The Guarded Gates
Read Genesis 3:1-24
After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. –Gen 3:24
Welcome back to our daily devotionals! Many thanks to the members of our church who submitted stories of faith which we shared throughout the month of September. For the next month (between now and Thanksgiving), we’ll be considering the topic of “thresholds.” A threshold, literally speaking, is a strip of wood, stone, or metal that is at the bottom of a doorway. But we can also understand a “threshold” as a point at which something begins, changes, or reaches its limit. Or said differently, a “threshold” involves a “crossing” from one place or season of life into the next.
The very first “threshold” we read about in Scripture is in the Garden of Eden. It is not exactly a joyful crossing. When Adam and Eve lived within the Garden, they knew an innocence and intimacy with God that was unmatched. They walked daily with God in the garden. They had no need for clothes or defense; they were completely open with one another. God, however, gave them a warning—Do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The serpent took this warning and made it into a choice: Will you trust in God’s direction for your lives, or will you do what seems right in your own eyes? Adam and Eve made the wrong choice. They crossed a threshold that God had not desired for them.
The choice they made had severe consequences. Adam & Eve immediately knew that they had done evil. They became aware of their nakedness and were ashamed. When God came calling for them in the Garden, they hid. And when God discovered what they had done, God had no choice but to expel them from the Garden. They had chosen a life that would be filled with toil, sweat, and anxiety. The last verse of the chapter tells us that God placed an angel to guard the threshold of the Garden, so that Adam & Eve could never reenter the life they had once known.
From this simple yet profound story, we learn two important lessons about thresholds. First: Some doors that we open automatically close other doors to us. In fact, that’s one way to understand the difference between wise and foolish decisions. Good decisions lead to open doors—more and better opportunities that are available to us. Poor decisions lead to closed doors, as future blessings and opportunities are taken away. So if you are facing an important choice (or a difficult temptation) in life, consider: What future doors will open or close because of this decision? What future path do you want to take?
But there’s a second, even more profound lesson in this story: Adam and Eve could never return to the place (or the people) they once were. The angel blocked that path from them. So even when we make bad decisions and end up in places we never wished to be, the only way “out” is forward. All of us, I imagine, have wished at times we could go back and change a fateful choice or reverse a life-altering event in our lives. But we cannot go back—there is no “undo” button. But there is also hope in this truth. God’s plan for Adam & Eve is not reversal, but redemption. God still loves Adam & Eve. They can still raise a family, worship the Lord, and live in ways that bring Him pleasure. Redemption for Adam & Eve will not be a one-time act that “fixes” the mistake they made. It will be something they pursue the rest of their lives. In fact, redemption will become the story of the rest of the Bible, the desire towards which all creation groans.
As you look back on your journey, no doubt you have crossed some thresholds that brought joy and blessing in your life, and there are other thresholds that you wish you would’ve avoided. But all these crossings have led you to the place you are—and the person you are—today. There is no going back to relive past thresholds; the only path is forward. So what thresholds (choices or crossings) are before you today, and how can you make choices that bring blessing and invite God’s redemption into your story?
I have known both good and bad crossings in my life. In some cases, I have been the author of those choices; others have felt forced upon me. Yet in every crossing, Your love is constant, O God. And each has led me to this place. Help me to discern wise choices for my future; keep me on the path that You desire for my life. Amen.