East of Eden

We're going to read from Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

We are going through a series on Genesis 3 at the moment.

! This is the next section.

The man called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

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 off 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 God's Word.

Today we're finishing a series that we've been doing on the chapter, Genesis 3.

Five weeks just in this one chapter looking at this little piece of the book that's called Genesis.

And Genesis means beginnings.

So it tells you about the beginnings of human history.

It tells you about fundamentally who we are, what we were made for.

The Hebrew word that describes the whole of the first five books of the Bible

is the word Torah.

Torah, and sometimes we translate it as law,

but actually Torah means more like the way of instruction,

the way of living life in general.

And so it's got underneath it questions like,

who am I?

Who made me?

You know, you don't get to any laws in the Torah until 69 chapters in.

So the first 68 chapters are about who made you,

where did you come from,

who are you made to be,

what are you for,

and fundamentally what's wrong with you?

What's wrong with this world?

And we all feel that,

that there's something wrong with this world.

There's something wrong with us.

We're not the way we're supposed to be.

So Genesis 3 exists to tell us from God's mouth,

what is wrong?

What is wrong with this world?

What is wrong with us?

What is wrong with me?

Our culture,

when it asks that question,

comes and says something typically like,

we are born good,

but we become bad.

Our culture tends to,

tends to think collectively that the reason that we do evil,

the reason that anybody does evil in this world,

is not because we're born that way,

but because we become that way through our environment,

through things that have happened to us,

through experiences,

through trauma.

And so the heartbeat,

I think of modern Edinburgh,

is that my,

is I want to be able to say,

my delinquency is a product of other people's actions against me.

And I think that what we're doing in our culture at large,

is trying to look for a way desperately to say,

it is not my fault.

It's not me.

I didn't do it because I'm bad.

I did it because somebody else treated me bad.

And while there are truths there,

while our environment does indeed,

create problems in our life,

and patterns.

Genesis 3 comes and asks you,

do you have the courage to say,

hi, it's me.

I'm the problem.

It's me.

Had to get that in somewhere in this series.

And some of you will have to explain it to your neighbor later.

That is the thing it's saying.

You know,

every broken clock is right twice a day.

And it really is,

I'm the problem.

It's me.

That's what Genesis 3 wants you to say.

And it's not that there are good guys in here,

and bad guys out there.

It's not that we are born good,

but we become evil.

But this text tells us that we are evil from the inside out.

And the word evil in the Bible,

in the Old Testament,

doesn't mean maximally bad.

It means that we are not who we should be.

Our desires are bent and broken,

and we lean towards trespass.

And so one of the ways you can talk about Genesis 3

is not just as the fall story,

but as the trespass story.

Where Adam and Eve cross a boundary

that they were not supposed to cross.

They were made in God's image.

But what they did was they said,

I don't want to be in the image of God.

I want to be God.

And so they crossed a boundary

and reached out and seized,

attempted to try and take divinity for themselves.

And that's me.

That's you.

That's every single human being

that's ever been made in world history.

And we've learned every week

that the product of that has been a state of sin.

We don't become sinners.

We are sinners.

We're in a condition of sin.

The Heidelberg Catechism says

we have brought misery into this world

by the condition of sin

that we introduced to this world from the beginning.

And so every week we've said

that our sin has cost us alienation from ourselves.

We don't know ourselves.

We're not honest with ourselves.

Alienation from other people.

Adam blamed his wife for everything.

Marriage is broken.

It's very difficult.

Alienation from the land.

Alienation from our work.

Alienation from all we were made to be.

And most importantly,

alienation from God himself.

We hide from God.

Today, finally,

we see at the end of this passage,

we're also, very importantly,

we're alienated from home.

We're not where we were meant to be.

We've been alienated because of our sin

from Edenic life,

from the Garden of Eden.

We've been kicked out.

And so let's think about that.

We are living east of Eden.

And is there a way back?

Yes.

Let's look at that secondly.

And then thirdly,

in the meantime,

let's think about some things we can do

to long and hope for Eden.

Okay, so first,

living life east of Eden.

That's where we are right now.

That's what the text tells us.

We were in,

my family and I,

we were in Harris last week,

last weekend,

not here on the Sunday,

and we were coming back from Harris.

It's a long trip,

the Isle of Harris,

back to Edinburgh.

Seven hours if you go quickly,

but when you've got five children in the car,

it's more like ten.

