The Good Of The Father (The Banishment) # 1929

 

Then Yahweh Elohim said: Behold, man has become life one of us in knowing good and evil.  Now lest he should stretch out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live for the eon.  So Yahweh Elohim sent him out of the garden of Eden to serve the ground from where he was taken

Genesis 3: 22-23, Concordant Old Testament 

Some in the church have referred to it as the original sin.  That moment when Gods creation took of that which He had commanded him not to take and partook of it.  Of course, he had a little help along the way in the form of our adversary Satan the accuser.  It was Satan who instilled in the thoughts of the Lords creation that if they partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that they would "Be like God," knowing good and evil {Genesis 3:5}.  In that moment in which Eve took of the forbidden fruit, ate of it, and offered it to her mate Adam, Gods creation blatantly disobeyed that which the Lord had commanded them not to do.  But, as many a human has said since then, how in the hell was I supposed to know?  Well, for one thing, Adam and Eve had knowledge that eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was wrong, Eve even says so herself to the serpent {Genesis 3:2}.  And so, we are left with two competing incidents of disobedience committed by Gods creation.  Well, one blatant act and one potential act.  For which of these did the Father banish His creation from the garden?  On the one hand, Adam and Eve had blatantly disobeyed God and followed the lead of the accuser Satan.  Why would they do this?  Well, how were the Lords creation to differentiate between God and the accuser whom they had never been exposed to up until this point?  To Adam and Eve, the only voice they had heard besides that of each other had come from God.  Is sit possible that they perceived the voice of the serpent as that of the Lord?  It's possible, but unlikely.  For Satan immediately comes to Eve with the question, "Has God indeed said" {Genesis 3:2}?  Why would God Himself speak to His creation in this way?  I suggest that to Adam and Eve, the serpent was simply another creature to communicate with.  Of course, Adam and Eve took their communication with the serpent and turned it into disobedience to God.  

For even as, through the disobedience of the one man, the many were constituted sinners, thus also, through the obedience of the One, the many shall be constituted just

Paul to the Romans 5: 19, Concordant New Testament 

So, was the Lords creation banished from the garden due to their own disobedience?  Or is there something else in play here?  The scriptures, of course, play a big part in deciding this question.  In scripture, we are privy to a conversation which the Lord God has with those among Him at the time (Jesus?).  It is here that God proclaims what it is that His creation MIGHT do in the future.  That, if left to his own devices, man just might partake of the tree of life in the garden and take of it and live forever {Genesis 3:22}.  After this conversation, we're told that God "Sent him (Adam) out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken" {Genesis 3:23}.  The question is, if God banished Adam and Eve for their taking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, why aren't we told that He did this immediately after confronting them over their disobedience?  Instead, we're told that God considered what His creation MIGHT do and then banished them from the garden.  Of course, at this point Adam and Eve had already shown a propensity to go against the command of God.  They had believed the accuser over the words of their creator.  Of course, Satan was well aware on how to drive that wedge between the Lord and His creation, which was his goal all along.  The fact remains, does it really matter in the larger scheme of things what the original sin was?  The fact remains that it happened.  Yet despite His banishment of His creation from the garden, He was in no way absent from their own identity as the church might have us believe.  Having created man in His likeness, God has always been a intimate part of who it is that we are.  One might ask, what exactly is sin?  That's a thought for another day. 

~Scott~