Join Me On the Journey

I’d like to talk to you today about something that you may never have stopped to really think about. Why did God drive Adam and Eve from the garden?

Most of us think that God drove Adam and Eve from Eden because they had sinned and He is holy. He couldn’t stand to be in their presence any more after they sinned. I thought:

1. God could no longer fellowship with man until He could send His Son to die for our sin, so He drove man out of the garden and then put a guard at the mouth of the garden so man couldn’t sneak back in.
2. God then abandoned the earth and went back to Heaven. (Of course, I know that God is everywhere at once, but that was just one more thing that I couldn’t reconcile, so I tried not to think about it.)

I thought that because I had been taught that. I thought that until someone encouraged me to actually go back and read for myself what the scripture actually says.

Gen 3:22-23a 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: therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, (KJV)

As a friend of mine is always saying, “When you see the word ‘therefore’ look to see what it’s there for.” God did not send Adam and Eve from the garden because they had sinned and were defiled and He could no longer look on them or fellowship with them. He sent them out of the garden because He didn’t want them to eat of the tree of life and live for ever after they had sinned.

Had He not protected them from eating of the Tree of Life, they could have taken the fruit and still been alive today. Can you imagine what it would be like to have to live in your body for an eternity? The Bible says that God will give us a glorified body (Phil 3:20b-21 …the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.) However, if we had eaten of the Tree of Life, we would be condemned to life in our mortal body for eternity. Yuck!

God has something better planned for us.

Now, what about the second part? Did God withdraw to Heaven and stay there until all the prophecies were spoken in the Bible and Jesus could come into the earth to redeem us?

Well, that answer is, “No.” God didn’t withdraw His presence. God was still walking and talking with man. If you follow the story of man through the next chapter, we find the story of Cain and Abel.

Gen 4:1-5 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. (KJV)

Now, how did Cain and Able know that they were supposed to bring a sacrifice to God? Where did they learn that? Did they learn it from Adam and Eve? Where did Adam and Eve learn it?

Adam and Eve had no need for sacrifice until the moment they sinned. And once they sinned, they were banned from Eden, and I had always believed, banned from walking and talking with God.

Did God give them instruction to sacrifice animals when He killed the animals and covered them with skins?

Well, why did Cain bring a grain offering of grain? Abel brought the “fistlings” of his flocks and Cain brought an offering, but not the first fruits (or tithe). The actual commandment to bring a tithe (or the first fruits) wasn’t given until 2000 years later.

God must have been still talking to man. Otherwise:

1. how did they know what sacrifices to bring
2. how did they know that God had accepted Abel’s offering and not Cain’s

If you find that argument hard to swallow, allow me to take it a step further.

Gen 4:6 And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? (KJV)

Now, we hear people talk about “God said this or that to me.” God does speak to our spirit and I believe that we can hear from God in that way, but we have a regenerated spirit. Old Testament man did not. Our “new spirit” comes at the moment that we accept Christ’s atonement. So, Cain must have heard an audible voice from God.

Let’s look at it another way. What would happen if God spoke to you in an audible voice? I don’t know about you, but I think it would startle me. Cain didn’t seem to bat an eye. This says to me that Cain was used to hearing the voice of God.

Let’s take it a step further.

A short time later, Cain rose up and killed his brother.

Gen 4:9 And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? (KJV)

Now if you were the very first murderer on the face of the earth, and an audible voice from God asked you the whereabouts of the person you had just killed, what would you do? I think I would just die of a heart attack!

What did Cain do? His reaction was, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” He lied to God. That shows us that Cain was so used to having God speak to him that he would just lie to God and not think a thing about it.

Remember the old saying, “Familiarity breeds contempt?”

For Cain to respond to that way is evidence that God spoke to him on an ongoing basis. If God was speaking to Cain doesn’t it follow that He was still speaking to everyone else on the earth. How else could they all know about sacrifices? How else could Cain be so familiar with God’s voice that it didn’t even startle him when God confronted Him in his sin.

It’s amazing what you can learn when you read scripture and take it literally. It’s amazing what misconceptions we have. It’s amazing that we can go for years–perhaps even our entire lives–believing without question things we were taught when we were in church and Sunday School.

I would encourage you to go back and read this account for yourself. Don’t just believe what I had to say about it.

And in your quiet time, keep an open mind when you read your Bible. Read what the scripture says; not what you think it says. (One thing that can help is to read passages from different Bible versions.) You might learn something surprising today.

Popularity: 9%