Paradise Lost

One of the darkest chapters in American history happened in the 1830’s in Georgia. The Cherokee Indians lived in the northwest corner of that state in an uneasy truce with the white man. Far from being savages, the Cherokees had set up their own villages, roads, farms, and schools. They even had their own national constitution. One of them, a brilliant scholar named Sequoia, had invented an alphabet for their language, and had published books. The Cherokees were a peaceful people and wanted nothing more than to have friendly relations with the U.S. Government.

Unfortunately for them, the U.S. Government decided that it did not want them there. Under pressure from white settlers who coveted their land, especially after gold was discovered on it, the Cherokees were forced out. The U.S. Army moved in and began to round them up. Their lands were seized, their homes were burned, and they were herded like cattle 800 miles west to the territory of Oklahoma. At least 4000 Cherokees perished on route. They died of cholera, dysentery and fever. Women died in childbirth. Many of those who died had simply lost the will to live. This shameful episode - the exodus of the Cherokees - came to be known as the Trail of Tears.

Today we come to a passage which tells us of another Trail of Tears. We read in Genesis 3 that Adam and Eve had to leave their home in the Garden of Eden. The Paradise they had enjoyed and called home would be their home no longer. But they were not being evicted in innocence. They had to leave because of their own rebellion and disobedience to God. They had turned their backs on God and followed Satan. They had sinned.

The punishment for sin is eternal separation from God. But sin also brings with it many consequences that are immediately felt in every area of life.

1. It brings shame; it makes us want to cover ourselves up and hide.

2. It brings fear of God; it makes us want to run from His presence

3. It brings blame; it makes us want to avoid responsibility and pass the buck.

4. It brings pain - for the woman in the sphere of her family; for the man in the sphere of his work.

5. It brings enmity between the sexes; conflict in marriage

6. It brings a sense of homelessness, a sense of uprootedness.

God created Adam and Eve to live in the Garden of Eden. What a wonderful place it was! But they lost it. They were made homeless. Ever since Adam and Eve were put out of the garden, mankind has been trying to find a home on this planet that would really feel like home. But no matter how hard we try, no matter how much effort we put into making where we live feel like home, somehow we have in our hearts a sense of homelessness, a sense that we just don’t quite belong anywhere. This is just another consequence of sin, just another indication that we are still on that Trail of Tears.

Perhaps you’ve seen the famous painting by Masaccio that depicts Adam and Eve leaving the Garden. It is called Expulsion from Paradise and it is a fresco on the walls of the Church of the Carmine in Florence, Italy. The artist made use of bold contrasts of light and darkness to highlight the drama of the scene. Adam and Eve are being driven away by an angel who hovers overhead, sword in hand. They are consumed with anguish. Adam’s head is bowed low, his face buried in his hands. Eve’s head is thrown back, her mouth open in a cry of sorrow and pain. Their very body language speaks of the shame and the despair that they must feel. It is a grim picture, full of pathos and tragedy.

But I want you to know today that God, in spite of the pain and sorrow of this situation was a God of grace. In His grace, He provided two things for Adam and Eve as they embarked on that Trail of Tears that we still find ourselves on today.

First, He provided them with clothes to wear.

Genesis 3:21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Now why is this significant? Well, you will remember that when Adam and Eve sinned, they became aware and ashamed of their own nakedness. Sin brought shame, and shame brought a desire to conceal themselves. They had sought to cover their nakedness with clothing that was made out of fig leaves.

But God looked at their clothing and said it was not acceptable clothing for sinners. He said “Now that you are sinners, I will give you the proper clothing to wear.” And he clothed them with garments made of skin.

How do you get garments made of skin? You have to kill an animal. I have never heard of an animal voluntarily offering to step out of its skin so that a man could have clothes. The animal has to die.

Do you see the significance of what God did here? He was teaching Adam and Eve that in order to cover sin, it’s going to cost a life. We can only imagine the scene as God brings two animals - one for Adam and one for Eve - and slaughters them before their horrified eyes. If they didn’t already know the seriousness of what they had done, surely they did now as they saw those animals killed! And, by the way, what kind of animals do you suppose they were? The Bible doesn’t say, but I believe they were lambs.

God was teaching Adam and Eve, and by extension, all of us that the only acceptable covering for the sin of sinful people is that which God provides. And the covering which God provides is a covering which requires the shedding of blood. That is why the fig-leaves were no good. First of all, they were man’s attempt to cover his own sin fulness. We have people today who do the same thing in the sight of God. They put on the fig-leaves of good works, of religion, of high ethical standards, and they expect that those things will make them acceptable in the sight of Holy God. But it doesn’t work. It’s no good. “Without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin.”

An animal lost its life so that man might have a covering that was acceptable to God. An innocent victim had to become the substitute for man. An innocent victim had to bear the punishment for man’s sin, so that man could go on living in the sight of Holy God. What God did for Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden anticipates what He was going to do for the whole human race when He sent His Son to die as our innocent substitute. The Trail of Tears is stained with blood.