And we left Tarbert and Harris

to go to Stornoway to get the ferry.

And if you don't know,

that's an hour drive,

of a seven hour drive.

And about halfway between Tarbert and Stornoway,

the youngest in the car

who can speak English,

said,

ugh,

are we home yet?

And you said,

buddy, we've got eight hours.

Okay?

And of course,

every 20, 30 minutes,

the same question

would come back up and up.

And you've been there.

Every single one of us,

when we are on a trip like that,

we long for the moment

that you step through your front door

and you drop your bags

at 11 p.m. at night,

like us,

and you say,

sweet relief.

I'm home.

We,

let's get right to the point today,

we are not home.

We were made for life

in the Garden of Eden

with the living God.

And we've been kicked out.

We're not home.

And we see that right here.

It says in verse 23 and 24

that because of our sin,

God drove us out

from the Garden of Eden

away from His presence.

And we've been living life

east of Eden

ever since that moment.

But here's the big point today,

and this is the spiritual burden,

I think,

of the text for all of us.

And that's,

though we are not home.

Christian,

if you're a Christian today,

you are not home.

And if you're not a Christian today,

no matter what you believe in,

if you've come curious,

exploring,

you're not home either.

you were made for life with God

in the Edenic realm,

in Eden,

and you're not home either.

But we struggle to actually want that.

So we are far away from home,

yet we don't think about it.

We don't dream about it.

We don't imagine it.

We don't long for it.

We live life east of Eden,

yet we don't hunger most of the time

for Eden,

for the place that God put us.

We don't desire enough

the true home that God has made for us.

And so we just let it be.

We just get on with our daily life.

And so here in verse 24,

it says that God drove Adam and Eve

east of Eden.

About 200 years before Jesus was born

in Alexandria, Egypt,

a group of Jewish scholars

translated the Old Testament Hebrew Bible

into Greek.

And we call that the Septuagint.

And this is the Bible

that Jesus largely read from,

the Septuagint,

and it's often quoted

in the Gospels itself.

And in the Septuagint,

the Greek translation

of the Hebrew Bible,

the Old Testament,

this word Eden in Genesis 3

is just the Greek word paradise.

And so in the Old Testament,

it's very clear that

the Jewish understanding of Eden

is a garden paradise,

a place of,

you can translate the word Eden

very literally to all around delight.

It could read like that.

And when we get kicked out

of the Garden of Eden

in verse 24 here,

we learn that from the very beginning,

there was land outside

of the Garden of Eden.

So when God created the world,

he created lots of lands,

the whole world,

and he picked a spot

to make his holy garden temple,

his throne room on earth.

And he came into that spot

to dwell with humanity,

to partner with humanity,

to make home with us.

And so we learn here

that there are lands

outside of the Garden of Eden

in the early days.

And they are good,

but they're not Eden.

They're not the harmony,

the glory,

the abundance of Eden.

They're not life with God.

They're not home with God.

Not exactly.

But when Adam and Eve

are driven out of Eden,

they go east of Eden,

they bring corruption,

the state of sin,

the state of misery,

the condition that they're in,

into the rest of the world,

into the lands.

And so if you go and read

Genesis 4 to 11,

it's basically an account

of the cancer

that Adam and Eve

were and brought

in their sin

into the rest of the land,

the corruption

of the rest of the world.

But we were made for Eden.

We were made for a home

greater than just the land,

for the Edenic life itself.

Now, my burden today

is to say simply this,

that because none of us

have ever lived anything

but east of Eden,

we don't know

what we're missing.

We don't know

the abundance

of the life

that God had intended for us.

And so we don't really want it.

We don't want it

because we don't realize

what it is.

Abraham Kuyper

was a Dutch theologian

in the early 20th century,

prime minister

in the Netherlands,

and he spent

a good bit of his corpus,

he wrote a lot,

and one of the things

he did was he thought

a lot about Eden,

and he writes about it

in one place,

and he's just trying

to cultivate an image

of the Edenic life for us,

to cultivate desire

in our heart for true home.

And this is what he says.

He says,

There are flowers

so delightfully beautiful

as we no longer know them,

foliage that by shape

and intense color

entice the eye,

trees that far exceed

the cedar

and the palm in splendor.

Inexpressible gloriousness

all around.

