Cheryl Schatz

gengwall,
You said:

Have we considered this – what is the significance “the east” in the placements of the cherubims and flaming sword? I think it has always been assumed that this was at the only entrance to the garden and therefore it kept Adam (and subsequently, Eve) out of the garden completely. But the text doesn’t explicitly say this. It could be interpreted to mean that the cherubims and sword were placed at a location in the garden close to the Tree of Life to protect only it. In that case, even if Eve had stayed behind, as it were, she would have had no access anyway. It also could mean that only a small protion of the garden, maybe only encompassing the Tree of Life, was guarded and the rest was turned to wasteland.

First of all, let’s have a close look at the text:

Genesis 3:22–23 (Darby)
22 …And now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever…! 23 Therefore Jehovah Elohim sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.

Notice that God doesn’t say that Adam was to till the ground in Eden. Adam was sent forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground. Now if the angel was only protecting the tree and not the entrance to the garden, then why was Adam sent out of the garden? There would be no reason to force him out if the tree was protected. Remember that God said that the reason he sent him out of the garden (verses 22, 23) was that he would not be able to eat from the tree of life. Therefore we can conclude that the angel guarded the way to the tree of life by guarding the entrance to the garden.

Well, she did get “stuck with him” if we understand that once she left the garden of Eden, that she couldn’t get back because the angel was guarding “the way”. In the Scriptures there is a symbolic “one way” only. Jesus is the one and only way back to the tree of life and the angel was guarding the “one way” to the tree of life.