'And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 
Gen 3:23  Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.' - Genesis 3 vs 22 - 23

  • lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life
  • and eat
  • and live for ever
If you pay close attention to the above statement which God uttered, you will notice that the tree of life was the factor of consideration for which reason God drove man out of the Garden. See verse 22 again:

'And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever...' - {KJV}

  • lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever

So it is clear that the reason for God driving man from the Garden of Eden was about the tree of life; there was something about the tree of life that God didn't want to happen to man in his fallen state. God said, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. That means, the tree of life had the ability to make a man live for ever if he eats of it. That means, the tree of life in that Garden could make a man immortal, such that it would be impossible for him to die physically. Pay attention!

Remember, God had initially authorized man to eat of every tree of the Garden except just one tree:

'And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' - Genesis 2 vs 16 - 17 {King James Version}

You see... So God knew that man had his approval to eat of the tree of life, because he was not prohibited from eating of the tree of life. Now, man has fallen! Man is in darkness - in that death (spiritual death) has passed over him by sin; man is spiritually separated from God now, man is corrupted now! If man had gone further to eat of the tree of life in his fallen corrupted state, man would have become a corrupted immortal being. What that means is that, it would have been impossible for man to die physically! What would that have meant for man? That would have simply meant that it would be impossible for God to save man from the consequences of his sin. Remember, the wages of sin is death:

'For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.' - Romans 6 vs 23 {KJV}

If man had gone forward and eating of the tree of life in his fallen corrupted state, man would have become and immortal being in corruption who cannot die physically. If that had happened, it would have been impossible for God to save man from eternal destruction which his sin brought upon him - because according to God's eternal plan of salvation for man, the way He would take care of man's sin was by the death of a man - His Son who would come into the world many years after! So if man had eaten of the tree of life in his fallen corrupted state and become an immortal being, it would have been impossible for the Christ to come into the world to save man - because if He came, it would be impossible for Him to die, in that the body He would have come with would be the immortal body from Adam, and it's only by death that He could obtain the forgiveness of sins for man. Think about it.

'Because of our sins he was given over to die, and he was raised to life in order to put us right with God.' - Romans 4 vs 25 {GNB}

'Jesus, our Lord, was handed over to death because of our failures and was brought back to life so that we could receive God’s approval.' - Romans 4 vs 25 {GW}

'Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was raised back to life to prove that he had made us right with God!' - Romans 4 vs 25 {TPT}

  • He had to die to obtain forgiveness for man's sins

So if man had eaten of the tree of life in his fallen corrupted state and become an immortal being, it would have been impossible for the Christ to come into the world to save man - because if He came, it would be impossible for Him to die, in that the body He would have come with would be the immortal body from Adam, and it's only by death that He could obtain the forgiveness of sins for man. Think about it. Just in case you didn't know, a child gets his life from his father and gets his body from his mother. This is a medical fact. So you see, Jesus got His life from God His Father, and got His body from Mary His mother. So if man had eaten of the tree of life in his fallen corrupted state and became immortal, children would have been born immortal, in that the body they would pick from their mother's womb would be an immortal body because the mother is an immortal being. You see, this would have being a complete abort of God's salvation plan for man. So God drove man out of the Garden of Eden in order to preserve His plan of salvation for man. So we can rightly say that, God driving man from the Garden of Eden was not a demonstration of anger, neither was it a punishment He put upon man. Rather, it was a demonstration of His immense love for man, not willing that man perishes, but that some day in the fullness of time, man would obtain Salvation through the death of His Son, Jesus. Glory to God. Hallelujah!

So you see...Now we understand that God driving man out of the Garden of Eden was mercy on display! It was love, grace, mercy, and kindness that God demonstrated towards man by sending him out of the Garden, so that man would not be eternally destroyed. Because man had eaten of the tree of life in his fallen corrupted state, then man would have been an unavoidable candidate for eternal destruction; the entire lineage of man would have been unavoidable headed for eternal doom! God saw this and averted it by sending man out of the Garden. And God was strict about it:

'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 vs 24 {KJV}


This was serious business with God! He literally placed angels and a flaming sword at the point through which man could get access to the tree of life! All these just to ensure that fallen man does not proceed to eat of the tree of life and become immortal in his fallen state, so that His plan to save man would not be aborted! Waow!!! What a loving Father God is. Hallelujah!

So you see, God driving man out of the Garden of Eden was a demonstration of His deep love for man. It wasn't anger, it was love. It was absolutely love on display!

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Jenning Uweye
Teacher,
Global Bible Study Community

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