In consequence of man's disobedience the tree of life is withdrawn from the reach of man as a forfeited boon, and the dissolution of the present life allowed to take place according to the laws of nature, still remaining in force in regard to other animated beings; aided, indeed, and accelerated in their operation, by the sinful abuse of human passions. And thus the expression, "in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die," receives its simple application. It is a conditional sentence, pronounced antecedently as a warning to the responsible party. On the very day of transgression it becomes legally valid against him, and the first step toward its regular execution in the ordinary course of things is taken. This step is his exclusion from the tree of life. This is effected by sending man out of the garden into the common, to until the soil whence he was taken.

Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden,.... Gave him orders to depart immediately; sent or put him away as a man does his wife, when he divorces her; or as a prince banishes a rebellious subject: for how long Adam was in the garden see Gill on Psalm 49:12, however, he did not send him to hell at once, as he did the apostate angels, but

to till the ground, from whence he was taken: either the earth in general, out of which he was made, and to which he must return, and in the mean while must labour hard, in digging and ploughing, in planting and sowing, that so he might get a livelihood; or that particular spot out of which he was formed, which is supposed from hence to have been without the garden of Eden, though very probably near unto it: some say it was a field near Damascus; the Targum of Jonathan is,"he went and dwelt in Mount Moriah, to till the ground out of which he was created;''and so other Jewish writers say (p), the gate of paradise was near Mount Moriah, and there Adam dwelt after he was cast out.

(p) Pirke Eliezer, c. 20. fol. 20. 2.

Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

3:23 He sent him forth - Bid him go out, told him he should no longer occupy and enjoy that garden; but he was not willing to part with it.

[1] Therefore the Lord God

The Second Dispensation: Conscience. By disobedience man came to a personal and experimental knowledge of good and evil--of good as obedience, of evil as disobedience to the known will of God. Through that knowledge conscience awoke. Expelled from Eden and placed under the second, or ADAMIC COVENANT, man was responsible to do all known good, to abstain from all known evil, and to approach God through sacrifice. The result of this second testing of man is stated in Gen 6:5 and the dispensation ended in the judgment of the Flood. Apparently "the east of the garden" Gen 3:24 where were the cherubims and the flame, remained the place of worship through this second dispensation. See for the other six dispensations:

INNOCENCE See Scofield Note: "Gen 1:28"

HUMAN GOVERNMENT See Scofield Note: "Gen 8:21"

PROMISE See Scofield Note: "Gen 12:1"

LAW See Scofield Note: "Ex 19:8"

GRACE See Scofield Note: "Jn 1:17"

KINGDOM See Scofield Note: "Eph 1:10"

3:22-24 God bid man go out; told him he should no longer occupy and enjoy that garden: but man liked the place, and was unwilling to leave it, therefore God made him go out. This signified the shutting out of him, and all his guilty race, from that communion with God, which was the bliss and glory of paradise. But man was only sent to till the ground out of which he was taken. He was sent to a place of toil, not to a place of torment. Our first parents were shut out from the privileges of their state of innocency, yet they were not left to despair. The way to the tree of life was shut. It was henceforward in vain for him and his to expect righteousness, life, and happiness, by the covenant of works; for the command of that covenant being broken, the curse of it is in full force: we are all undone, if we are judged by that covenant. God revealed this to Adam, not to drive him to despair, but to quicken him to look for life and happiness in the promised Seed, by whom a new and living way into the holiest is laid open for us.