Therefore, the Lord God sent them forth

Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Genesis 3:23-24 KJV

Oh, so you mean there is a penalty for sin?  But that is not the way the world seems to operate today.  Many seem to operate today in a "consequence free" zone.

These are my thoughts as I take a little longer look at the passage that I addressed a little while ago.

In one sense, God divorced Adam and Eve.  He turned them out of the Garden, and further,  He kept them  out.  God turned him out from the sublime to the common. This is mentioned twice: He sent him forth (v. 23), and then He drove him out, v. 24. In today's parlance that would sound like this; "Get out and stay out!"

God told them get out, told them that that was no place for them, and they would no longer occupy and enjoy that garden. But they liked the place too well to be willing to leave, and therefore God drove them out.  God made them go out, whether they wanted to or not.

This signified an exclusion or separation for them, and all future mankind, from that communion with God and from walking with God in the cool of the day that defined the paradise that was the garden of Eden. The tokens of God’s grace and favor to them were now suspended. And Adam became weak and mortal in that very moment.  He became like other men, such as Samson when the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him.

But where did God send them when He turned them out of Eden?

He might justly have chased him out of the world (see Job 18:18), but God only chased them out of the garden.

He might justly have banished them down to hell, as He did the angels that sinned when He cast them out from Heaven (see 2nd Peter 2:4). But man was only sent to work the very ground out of which they were taken. He was sent to a place of toil, not to a place of eternal torment.

He was sent to the ground, not to the grave.  He was sent to the daily grind, not to the dungeon.

He was sent to hold the plow, not to the pinion.

So, what is it there for?

By working the land man would be rewarded by his eating of its fruits.  And this would serve to keep man humble. Observe, then, that though our first parents were banished from the Garden and its privileges by their sin, they were not abandoned to despair.  God already had a plan.  God’s thoughts of love were already designing them for a way of salvation with new terms. God was looking down the long road of history and looking at a manger and at a cruel cross. 

I think it is appropriate to end with Romans 5:8.  It says;

But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

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Therefore the LORD God sent him out

"Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever" -- Therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 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."

Genesis 3:22-24 NASB

Ask anyone who knows me and they will quickly tell you that I am not the most well-read individual on the planet. I just figure that if a book is that good, then someone will surely make it into a movie.

To the best of my knowledge (and upon searching IMDB), I have determined that no one has made a movie based upon Paradise Lost, John Milton's epic poem of the opening events of man as recorded in the Book of Genesis.

The story is probably fairly familiar to many of you. But the root of all mankind's disruption of the Divine fellowship that was once shared with God Himself is found both the opening chapters of Genesis and is loosely paraphrased in Milton's story.

Early in the story of Paradise Lost, Satan asks Eve;
"Wherein lies th'offense, that man should thus attain to know?"

Book 9, lines 725-6

What a great question. Satan basically says, "What's the big deal?" or "What harm is there in knowing the difference between good and evil?"

The issue behind this question is difficult to understand. Perhaps there is a note of sarcasm by God here (as Elijah used in 1 Kings 18:27), regarding Satan’s empty promise that they (Adam and Eve) could become like gods. Or, maybe it is just the fact that now man has the experiential knowledge of evil.

So what is it there for?

It is there to demonstrate something about God? He does the merciful thing. That's right. God does the merciful thing. God drives Adam and Eve from the garden where the Tree of Life grew so that they could not eat of that tree as well. How terrible would it have been to have eaten of that tree and lived forever in sin? How awful would it have been to live forever without the hope of salvation?

You and I will face death. But you and I have the hope of Salvation that Jesus Christ offers.

Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

Genesis 3:23