The Garden of Eden

throbbed with life

through the songbirds

and the branches

and the noble,

pure-blooded animals

that populated paradise

newly created by God

in undamaged perfection.

And he says,

The animal world,

in the animal world,

peace reigned.

There was no tormenting insects,

no midges.

He didn't say that.

I added that part.

But no midges,

if you're from the U.S.,

no mosquitoes,

no prowling tigers,

that raised its paws

against us.

And here's the big piece.

Listen to this.

He says,

Everything was,

of course,

still far more beautiful

and glorious

than our words

could possibly sketch.

Paradise is gone,

and the only imagination,

only the imagination,

can to some extent

bring it back to us.

Paradise is far gone.

We don't know yet

what we're missing.

C.S. Lewis writes about this

in his book,

Surprised by Joy.

So in Surprised by Joy,

he writes an account

of his own biography

and how he came

from atheism

to Christianity.

And it's a beautiful

little book.

But in it,

he says that

every time he reads

about Eden

in the Bible,

he thinks about

his childhood,

and he goes back

to this moment

with his brother

in their family home

in Ireland.

And he says his brother

would take a biscuit tin,

you know,

one of the really nice

biscuit tins,

the gift tins,

you know.

And he would take it

and he would put flowers

and plants from the garden,

wildflowers,

and he would organize

the flowers and the plants

and the grass

all on top of this biscuit tin.

And they would play

like they had built

their own little garden.

And then the light

in the back garden,

the sunshine,

would shine down

on the biscuit tin

and it would reflect

up from the metal

of the tin

and shine up

through the lights,

through the flowers,

the grass.

And he said,

every time he opens

the Bible

and he reads about Eden,

he images this tin,

the light refracting,

reflecting up

through the flowers

and the grass

that his brother made,

conjuring,

creating an imagination

of moments

of what it must be like

to be in the Garden of Eden,

life with God

from the beginning.

And if you've read that book,

you might know

that he attaches

a word to that,

a German word,

Zenzucht,

and he grabs hold

of this German word

to try to take hold

of something

we don't quite have

in English.

And for him,

what Zenzucht means

is something like

a description

of the intense longing,

the intense longing

for something

you've never

actually experienced.

An intense,

desperate longing,

a hole in your heart,

you know,

there's a hole

in your heart,

a God-shaped hole,

life in Eden,

an Edenic hole

in your heart,

and you've got

a longing,

a Zenzucht,

a deep desire

for something

that you've never

actually tasted.

True home.

And so,

long before C.S. Lewis

ever said that,

Abraham Kuyper,

he put it like this,

he said,

none of us

who have ever

been conceived

and born

in this sinful world

can get a full,

profound impression

of what that heavenly

paradise must have

been like.

Only one day

when we rise

from the dead

will we have

the receptive capability

to perceive

such inexpressible

glory and beauty.

He says,

we do not long

for enough.

We do not long

for more

because we have

never experienced

the more.

And he goes on,

he says,

we must not put

our highest desires

lower than what

God has destined

for us.

Friends,

when you read about Eden

and you read about

true home,

do not put your

greatest desires

lower than what

God has destined

for you.

long for an

overabundance

that you cannot

imagine.

Life with God,

life in the

Edenic realm.

He says,

we're homesick

for too little

because we desire

too little.

We haven't clearly

recognized from

how high a state

of bliss and

heavily overabundance

we have fallen.

We cannot gauge

the depth into

which sin has

thrown us east

of Eden.

We're in exile.

We're east

of Eden.

We are not home.

And because of

that,

we've got an

Edenic and

God-shaped hole

in our heart

that cannot be

filled until

this life in

Christ brings us

back.

There's no

win in this

life,

there's no next

thing coming in

this life that

will ever fill

the God-shaped

hole,

the Edenic hole

in your heart

for true home.

The next job

won't do it.

The next

relationship won't

do it.

The next big

win won't do it.

The step up in

career,

the step up in

reputation,

it won't do it.

There's a God-shaped

hole and the only

thing that will

ever fill it is

going home again.

Secondly,

is there a way

back?

Yes,

the text tells us

here.

This text actually

tells us.

You don't even have

to go to the rest

of the Bible to

hear that there is

a way back.

In verse 22,

we're told that

the Lord God

kicks Adam and

Eve out because

the man has

become like one

of us,

knowing good and

evil.

So we're told

here in the

passage the

reasons that

we've been

driven out from

the garden.

