Recently, I’ve been reading a wonderful daily devotional book written by Hebrew scholar, Chad Bird. In each short devotional, he expounds on a specific Hebrew word in the Old Testament and shows how it connects to Jesus Christ in the Greek New Testament. The interplay between the Old and New Testaments is fascinating.
In this brief article, I want to share one of Bird’s insights into the Hebrew word for “drive out” found in Genesis 3:24:
“He (God) drove out the man (Adam), 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.”
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| Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise By Gustave Dore, 1865 |
Bird comments: “The Hebrew word for “drive out” is garash. You don’t smile and politely ask someone to leave when you garash them. You kick ‘em in the pants. You shove them out, push them away…”
When Adam and Even rebelled in Eden and ate their way to “the knowledge of good and evil”, God knew He had to do something. While God may have been upset with the first couple, His real reason for “driving” them out was to prevent them from eating of the Tree of Life and living forever in a cursed state. God had better plans for blessing.
Here is Bird again:
“How surprising, then, that when Mark wrote about the temptation of Jesus, he chose a Greek word that’s the counterpart to garash. He said, “The Spirit immediately drove (Jesus) out into the wilderness.” (Mark 1:12).
Indeed, the Greek verb that Mark chose, ekballo, is used to translate garash in the Greek version of Genesis 3:24. Why? It’s Mark’s subtle way of telling us that Jesus is Adam #2. He’s come to relive Adam’s expulsion, to be driven east of the Jordan.
There he will be tempted but resist, succeed where Adam #1 failed, and finally return us to the good graces of the Father...”
This is a beautiful picture of how Jesus has come to redeem us from Adam’s rebellious consequences. Jesus lived a perfect life, died a violent death and rose again from the grave to reverse the Edenic catastrophe. When we turn to the cross of Christ, another “Tree of Life”, we are restored to God.
In John 6:37, Jesus says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.”
The Greek word for “cast out” is ekballo, the same word as garash in Genesis 3:24. Once cast out of Eden for our own protection, we are now brought back to God, through Jesus, never to be cast out again!
