The Decrees of God Remain

God cannot lie according to Hebrews 6:18 and Titus 1:2. His promises and decrees will stand. We could consider numerous examples of this, yet I believe a powerful example is found in Genesis 3. As with this podcast episode, Genesis 3 tends to focus on the sin of Adam and Eve when they listened to the devil and ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. At the end of that account though, God considers the other very special tree that existed within the garden. It was the Tree of Life. God established that there was a law that He had obviously connected to this tree. Genesis 3:22 stated, "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..." To prevent this from happening, God removed Adam and Eve from the garden. God then placed cherubim (plural for cherub - means there were more than one cherub (class of angel)) around the Tree of Life and a flaming sword that protected the tree in all directions. This prevented man from living forever. Now, as God told Adam in verse 19, man would return to the dust.

I find this account interesting because God placed angels to guard this tree from man's hands. This tree, for whatever reason, was not something that God would just do away with. He left it, but denied it to man. God's laws remain even when God does not allow the product of those laws to be accessed by men.