Chapter 10
God created man to exercise dominion in His name and to express Him. According to the original Hebrew, Genesis 1:26 should be translated as: “Let us make man in our image and likeness. Let them have dominion…” (NIV). This indicates that in His creation, God wanted to have a corporate man who would exercise dominion for Him. This is also implied in the sequence of being fruitful, multiplying and filling the earth. God’s intention was that as man multiplied, he would fill the earth with God’s image and likeness.
The word dominion does not only signify to have authority, but also implies a kingdom, an environment, a sphere, in which authority can be exercised. Therefore, God wanted the entire earth to be under His authority through man and in this way establish His kingdom on earth. This authority does not originate with man. Man should have only exercised God’s delegated authority, representing God.
Man was created in God’s image for the purpose of expressing Him, and was given authority to represent Him and have dominion in His name. However, in order for man to fully express God and exercise authority in His name, he must eat of the fruit of the tree of life. This tree represents God in Christ as life to us. If we read the New Testament, especially the Gospel of John, we will see that on different occasions the Lord Jesus presented Himself as life or as different aspects related to life (John 11:25; 14:6; 4:10; 6:48). If Adam had eaten of the tree of life, he would have received the divine life and nature and in this way been enabled way to represent God. However, the first man did not do this but rather preferred to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Hence, sin, the sinful nature, entered into man. Then God was forced to prevent man from having access to the tree of life through the cherubim and a flaming sword (Gen. 3:24).
If we read Ezekiel 9:3; 10:18 and Hebrews 9:5, we will see that the cherubim are related to God’s glory. They were used by God to represent, explain and indicate His glory. Therefore, the fact that the way to the tree of life had been closed by the cherubim signifies that it was closed by God’s glory. Romans 3:13 confirms this fact by saying that all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. For the sake of His glory, God could not permit a sinner, someone short of His glory, to participate in His life.
The flaming sword represents God’s holiness. God is a consuming fire (Deut. 4:24; 9:3; Heb. 12:29) that destroys everything that is common, dirty and sinful. God is absolutely holy, and without holiness, no one shall see God (Heb. 12:14). Due to the first fall, man became a sinner who was completely short of God’s holiness and thus was hindered from eating of the tree of life.
Finally, we have the sword, which indicates God’s righteousness. In several verses of the Bible the sword is shown as an instrument to carry out justice (1 Chron. 21:12-16; Rom. 13:4). God had said that if the man ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would surely die. This being the case, death comes as a result of sin; and God’s righteousness demands that a sinner who draws near to God must die. God is absolutely righteous and cannot allow any kind of unrighteousness in His presence. This is why the sword prevented man from having access to the tree of life.
Therefore, God’s glory, holiness and righteousness closed the way to the tree of life, indicating that since man is a sinner he cannot contact God as life.
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