“and to everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God”

Revelation 2:7

We see in this lesson God creating the earth as we know it.  Over the course of 6 days we see the formation of the world (first 3 days) and the filling of the creation (second set of 3 days). 

The perfect creation where everything is described as ‘good’, with no decay, just purity and life in the presence of God.

Perfect for the life of man from a God desiring our love so much, he creates within us, ‘free will’.  A free will that ultimately led to the fall of man in failing to obey the only requirement given by God, the eating of the fruit from the tree of ‘knowledge of good and evil’.

With Adam’s sin comes shame, broken unity between Adam and his wife, alienation from God, pain, toil, the promised judgment of death and the ‘knowledge of good and evil’ (Genesis 3:22).  Notice the irony here, all of creation was created as ‘good’, God emphasized this repeatedly with each day of creation.  Adam and Eve already knew and understood what ‘good’ was, they experienced it every day in the garden. It is only through the fall, that Adam and Eve experience the understanding of ‘good’ through the dark contrast of ‘evil’.

Immediately after their sin, Scripture tells us Adam and Eve recognized their ‘nakedness’ before God.  A closer look at this passage in the Hebrew language reveals a play on words that the original audience and would have undoubtedly noticed, which is lost in the English translation.  The word translated in English as ‘naked’ is used 4 times, from the last verse of Genesis 2 through Genesis 3.  The first time used (before the fall of man) the Hebrew word is `arowm (pronounced ä·rōm’ ) which is simply ‘without clothing’.  The remaining times (3:7, 10, 11) a different Hebrew word is used ‘eyrom  (pronounced ā·rōm’ ) which is ‘to be utterly naked and helpless, under judgment”.  Even the word defined in our translation as ‘crafty’ (speaking of the serpent) in 3:1 is aruwm pronounced ä·rüm.  So what is lost in our translation is vividly displayed to the original Hebrew reader.  So we look deeper at the significance of the emphasis and change of terms used.  When we do this we find a revelation that changes the way we can look at other instances of being ‘naked’ before God.  In the case with Adam and Eve, we find that in their disobedience, mankind goes from a state of innocence and righteousness, to a state of helplessness and judgment.  A judgment as promised from a Holy God, a judgment of death.  Recognizing their condition, Adam and Eve through their own efforts attempt to cover this shame and exposure before a Holy God.

Their attempt was futile from both a physical and spiritual perspective.  Think of Adam and Eve as being clothed in ‘righteousness’ before the fall; innocent before a holy God.  We see them strive to recover the lost clothing of ‘righteousness’. Immediately we see God’s provision for them as He covers them by replacing their man-made garments of fig leaves, with the skin of an animal (death enters the world).  The same holds true for us, our efforts to cover our sin and shame before a Holy God are completely inadequate at restoring us to a righteous condition; it is God that provides the covering, the death of an animal now, with the promise of a white robe of righteousness cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, who is Jesus, in Revelation 9.

Revelation 9:13-14: ¹³ Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?” ¹⁴ I answered, “Sir, you know.” And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

While still in the quake of man’s darkest moment, God’s light radiates brilliantly.   Immediately after the fall, when we look carefully at the curse given to the serpent (Genesis 3:15), we see the promise of sin’s defeat (and our restoration) with the first prophecy of Christ’s defeat of Satan and Christ’s defeat of the promised punishment of death for mankind.

¹⁴ So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all livestock    and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly    and you will eat dust    all the days of your life.¹⁵ And I will put enmity    between you and the woman,    and between your offspring and hers; he will crush  your head,    and you will strike his heel.”

This passage describes the serpent as the one who strikes or bruises of the heel of the woman’s offspring (crucifixion of Christ) followed by the crushing of the serpent’s head (resurrection of Christ).  The crucifixion was a painful attack of Satan on our Lord, but Christ proved himself victorious with a crushing blow to the serpent’s head in His death and resurrection.  Through His death, our sin is put to death, through His resurrection we pass into life.  When we gaze upon Christ on the cross we also are healed of the promised curse of death and enter into life offered.

To illustrate this, we turn to an Old Testament passage (that Christ himself expounds on) where Israel is cursed by a plague of venomous snakes.

Numbers 21:4-9: ⁴ They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; ⁵ they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!”

⁶ Then the Lord sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. ⁷ The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people.

⁸ The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” ⁹ So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

This passage seems kind of obscure until Christ refers to himself in this way in the John’s Gospel forcing us to look more deeply at its significance.  Christ gives this peculiar answer when Nicodemus asks how a man can be ‘born again’.

John 3:14-15: Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,¹⁵ that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

At first glance, it seems totally wrong to equate our Lord with the symbol of Satan himself.  After all, the serpent is a symbol of sin and evil.  But when we really examine what is going on, we see the beauty of it.  Christ was lifted up on a cross, Christ in this position was sin, our sin, he became sin for us.  Just as the Israelites in the Numbers passage above had to look upon the bronze snake to live, we also must look at the crucified Lord hanging on that cross, becoming sin for us, putting our sin to death.  In this, we live, and we can do nothing but praise Him!

2 Corinthians 5:19-21:  ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Even when we examine the curse given to man, we see the promised fulfillment of Christ bearing the weight of it.  I use here the King James Version of this passage as it describes more completely the curse given.

Genesis 3:17-19: ¹⁷ And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; ¹⁸ Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; ¹⁹ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

• Man was naked before God and stripped of righteousness. Christ was stripped of his clothing on the cross John 19:23-24, so that we are made righteous.
• Cursed is the ground because of you, in sorrow shall you eat of it. Christ became a curse for us as he hung on the cross.(Galatians 3:13). Christ is described as ‘a man of sorrows’ in Isaiah 53:2-4.
• The thorns and thistles brought forth for thee, became a crown of thorns for Christ. Matthew 27:29
• In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. We eat of the body of Christ (the bread broken for us Luke 22:19) , who sweat drops of blood in the garden of Gethsemane Luke 22:44
• To dust you will return. Psalm 22 which is a description of his Christ’s death on the cross (Christ actually quotes the first verse of this passage on the cross) refers to Christ as being laid to rest dead in the dust. (Psalm 22:15)

Finally, God shows mercy by exiling them from the Garden.  Notice carefully the reason for this exile as it is frequently overlooked.  We simply say and teach that they are kicked out of the garden because they sinned.  But look more closely.  The text teaches us the real reason of exile.  Verse 22 of Chapter 3 tells us that Adam and Eve needed to be removed from a place where they could eat of the tree of life and live in their new-found ‘hell’ forever.  When we recognize this aspect of being removed from the garden, our perspective changes from what we typically view as punishment, to a perspective being unveiled as an amazing gift of the grace of God.  Exile from the garden, until a time where all is complete, and all is restored through God’s perfect plan of redemption.  Two cherubim are left to guard the entrance to the garden, preventing man from eating of the tree of life.  More on these Cherubim later in the study.

From this point forward, everything in scripture is about the long road back to the garden.  What and where is this garden?  We see several references to it from the prophets Isaiah and Joel in reference to the promised land of Canaan for the Old Testament nation of Israel.  As we develop and follow this nation, we must remember, their journey to the garden (Promised Land) is no different than our journey to the garden (eternity with God).  Revelation describes this garden for those “who are victorious” (Revelation 22:2, 14, 19).  A place where we again find access to the ‘tree of life’ where we will live in joy forever, again walking in the light and presence of God, clothed not with the clothing of an animal, but clothed with a white robe (purity), washed by the blood of Christ.  A place ending decay and pain as we understand it, a place where there is no more sea.