Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #33 of Genesis, chapter 3 and we are continuing to look at Genesis 3:23-24:

Therefore JEHVOAH 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.

In our last study we looked at verse 23 and we saw that God sent forth the man from the Garden of Eden, the outward representation of the kingdom of God on earth. We saw that the word “sent” has to do with being sent forth with the Gospel. When God sent forth the man to “till the ground,” it was language that identifies with bringing the Gospel to the world. We have seen that the man has been a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “till” is translated as “husbandman” and we saw this in Zechariah 13:5-6:

But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

We saw that the literal translation of “I am an husbandman,” is “I am a man and a tiller of the ground.” It is a Messianic reference to Jesus as He had the nails driven into His hands.

Also, it said in the New Testament in John 15:1:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

A “husbandman” works the ground. He is a tiller of the ground. So in our verse, Adam is a picture of Christ, once again.

Then it goes on to say in Genesis 3:24:

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.

God is the one that drove out the man Adam from the Garden of Eden. Again, the Garden of Eden represented the kingdom of God on earth. God “placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims” and the direction “east” identifies with the kingdom of God, so that we are understanding the Garden of Eden correctly as typifying the kingdom of heaven.

Now man has sinned by breaking the Law of God and God has driven them out from His kingdom. They are no longer within the kingdom of heaven – they are outside the kingdom. That is where man is situated, spiritually, due to his sins. God has separated from him and cast him out.

The Hebrew word translated as “drove out” is a word that identifies with being under the wrath of God. We see this word used in several places, but let us turn to Exodus 23:28-31:

And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.

The Lord is referring to the land of Canaan and the Gentiles that inhabited the land had sinned against God. They committed evil and they did wickedly. In driving them out, God was judging the seven nations of Canaan, so the word “drive out” relates to those nations that were driven out under the wrath of God.

It also says in Exodus 34:11:

Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.

We can find other similar verses where God is driving out the ungodly nations. He is disinheriting them and giving their land as an inheritance to the children of Israel. They will inherit the land and it is really a picture of what God will do at the end of the world. God will “drive out” unsaved man from the face of the earth as He destroys this present world. Then when God creates the new heaven and new earth He will place His people upon it. The way God views this is that the “meek” will have inherited the earth. The elect of God will take over the earth, but the others were driven out as they came under the wrath of God. It really identifies with being destroyed and annihilated forever. Once God has driven you out, it indicates you are subject to the penalty of total destruction.

It says of Jephthah in Judges 11:2:

And Gilead's wife bare him sons; and his wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of a strange woman.

They said this because Jephthah was the son of a harlot, but he would eventually be their deliverer from their enemies and, therefore, he was a type of Christ who was “thrust out.” It says in Judges 11:7:

And Jephthah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and expel me out of my father's house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress?

The word “expel” is the same word translated as “drive out” or “thrust out.” We can see that being driven out identifies with being hated and the wicked of the world whose sins remain upon them are hated by God: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” To be driven out relates to God’s hatred and God’s wrath, at least in the case of being driven out of the Garden of Eden. God’s hatred was upon man and His wrath was upon man because they had sinned.

It is the same word we find in Genesis, chapter 4 in relationship to Cain who had killed his brother Abel. God is now judging Cain and He says in Genesis 4:11-14:

And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto JEHOVAH, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me.

Here, we see that God’s judgment upon Cain is recognized by Cain as punishment: “My punishment is greater than I can bear.” He also said, “Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth.” It is the same language we found in our verse in Genesis 3, verse 24 where God drove out Adam. Before God drove out Cain, he had originally driven out Adam from the Garden of Eden. It is language of God’s wrath, hatred and of punishment. You know, all unsaved man are under the wrath of God, as it says in John 3:36:

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

The wrath of God abides or remains on him. Every sinner from the time of the fall into sin has had the wrath of God abiding upon them. God drove out the man in His wrath and fury and it indicates a person that is despised and hated due to the fact that they have broken the Law of God.

Let us go to another place where this Hebrew word translated as “drive out” is found, in Jonah, chapter 2. Jonah had been swallowed by the whale. In the New Testament, Jesus said, “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Christ likens Jonah’s experience in the whale’s belly to His own suffering under the wrath of God, so when we read Jonah, chapter 2 this is what we are really reading about; it is language pointing to Jesus Christ being under the wrath of God. It says in Jonah 2:1-4:

Then Jonah prayed unto JEHOVAH his God out of the fish's belly, And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto JEHOVAH, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.

The word translated as “cast out” is the same Hebrew word translated as “drove out” in Genesis, chapter 3. Jonah is saying that he has been driven out of God’s sight and he has been removed from the presence of God and he is in “hell.” Hell is a condition, ultimately. It is not a place. It is why it can be said that Satan and the fallen angels have been “in hell” from the time of the cross and, yet, they are still roaming the earth seeking whom they may devour. When God brought Judgment Day upon the world on May 21, 2011 He brought the unsaved into the condition of “hell” and they are under the wrath of God, officially, because it is the official time of punishment. So, this word translated as “drive out” has everything to do with the wrath of God upon sin and that is what we see in our verse in Genesis 3:24:

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims…

God had driven out the man, indicating His wrath and punishment and now the man cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven because God had place Cherubims to guard the way to the kingdom of heaven. Once man is “driven out,” man is no longer part of God’s kingdom and he will not enjoy the presence and blessings of God. Yet, somehow there is still a “tree of life” that is still in existence. It is accessible in one way and that is that you have to go through the “Cherubims.” The Cherubims are like all-powerful security guards that protect the “narrow way” that leads to the tree of life. It goes on to say, in Genesis 3:24:

… and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

You can picture it as a sword on fire. If it touched you, it would burn you up like stubble. It is a “flaming sword” that is not just in one position that you could go around, but it is turning “every way,” so you cannot pass to the left or to the right. There is no passable way. You simply cannot get around this flaming sword in any way. It is impossible because it turns every way. You cannot get above it or below it. There is no path that will allow a man safely past the Cherubims and the flaming sword to reach the incredible tree of life.

Man had already done unbelievable damage to himself by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and bringing death and total annihilation to himself. But, now, there is another tree, but this tree is not so easy. It is impossible for man to reach of himself. It is off limits.

Today when men have something valuable they guard it and protect it. There are all kinds of stories of people that want to take these valuables or treasures away and they go through all kinds of obstacles to reach the treasures. It is extremely difficult in some cases, but that is the tale that men tell. But, in this case, the treasure is an abundance of rich spiritual blessing that will continue into eternity future – it is eternal life itself. And there is a “guard.” There is a lethal presence at the gate to protect the “way” and no man has ever managed to get around it. No man can use his own philosophy of life or religion, whether it be the Muslim, the Buddhist, the Mormon, the Jehovah Witness or any other kind of gospel or “way,” because the sword turns “every way.” And if people try to come through the Hindu belief of a thousand gods, the “flaming sword” cuts them to pieces and burns what is left of them. When people try to come through Mohammad and the religion of Islam, the “flaming sword” cuts them to pieces and burns what is left of them. The sword turns “every way” and it keeps the way of the tree of life. Jesus said He is the “way.” It says in John 14:6:

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Is that not something? Is that not mysterious? Jesus said that He is the way and the life and in Genesis, chapter 3 we read about the way that leads to the tree of life and, yet, in order to go that narrow way to reach the tree of life you have to go past Cherubims with a flaming sword. But Jesus did not say that no man comes to the Father except by Cherubims holding a flaming sword, but He said the way was by Him. That ties together Jesus with the Cherubims and the flaming sword because you have to go by way of Him to get to the tree of life.