paradise of pleasure and placed before it Cherubim[1] and a flaming sword, turning every way to keep the way of the tree of life”.
COMMENTARY.
God is the very Truth. He had threatened Adam and Eve with death if they ate of the forbidden fruit, and what He threatened was brought to pass. Of His mercy, Almighty God did not make our first parents die immediately, for they were not hardened in sin, and were capable of amendment; but, all the same, from that moment their bodies lost the supernatural gift of immortality, and their souls lost that grace which was their life.
The Justice of God. The punishment of Adam and Eve reveals to us the infinite justice of God. Their sin is the sin of the whole human race; therefore, the evil consequences of their sin have passed down to all mankind. We are by birth “children of wrath” (Eph. 2, 3). The image of God is defaced in each one of us. Our reason is obscured, our will is weakened, and the lusts of the flesh refuse to obey the spirit. We are all subject to suffering and death, and no one could attain to heaven, if our divine Redeemer had not died for us. — Think of the many passions which hold sway over man! Think of the countless diseases to which he is prone; the countless tears which are shed by him! Think of the bitter pangs of the dying; and of the terrible disasters by fire, water and earthquake! All this is the consequence of sin. How terrible , then , is the justice of Almighty God!
Sin is the greatest of all evils, for all other evils came into the world by sin.
Pride comes before the fall. Adam and Eve having sinned through pride, were humbled by the degrading sentence: “Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.”
The first promise of the Messias. Before Almighty God drove our first parents out of paradise into the misery of the outside world, He gave them the promise of a Redeemer. The thought that by their sin they had condemned themselves to misery in this world and eternal ruin in the next, would have driven them to despair, had not God awakened in their hearts the hope of a coming Saviour. The curse pronounced on the infernal serpent contained a consolation for fallen man. The words: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman &c.”, told Adam and Eve that sin and the devil would be overcome
- ↑ Cherubim. Angels of one of the higher degrees, who were to prevent Adam and Eve from attempting to return to fetch of the fruit of the tree of life. If they had partaken of this means of immortality in a state of sin, it could only have brought them damnation.
