16 To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband,
And he will rule over you.”
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, `You shall not eat from it’;
Cursed is the ground because of you;
In toil you will eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;
And you will eat the plants of the field;
19 By the sweat of your face
You will eat bread,
Till you return to the ground,
Because from it you were taken;
For you are dust,
And to dust you shall return.”
20 Now the man called his wife’s name 1Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. 21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
22 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”– 23 therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. 24 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.
It is interesting here that God didn’t just destroy the Garden of Eden. So where is it? I’m sure I’m not the only one to ask that, and I have a hypothesis. Please note this isn’t anything like authoritative doctrine. I think it only exists in the spiritual realm now. So why was it guarded? I’ll get to that in a second.
The worst part about being banned from the garden wasn’t losing the fresh produce. It wasn’t the curses that God put on Adam and Eve. It wasn’t the hard work to get food, or the labor of child birth. It was the loss of fellowship with God. Remember, Adam and Eve talked daily with God before they sinned. They had full access to the spiritual realm, and likely could see spiritual things with their physical eyes. Later on, when Moses wanted to see God, he was only allowed to look upon the remnant of God’s glory after He passed by. Imagine being blind for a hundred years, and then suddenly having your eyes opened while looking straight at the sun in all it’s noonday glory. Then multiply that by some ludicrous amount, and you might have an idea what it would have been like for Moses to see the face of God.
But Adam had seen that face. He had never been blind before, until he ate the fruit. He gained the ability to see right and wrong, and lost his spiritual sight, although it may not have been immediate. It may have been a gradual thing, caused by the loss of fellowship with God. Mankind was essentially living in darkness, with never a glimpse of the sun (God). While physical sight would be enhanced and grow, the ability to see spiritual things (if not lost immediately), would lessen with each passing day. But in the meantime, and angel was sent to guard the garden, lest Adam and Eve gain immortality via the Tree of Life.
Let us never grow accustomed to the darkness of mere physical life. Let us always yearn and strive for glimpses of the light of God. One day, we’ll have our sight completely restored, until then, let us press onward to the light.