Covenant Religion, Part 4: The Edenic Covenant (Part 2)

I will continue to discuss the physical representations within the Edenic Covenant because it will be important to understand these types of connections when we look at the other two covenants.

Though Adam and Eve immediately died in a spiritual sense when they failed to trust God, He was merciful and allowed them to maintain physical life a little longer. However, He wasn’t done physically demonstrating the nature of their plight.

First of all, Adam and Eve immediately tried to cover up their shame of nakedness by sewing fig leaves together to make coverings. (Gen. 3:7) But when God came walking in the garden, they hid themselves. (Gen. 3:8) They had removed the leaves from their life source (the tree), and probably by the time God came looking for them, those leaves had started to wilt and fall apart. This conclusion would explain their need to hide themselves when God came walking in the garden. The wilted leaves showed them two things:

1. Though God didn’t immediately kill them for sinning, they had plucked themselves from their spiritual source of life, and they would soon return to dust. (Gen. 3:19)

2. And, any attempts that they could make to cover up their own shame would fail.

So they had committed sin, died spiritually, and God came and asked, “What is this you have done?” (Gen. 3:13) The spiritual truth represented here? “It is appointed for man to die once, but after this the judgment.” (Heb. 9:27)

Adam’s sin warranted the removal of God’s presence in the human realm; from that moment on, humans became enemies of God.

Consequently, Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. (Gen. 3:23) The purpose of God kicking them out of the garden was so they wouldn’t “take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever.” (Gen. 3:22) I believe that this tree of life represented God’s grace and presence. This proverbial booting was a picture of man being thrown out and left to his own devices, apart from God. The fall, as the phrase implies, had an ending that was as definite as its beginning. Adam and Eve, along with the rest of humanity, found themselves at the bottom of that fall. They had died spiritually, and introduced spiritual death to the whole of human existence.

The natural end of this is seen in Genesis 6: “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (vs. 5) This verse describes the darkness that flooded man’s heart when the light of God’s grace was removed.

So the stage is set. Humankind is now fallen from the presence and good favor of God. And so begins the history of God’s redemptive plan.