22 Then the Lord God said , "Behold , the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil ; and now , he might stretch out his hand , and take also from the tree of life , and eat , and live forever "- 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden , to cultivate the ground from which he was taken . 24 So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Genesis 3:22-24
Commentary on Genesis 3:22-24
(Read Genesis 3:22-24)
God bid man go out; told him he should no longer occupy and enjoy that garden: but man liked the place, and was unwilling to leave it, therefore God made him go out. This signified the shutting out of him, and all his guilty race, from that communion with God, which was the bliss and glory of paradise. But man was only sent to till the ground out of which he was taken. He was sent to a place of toil, not to a place of torment. Our first parents were shut out from the privileges of their state of innocency, yet they were not left to despair. The way to the tree of life was shut. It was henceforward in vain for him and his to expect righteousness, life, and happiness, by the covenant of works; for the command of that covenant being broken, the curse of it is in full force: we are all undone, if we are judged by that covenant. God revealed this to Adam, not to drive him to despair, but to quicken him to look for life and happiness in the promised Seed, by whom a new and living way into the holiest is laid open for us.