justice.
- The Garden of Eden was not destroyed, but rather withheld from man. Only those who overcome will enter into God's presence. And they overcome (Rev 12:11) by the word of their testimony of submissive faith in Jesus, the blood the Lamb, and they do not love their life, even unto death. Love for Jesus overcomes even our sinful self-love. Try it sometime at an "all-you-can-eat" restaurant.

Now The Good News: 1 Corinthians 1-58

- One day soon all rebellion will be ended. All sin, pain, suffering, tears, and death will be removed from God's presence (absolute entropy - 2 Pet 3). His children will be given glorified bodies that can never die, and we will eat of the tree of life in His intimate presence, fellowshipping with Him forever.

Questions for Application:

- Are you sure that you will one day eat of the tree of life?
- Do your thoughts, words, tone, & actions prove it?
- Do you really want to rescue those who are lost?
- What are you doing to reach them?
- Do you care about your brothers and sisters in God's family?
- What are you doing to disciple them?

Time is short folks, so let's get to it .....................!