Death as Separation

Most instances of death in the Bible had nothing to do with biological demise. Usually it was associated with being taken into exile or banished from the presence of God.

Adam and Eve died on the day they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is what God said would happen if they disobeyed his express command. They would die on that day. God had no "process" of dying in mind. Death was not put into gradual motion. God distinctly said that Adam and Eve would die in the day that you eat of it. They died.

The mistake many make is to jump ahead to chapter 5 of Genesis to see the death of Adam recorded. He was 930 years old at the time of his death. Did God lie? If we consider death to be solely cessation of biological function, then it would appear to be so. Also notice in chapter 5 that nothing is said of the death of Eve.

To see the death of Adam and Eve, we must go back to Genesis 3:22-24. I'll post it here.

Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever--" therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

This is death-- being denied access to the tree of life. The tree of life was communion with God in His glorious presence. I'm not sure, but at the time of Jesus, the curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the Most Holy Place in the Jerusalem temple had cherubim and a flaming sword embossed on it. If this is true, the the tree of life was symbolized in Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem temple! God was in a cubicle behind a thick veil. This typified the rebelliousness of man and the separateness of God. In short, death was depicted in unmistakable concrete imagery.

The Good News-- this veil was destroyed!! God is out of the box! He is fully present with us, just as He always was. Pray that God would give us eyes to see this reality of humanity having access to God and to the tree of life. Nothing separates us from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus our Lord.