The first

reason,

God says,

is because we

know good and

evil like God.

Now,

God knows

about evil.

He's gone

toe-to-toe with

evil.

He knows about

it.

But the word

know here is

very intimate.

It's saying that

we now,

because of our

choices,

we know evil

intimately.

And so the

first reason we're

told that we've

been driven out

of Eden is

because evil

cannot stand

inside the

garden temple

of God.

It cannot be

near unto God's

presence.

And so we're

driven away

because we've

made an intimate

relationship with

evil itself.

We've become

sinners.

But then he goes

on from there and

gives you the

second reason.

And here's the

real heartbeat.

In verse 23,

it says,

sorry,

the end of

verse 22,

lest we reach

out and take

and eat from

the tree of

life,

he sends us

away.

Lest we reach

out and we

take and we

eat from the

tree of

life and we

live forever,

God banishes

us.

Now,

the tree of

life,

this beautiful

tree in the

midst of the

garden of

Eden,

God tells you

that one of

the reasons

that you

cannot be in

Eden at this

moment is lest

you reach out

your hand and

you take and

you eat from

the tree.

The tree of

life is a

sacrament.

So in the

New Testament,

in the New

Covenant,

in our church,

we celebrate the

Lord's Supper,

and that's a

sacrament.

So we come

and we taste

physical bread,

physical wine,

and in that

physical experience,

God communicates to

us a spiritual

reality through the

physical experience.

In the same way in

the Garden of

Eden,

there's a

sacrament at the

heart of the

Garden of Eden,

this physical

reality,

the tree of

life,

and you reach

out and you

take of it,

you taste of

it,

and it's God

communicating to

you life.

And somehow,

someway in the

Garden of Eden,

the tree of life,

this sacrament,

gives the gift of

everlasting physical

life.

So when you,

excuse me,

when you take and

you eat of it,

it communicates to

you like a

sacrament,

physical,

enduring,

everlasting life.

And the reason that

God says to Adam and

Eve,

I'm kicking you out of

the Garden,

lest you take,

lest you eat,

is why?

It's because He's

saying to them,

you think,

Adam and Eve,

human being,

you think that you

can say to God,

I don't want you,

I don't want

relationship with

you,

I don't want my

father,

but I want to stay

in the home He

built for me,

and only take the

benefits.

I want to be able

to stay here and

get immortal life,

I want physical

life,

I want everlasting

life,

I want the goods

that you've made

for me,

but I don't want

you.

And God's saying,

you think,

you think that you

can reject the God

who made you,

the Creator who

made you,

trespass against

Him and say,

we want you

dead,

like the prodigal

son in Luke 15

who says to the

Father,

I will take my

third,

I will take my

inheritance,

I wish you were

dead,

I want your

benefits,

I don't want you.

And He says,

you can't reject

God,

human being,

and then come

and say,

but I really

like the benefits

you made for me.

You can't reject

God and say,

but I do want

the immortal life

that you had

promised.

I want to eat

from the tree of

life and take

that gift.

And you know,

what is God

doing here?

He's saying,

lest you continue

to take and reach

and reach and reach

and seize the

immortal life,

the gifts that I've

given you,

and continue to

reject me,

I banish you.

In other words,

what is He doing?

He's saying,

He's saying,

I am kicking you

out of the Garden

of Eden so that

you can be

redeemable.

You see,

if you're left to

the Garden,

in the Garden of

Eden,

with your sin,

all you will do

is loot the

tree of life

forever and

stay in exactly

the condition

you're in.

You'll continue

over and over

again to say,

I'm okay.

I've got pleasure

forevermore.

I'm happy to

take the goods

and leave the

God behind

who made them.

And you see

what God's doing?

He's saying,

I have kicked

you,

I have exiled

you from the

Garden of Eden

so that you

will be able

to come home

again.

It's mercy.

Lest they eat

of the tree

of life

and become

irredeemable

in their condition.

God says,

you're banished

so that you

will see your

need to come

home.

He's doing

nothing but

showing them

mercy.

Now,

how does

He do that?

Verse 22,

in verse 22

it says that

He clothed

them in skins

from animals.

So God,

on their way

out,

takes an

animal and

sacrifices the

animal and

puts clothes

on their naked

bodies,

gives them

new clothing.

And when He

says that,

He's saying,

I will clothe

you temporarily

by the

substitutionary

death of

another.

