Genesis 3:22-24 NASB95
Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”- [23] therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. [24] So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.
The tree of life in the middle of the garden supernaturally nourished Adam and Eve’s union with God, and it also carried the quality of immortality. Some theologians believe that the tree of life was Jesus. Regardless, when they chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they died spiritually, yet even in their fallen state, they wanted to continue feeding on the tree of life. Because of God’s love for them, He drove them from the garden and stationed an angel with a flaming sword to keep them from finding their way back to the tree of life so that they would not feed on immortality and live forever in their broken and fallen condition. Verse 24 says God “drove” them out. To be driven out is very aggressive. It was not gentle but had nothing to do with God being angry. It was about God’s passionate love for them and desire to protect them. He had just revealed the gospel to them earlier and, in their nakedness, covered them with animal skins, and so God’s heart was filled with nothing but grace when He drove them out.
Here’s the point I want to make. Adam and Eve very much wanted to continue eating from the tree, and yet God aggressively kept them from something they badly wanted because God knew it would bring about destruction in their lives, even though they could not see it that way. God knew that, ultimately, there would have to be death and resurrection for His vision and dream for all of humanity, including Adam and Eve, to be realized. There are times when God aggressively keeps us from having something we badly want, but when He does, it is not because He is punishing us but because He loves us so much that He is determined to protect us from self-destructive acts. He can see what we can’t see, and He knows that sometimes what we want has to die so that He can give us what He knows will fulfill our true heart’s desire, and the big dreams that He has for us.