There is a school of thought that says any illness of the body can be healed with what God has provided in the earth. In other words, God has given us everything we need to foster and maintain our health. Proper nutrition, for example, is key to creating and maintaining excellent health. When something begins to go awry in the body, search for a food or a mineral to heal it.
To a certain extent, I agree with that philosophy although, if it were to be perfectly practiced, we could all live in these physical bodies forever, right?
It appears from Scripture, however, that a marvelous example of this existed in the Garden of Eden. Today's text is Genesis 3:22-24 (ESV).
22Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
In order to better understand these verses, we need to remind ourselves that God had told Adam and Eve that they were permitted to eat of all the trees of the Garden, except for the fateful Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This would include the Tree of Life.
15The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eatd of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 2:15-17 (ESV)
My earlier memories of sermons/teaching on Genesis 2 and 3 tell me that Adam and Eve never ate of the Tree of Life. However, this would not seem to be the case, after careful examination of these verses. Prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve were permitted to eat of all the plants and trees in the Garden, but for the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Some commentators have postulated that they did indeed eat from the Tree of Life and that this nourishment is what gave them such excellent health that they could have lived forever in that perfect, sinless state. What an amazing, efficacious tree it must be! (This legendary tree still exists today, but we'll get to that later.)
Who is speaking in Genesis 3:22? The Triune God are speaking with each other, but it appears that the second Person of the Trinity is speaking, that being Jesus Christ. Jesus existed as a Person of the Trinity as long as God has been God, which is forever. So has the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, existed. You cannot have "God" without having all three Persons, eternally existing, no beginning and no end.
So, likely Jesus is speaking, because anytime God reveals Himself to men on earth, it is through the Person of Jesus Christ, whether in His pre-incarnate state or during His time in a human body on earth (during His earthly ministry) or afterwards when He appeared to John on Patmos, for example.
Now, it appears that, for all of the wonders of Eden, and despite Man's sinless state, Adam and Eve did not know the full extent of good and evil until they ate from the one forbidden tree. All they knew was that they were to obey God's command to avoid that tree. After they ate, sin and death entered into them and the separation from God began.
Prior to this act, Adam and Eve lived in Heaven on Earth. God had made His dwelling place with Man, on Earth. Eden was "heaven come down". God, in the person of pre-incarnate Christ, frequently spent time with Adam and Eve in that place.
The prohibition concerning the Tree of Life was for some very good reasons.
1. Had they continued to eat of that fruit, they would have continued forever in their sinful state, unredeemed, separated from God. Yes, their bodies and souls would have continued to live forever, but they also would have been forever condemned.
2. Continuing to eat from the Tree of Life would have been a way contrary to God's way of redemption. Man has long wanted to experience redemption, but only on his own terms. Whether through making idols of his own imagining, doing good works to obtain holiness, self-abasement or physical injury in the name of religion (walking across hot coals, etc.) - - the list could go on.
“He who seeks for righteousness and life by his own doings, runs upon the flaming sword of justice; and whilst endeavoring to insure his own salvation, he is pulling ruin upon himself.”
John Gill
Accordingly, because the Tree of Life had been useful to Adam for sustaining physical life prior to the Fall, it would have naturally occurred to him to look to the Tree to sustain his physical life after.
However, . . .
God's way was different. God decreed that His way to redemption would be the only way, and in mercy, therefore, God prevented Adam from seeking redemption through any created (even a previously acceptable) means. The Fall changed everything. To keep Adam and Eve from committing that evil, He mercifully blocked the way to the Tree and even to the entire Garden itself. The Garden of Eden could no longer be what it had formerly been - - a place for man and God to commune face-to-face.
Where is the Garden of Eden now, you may ask? Where is the Tree of Life now? Does it yet exist?
Consider for a moment that Jesus Christ was crucified on a tree, a cross made of wooden beams. This was no accident or mere coincidence. He is our Tree of Life, God's only way of redemption and salvation, provided to mankind (John 14:6). So, spiritually, HE is our Tree of Life. However, the Tree of Life itself is mentioned other places in scripture.
We find it mentioned again in the Book of Revelation. It seems that, when Eden became closed to mankind, God removed that place to Heaven, for it is there we again find the Tree of Life.
7He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Revelation 2:7 (ESV)
14Blessed are those who wash their robes,c so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.
Revelation 22:14 (ESV)
Those who have entered into eternal Life through Jesus Christ, God's only "Way, Truth and Life" (John 14:6), have had their sins forever crucified on the cross with Jesus, crucified on that "tree" (Galatians 2:20). Putting our faith in Jesus Christ as our only hope of salvation is the act of "washing our robes". Only He can impart grace, the eternal banishment of sin, complete imputation of God's righteousness. As the apostles Peter and John said, in the days of the early Church, as they were being examined by the Sanhedrin - - -
And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12 (NET)
And, as such, as His Beloved, we will see that primeval Tree of Life again, on that day when we see our Savior face-to-face, in Heaven.
Well, I know we have spent a lot of time in the first three chapters of Genesis (19 posts!). I've become more and more convinced of the power and necessity of this book. It is a book on which hinges the remainder of the Bible. Discredit and disregard this book, and you have gutted the rest of God's holy Word. Thanks for taking this journey through Genesis with me. Next post: we begin chapter 4.
Source:
http://www.donfortner.com/sermon_notes/01_genesis/gen%2003v22-24%20The%20Man%20is%20Become%20as%20One%20of%20Us%201885.htm
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