If you're

going to go

live life

east of Eden,

you need to

know that the

only way you're

going to be able

to come home

again is through

the substitutionary

death of another.

And through the

death of animals,

just in a

temporary way,

you see there's

a shadow,

there's a

prefigurement,

there's something

being promised.

By the death

of another,

you could be

clothed in

grace.

And then even

Adam starts to

realize that in

verse 20,

foolish Adam,

he's been very

foolish,

but in this

moment he looks

over at the

woman Eve and

it says that he

names her Eve.

So, so far in

the text,

in Hebrew,

Eve has only

been called

woman,

never named.

Adam's only

been called

Adam, which in

Hebrew just means

man, so he's

never really named

Eve either.

But in this

moment, the only

human to get a

proper name, in

verse 20, Adam

looks over at

Eve and he

says, Eve.

And this is not

like Adam in

chapter 2, naming

the animals with

authority over

them precisely.

This is Adam

recognizing something

in her.

You see what's

happening?

Adam looks at

the woman and

he says, in this

woman is the

possibility of

true life.

And so he

names her Eve,

the mother of

all living.

Eve in Hebrew

sounds like the

life-giving one,

the one from

whom life shall

come.

What is he

doing?

He is connecting

the pieces, the

dots, and he's

saying, Genesis

3.15, God had

promised one day

the seed of the

woman would be

born to crush the

head of the

serpent.

Now he's saying,

wait a minute,

there she is,

Eve, the mother

of all living, the

one from whom the

seed will one day

come.

You start to put

the pieces together

and you realize

that in this text

alone, God is

saying that one

day,

through the

son of Eve, a

son shall be

born by whose

sacrifice new

clothes, new

garments shall be

put on your

back.

Through

substitutionary

atonement, a

sacrifice will be

made by which you

could be clothed

and then maybe,

maybe the tree of

life would be open

to you again.

Maybe you could

step back in.

Friends, in the

New Testament, on

the day that Jesus

Christ died on the

cross, do you

remember that the

curtain was torn in

two?

And embroidered on

the curtain, what

is it?

It's plants,

foliage, garden

images, and

cherubs.

You see, there's a

cherub guarding the

way to the Garden

of Eden.

But when Jesus

Christ died, the

curtain was torn in

two.

And Jesus said to

the cherub that day,

you're fired.

You can go home.

Your day job has

ended.

And Jesus Christ's

dead body was put

into a garden.

Why?

Why did, why was, you

see, Jesus' dead body

was put into the

garden.

He was buried in a

garden.

So that by the

sacrifice through the

death of another, we

could say, he could

say, look, the debt is

paid, Father.

The victory has been

won so that on the

day of resurrection,

Jesus Christ could open

the gate to the Garden

of Eden and could say

to every single one of

you, the cherub's been

kicked out.

Now the cherub is

simply one who stands

by the grave, folds

the clothes and says,

come on and see.

Come and see.

The way of the Garden

is open to you.

The way of the Garden

is open to you.

True home is open to

you again through

Jesus Christ.

And the invitation

today is to simply

see one thing and

that's what sin has

taken away from us in

this life east of

Eden, Jesus Christ

will give far more.

Somehow, someway, when

we step into the

Edenic life one day, we

will look back at just

the faintest memory of

the pain and the toil and

the struggle and the

strife of this life and

we will say, for all the

pain we experienced, what

sin did to us, Christ has

given far more.

His plaster is wider than

the wound that sin ever

created.

And so let me finish

with this.

We now are living in the

time between Eden and

Eden.

We're living east of

Eden.

What can you do today

while you wait?

And let me give you two

things to do and we'll

close.

I was reading Dietrich

Bonhoeffer, the German

theologian who resisted

Hitler and was

assassinated, murdered by

Hitler for that.

But he wrote a

commentary on this text

and in his comments on

this little passage, he

says that ever since this

moment we have been

living east of Eden, we've

been living, he says, in

the twilight land.

That's what he calls it.

So he uses the two

Hebrew words here for

good and evil, which is

tov and ra.

And he says, the life we

live east of Eden is the

life between tov and ra,

the life in the middle of

good and evil.

And he calls it the

twilight.

He says, we live in the

time between the darkness

and the light.

And the reason he says

that, what's one of the

first things you need to

do with a text like this?

