Genesis 3:22b-23 “[…] and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken”
The crisis of man’s fall is so urgent that God doesn’t even finish speaking His sentence before he cuts straight to executive action and sends Adam and Eve out of the garden. Sin is so deadly serious, God doesn’t waste any time dealing with it. While He is abundantly patient and long-suffering, there is no indifference or inaction in His waiting.
Satan made a bid on God’s prerogative and got cast out of heaven. Humanity believed the lie that disobedience would be their gateway to the Godhead and got cast out of the garden. Trying to get higher, they all fell to the lowest depths and faced inevitable annihilation. The same thing still happens today.
Yet for man at least there is hope. Although God sends him to work in his own grave as it were (“unto dust thou shalt return,” 3:19), He reminds him that it was also the place of his creation, the clay quarry “from whence he was taken." Yes, sin has a deadly cost, but there is a promise for restoration. As Adam tilled the ground to plant seeds and cultivate food to sustain life, he would remember the promised Seed through Whom his life was sustained. As he prepared the soil to receive the seed, he must prepare himself to receive Jesus, and cultivate faith in the Seed of Promise.
What about you? Have you been ambitiously bidding for a higher place only to lose everything and stare the reality of death in the face? Don’t blame God. Break up the fallow ground of your heart and receive the intervening grace in His preemptive discipline. As you dig for your own funeral you will see how the Seed of the Woman, the Son of God Himself, died the death that you deserve, went to your grave, and came back victorious, perfect and alive. If you trust Him enough to follow Him you will die to sin and self and He will raise you up to live unto Christ. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24).
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