But there’s another thing that God did that tells us of His grace. He placed cherubim to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

Genesis 3:22 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.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the 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.

The penalty for sin is eternal death, that is, spiritual separation from God. The penalty for sin is not physical death. Physical death is merely a consequence of sin. There is a difference between the single penalty for sin and the many consequences of sin. The penalty for sin is much more severe - it is eternal death - spiritual separation from God. This is why the Bible talks of sinners as being people who are dead even though obviously they are still physically alive. They are dead in trespasses and sin. They are separated from God. They are under the penalty, and are experiencing the consequences.

The moment Adam and Eve sinned, they came under the penalty of sin, namely spiritual separation from God. As a consequence of their sin, their bodies began to die. God in His creative work had formed man from the dust of the ground, but sin’s effect was to begin to reverse that process. Sin and life cannot co-exist. Adam and Eve began to die. They slowly began to return to dust. Sin’s legacy is decay, and corruption - the total opposite of God’s work of creation and life.

Now in the Garden, God had planted a special Tree called the Tree of Life. We don’t know what kind of tree it was, but evidently eating of it would enable a man to physically live forever. That was God’s intention for Adam and Eve before they sinned. He intended them to live forever - never to die. So he gave them this tree to sustain their life.

But when they sinned, they became creatures who were separated from God. They had placed themselves and not God at the center of their universe. And as a consequence of that choice, they began to die physically. What would happen if they were able to still reach out and eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life? Well, they would then become sinners who would live forever. They would become sinners who were immune from the consequences of their sin.

God would not allow this. There could be no physical life without spiritual life. A Holy God will not override the consequences of sin in the life of a person who turns his back on Him. I hear people complain about the problems and the pain in their lives. These people blame God for allowing these things. Yet they do not show any interest in loving God or serving God. For all intents and purposes they have written God entirely out of their lives. Yet they expect God to shield them from the consequences of the sinful life they have chosen to follow. God will never do this. That is why Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden. They had made their choice, now they would experience its consequences. God wasn’t about to allow them to live forever in a condition of sin. Can you imagine what this world would have become by now, if sinners were allowed to live forever?

The Bible says that God put cherubim and a flaming sword in place to guard the way to the Tree of Life. I’d like to suggest to you that the reason He did so was not to prevent man from coming back to the Tree of Life, but to guard against Satan shutting that way off to man forever.

To see what I mean, you have to understand something about cherubim. Cherubim are a special sort of angel that we always find in Scripture associated with God’s throne and with God’s glory. Ezekiel had a tremendous vision of the throne of God and the glory of God, and he saw and described the cherubim. They were awesome creatures, with four wings and four faces and eyes all over their bodies. Ezekiel was almost at a loss to describe them - he had never seen anything like them before. You can check out Ezekiel ch. 10.

But the point is that wherever the throne of God is, there you have the cherubim. In the Book of Revelation, you have what are called living creatures by the throne of God, but they sound a lot like the cherubim. Now why would God put the cherubim at the gates of the Garden, along the way to the Tree of Life? If God was concerned about man sneaking back and trying to get in, wouldn’t any old angel have done the job just fine? Why the cherubim?

Because God was telling us that He was going to guarantee with His throne and His glory that man would always have a way back to the Tree of Life. Satan had succeeded in getting man thrown out of the Garden, but he would never succeed in shutting down man’s access to God and to the Tree of Life. That’s what the cherubim were there for.

Where else in Scripture do we meet cherubim? In the book of Exodus, when God was giving Moses instructions for the building of the Tabernacle. He told Moses to build the Ark of the Covenant, which contained God’s covenant with the nation Israel. And the lid of that Ark was called the Mercy Seat, where once a year, the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies and make atonement for the sins of the people by sprinkling blood on the Mercy Seat. And the shekinah glory of God would come down and hover there. What was above the mercy seat, where God met with His people? Two cherubim. Wherever the cherubim were, there you had the glory of God as He met with His people.

That is why God placed the cherubim as guardians along the way to the Tree of Life. He was telling us that in spite of our sinfulness, in spite of our rebellion, in spite of the fact that we are people whom Satan has made homeless, God will always hold open the way to the Tree of Life for us. He guarantees it by His own throne and His own glory. He has given us His word. That is why the flaming sword is there. That flaming sword is nothing other that the Word of God!

So we see the grace of God shown to Adam and Eve in the fact that God covered their sin by sacrificing an innocent substitute for them, and God safeguarded the way back to eternal life for them, even though they were sinners.

God provided a Tree of Life for us in the Cross of Calvary. There Jesus, our substitute died for us to take away our sin. “He bore our sins in His body on the Tree.” The way to that Tree is always open, guaranteed by God’s own name and by His glory. The Word of God stands like a sentinel to show us the way. Satan can never close that way to us, much as he would like to.

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.