We Who Wrestle With God--Genesis 3:24

Day 6

The final verse of Genesis 3 is heartbreaking and breathtaking at the same time.

Genesis 3:24 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.

Adam and Eve get the boot from Eden and they can’t get back in because God stations cherubim AND a flaming sword at the entrance.

I can’t tell if the cherubim have swords or not, it would make sense to me if they did, but that’s not how verse 24 is written.

It’s not cherubim WITH flaming swords, which would be fantastic enough, but cherubim AND a flaming sword–and the flaming sword turns around and around defending all the possible re-entries into Eden.

This is a fantastic, cinematic image and almost beggars belief.

And I’m here for it. 🙂

I feel like I’m just an onlooker then–like Adam and Eve’s ejection from Eden for breaking their relationship with God by thinking they were better than Him–doesn’t have anything to do with me.

But maybe this Cecil B. DeMille's production at Eden’s east gate isn’t just a neat, biblical special effect.

Maybe the cherubim are still there.

Maybe the flaming sword is still there.

Or maybe, like William Lane Craig writes in The Historical Adam, the cherubim and flaming sword are just SYMBOLS:

“When God drives Adam and Eve from the Garden and posts cherubim and a flashing sword at its entrance to block their re-entry, this is doubtless not intended to be literal, since cherubim were regarded as creatures of fantasy and symbol in ancient Israel. It is not as though the author thought, what realism requires, that the cherubim remained at the entrance of the Garden for years on end until it was either overgrown with weeds or swept away by the Flood.”

Now Mr. Craig is a famous and erudite man (having made a tidy living debating atheists like Christopher Hitchens) but I’m not sure how he can establish that Adam and Eve WERE driven from the Garden of Eden but then quibble about cherubim and a flaming sword.

I’m an either it is or isn’t kind of guy and for my purposes, if I can believe that there was a Garden of Eden that God set up for Adam and Eve then surely I can believe that God placed cherubim and a flaming sword to safeguard against their re-entry once they were banished.

Symbol my butt. I can FEEL the heat of that sword.

Just like I can still feel the heat of the aftermath of my sins raining down on my life and my family’s life like nuclear fallout.

Josh Tancordo describes the nuclear blast nature of what happens to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. From The Fallout from the Fall:

“In fact, every painful and difficult thing that we experience in this world can ultimately be traced back to the events of Genesis 3. This is why there’s so much suffering and hardship in the world. This is why people get sick. This is why natural disasters happen. This is why our world today is such a broken place. Adam and Eve’s rebellion had devastating consequences not just for them but for all creation. The nuclear weapon that was detonated in Genesis 3 has resulted in radioactive fallout being spread all over the world and throughout all subsequent generations.”

I know that my sins of the past (which seem remarkably awful to me, but are probably of the garden variety and commonplace among all of us), have colored my family’s ability to get on in this world in the same way my troubles on this earth were partially if not completely due to my upbringing.

Which is not to say that my upbringing was that much different than anyone else’s but the familial combination of nature and NURTURE matters to our future decisions.

Did I fail my family?

Did my family fail me?

Yes…and no?

I’m not really any different than Adam and Eve. Sometimes I think my way is best and I don’t consult God on what I’m doing. I can get self-conscious about my naked sin too. I feel guilty about something I’ve thought, said, or did. I make excuses for my sinful nature.

I equivocate. I rationalize.

This is the fallout from Adam and Eve’s fall and expulsion from Eden.

Dr. Jordan Peterson writes in We Who Wrestle With God: Perceptions of the Divine:

“Might it not be the case that the damned insofar as they have established a terrifying distance between themselves and God–a distance that makes the magnitude of the sacrifice and reconfiguration necessary to reconcile their evil with God something daunting to the point of holy terror?”

I’m not getting back into Eden. I would be cut into flaming ribbons by the cherubim.

And I’m okay with this.

Eden is perfect and I understand that Adam and Eve blew that for us with their selfishness and purposeful pulling away from God.

Like Groucho Marx said–”I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.” 🙂

Plus, I am unlikely to return to a sin-free state any time soon–if ever.

Peterson agrees:

“What is still sinful cannot attain the heavenly reward. Paradise would simply not be Paradise if it contained anything unworthy.”

So my way forward is through my sweet surrender to Jesus Christ who shed His blood for me so that I may FINALLY return to a sin-free place with Him.

That sounds refreshing and easy but it’s not. To confront our sinful nature is to confront the flaming sword.

Peterson again:

“The greatest challenge to what is and what should be, by consensus and tradition, is always to be found in what is least familiar and most frightening. Residing as it does at our weakest psychological point, it is very likely contaminated with willful blindness: we are likely to leave unfamiliar that which is most daunting.”

To cut through Peterson’s overstuffed prose–to confront our sinful nature is to confront the flaming sword.

Dealing with our sin isn’t for the faint of heart.

It takes an appreciation for the epicness of our lives as divine products of God’s love.

And that’s cinematic enough for me.

Lord, may we walk in the light of Your truth, not by our own merit, but through Christ’s love and sacrifice.

Lord, protect us from temptations that lead us away from You, just as the cherubim protected Eden. Let the flaming sword remind us of the consequences of our sin, but also of Your mercy and forgiveness.

Amen.