Nougat 28

After that interesting, though life-transforming, excursus with the Man of God, we resume our reflection on ‘Back to the Basics’ with today’s Holy Nougat

“And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.” ‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3:21, 24‬ ‭NLT‬‬

It’s argued that Land and Exile are Two of Five major themes in the Torah. Whether true or not, both are subliminally hidden in the narrative of The Fall. Well, what happens post-Fall. I’ll try to summarize for you.

Genesis 1 features the Original Architect, God, in the process of fashioning everything from chaos and formlessness. Through the awesome power of God’s Ruach and Word, God framed Earth for God’s most valued masterpiece, humanity. In those days, Eden would have qualified as the paradise of the pure and sinless. And for those who qualified, everything – including the land – was theirs.

After a series of unfortunate events, sin-lies-betrayal (we covered those already), humanity was obliged to leave the comfort of Eden for the reality of working for all we consume. And the fact that we never return to Eden suggests that humanity has been exiled from God (see verse 24).

To some extent, this was the final word; as expulsion from one’s haven usually is. But yet, God’s actions some moments prior, indicate that though written out of Eden, God had not written them off front the narrative of salvation. For God, Whose Masterpiece self-ruined, chose to restore value to humanity by covering the nakedness of sin!

Since Jesus had not yet manifested as The Incarnate Word (God’s Word in the flesh), an animal was sacrificed to meet the death requirements of our sin. Hence the ongoing sacrifices within the worship rituals. But, that’s a very unsustainable way to compensate; especially since sin kept displacing us and led us, for the most part, deeper and deeper into exile from Eden.

Moreover, it wasn’t as animal that chose to sin. Pardon required a sacrifice from an equal yet pure being. There was only one solution: One Whose DNA humanity carries – Jesus Christ. The One Whose ‘*Let there be*’ is. His one-time sacrifice says that we may once again be restored from Exile and inherit the Land as it was originally prepared for us. Perhaps even better as Jesus has gone ahead to prepare.

The only ‘catch’ is we choose to believe in Jesus as The One Who Restores all things. It’s as simple and difficult as that. Are we ready to possess the Land after the Exile has ended?

Selah

—

May all we seek be found in Christ