I just read (in a little Leviticus Commentary, less than 300 pages of text) the expression “God’s third expulsion!”

Adam and Eve sinned (thus breaking fellowship with God, the very Idea behind Creation) and were forcibly removed from the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3:24 … Genesis 3:24 … “So He (God) drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Note: “Garash” (the Hebrew verb translated “drove”) means “to expel, to cast out,” even “to thrust away!” That was the “first” expulsion of which the author spoke.

Then secondly, Cain was even further removed from Eden, from the entire area! Due to sin, murder, fratricide! Even Cain himself said God had “driven him out” (still “garash”) from the “face of the earth.” (Genesis 4:14) “And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.” Genesis 4:16

Next, the “third” expulsion, forced separation … “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” Genesis 6:5-7, an “alienation” due to something that happened between the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men,” an egregiously rebellious act against Almighty God.

Wow!

Sin drives a wedge between man and God!

And the Book of Leviticus is filled with instructions on how to remove that wedge! How to renew fellowship! How to commune with the Lord, worshipping Him properly!

Let’s continue … tomorrow.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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