You need to realize all of

us today, we're living

between the light and the

darkness.

And so in this life, when

you get closer to moments

of life, of light, the

best possible moments you've

ever had, the most

enjoyable moments, the

best relationships, the

best moments of light, you

get really close to the

light, you start to think

this life is really great.

It feels a little bit like

the Garden of Eden.

But on the flip side, some

of us may be walking a lot

closer to the darkness

right now and getting

really close to the

darkness and feeling like

this life is pretty close

to hell.

And Bonhoeffer says one of

the things we've got to

see is Jesus, God, did not

banish us into hell.

He did not banish us into

torment.

He banished us into the

twilight land, the land

between good and evil, the

land between light and

darkness.

And that means that in the

moments, the best possible

moments you've ever had in

your life, you've got to

remember, you've got to

remember, you are not yet

home.

In the worst possible

moments you ever have in

this life, the darkest

moments in this life, you

are not in hell.

This land is east of Eden,

but it is not hell.

And so that means that we can

look up and we can say,

I'm so grateful for so

much of the good that God

continues to pour into my

life.

I'm so grateful for the

sunshine coming in today

and the beauty of a city

like Edinburgh and all the

good moments.

And at the same time, boy,

I'm made for far more than

this.

I long for so much more.

I long to return to the

Edenic life, to true home.

Now, this gives you

incredible explanatory power

because you can say today,

this is why the best things

in this life never really

satisfy, right?

So you come and you get

the next job you were

waiting for.

And you get that job and a

week or two in, somebody

asks you, how's it going?

And you say, you know, I

like it, but it's kind of

meh.

And you get into the next

relationship you've been

longing for for so many

years and you finally get

there and you realize in

the midst of it, this is so

hard and it's a little bit

meh sometimes.

You know, that theological

word meh.

You feel that.

We always, you get the next

thing you desire so much

and then it's not really

filling the hole.

And that's because you're

living east of Eden.

You're living in the

twilight land.

Life between the tov and

the ra, the good and the

evil.

And so nothing's ever going

to do it.

Nothing is ever going to do

it.

I hope this will sound the

way I intend it.

I came and moved to

Edinburgh to do a PhD and I

did that.

And I really, in my

younger years, thought, oh,

this will be very fulfilling

and I will be, it will be

very special to get a degree

like this, you know.

And I remember turning my

PhD thesis in, down in

George Square, and I handed

it in and the lady that

received it, the printed

copy, asked me if I would

like to take a piece of

candy from the candy box.

I'm very serious.

That's what happened.

And I thought, life is

meh, you know.

You think you've accomplished

something and no one cares.

And that's exactly right.

You live east of Eden.

Nothing will fill you.

Nothing will bring the

abundance to your life that

you long for apart from home

with God.

So finally, what can you do?

What you've got to do until

then is you've got to see that

and you've got to come to

Christ who clothes you with

better clothing than your

naked shame, who clothes you

with better clothing than

anyone else can give you, who

will usher you into Eden.

And one of the things you can

do with that is you can go to

the book of Revelation,

Revelation 22, where we see

the Edenic life imaged.

And you've got to meditate on

it.

And you've got to read lines

like, when the Lord Jesus

brings heaven to earth, when

he brings the new Eden to us,

it says that the leaves of

the tree of life will heal

all the nations.

So if you're burdened by the

wars that are going on right

now, by the pain, the toil,

the strife, the earthquake

that's killed at least 2,000

people in Myanmar this week,

you've got to come and say,

one day in the Edenic life,

the leaves of the tree of

life himself will heal the

nations.

And it will cure the land.

And it says right after that

in Revelation 22, that the

curse will be dismissed and it

shall be no more.

And if you're facing death

right now, you're facing this

physical life that's so hard,

you've got to say, he will

kick the curse out of the

garden.

He will heal the land.

He will bring us back from

east of Eden.

He will bring us back to true

home.

Jesus Christ gives far more

than sin ever took away.

Let us pray.

Father, we ask that you would

cultivate in us longing for real

home.

And we pray, Father, that in

the midst of the times we are

too satisfied with this life,

you would break through that

and show us we're not where we

were meant to be, who we were

meant to be with.

And in the moments where we are

very close to darkness in this

life, you would remind us that

this is not hell.

You are giving us time.

You are patient.

You are drawing us back, Lord.

So help us to come back, to come

home today.

And I pray that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.