‘Then the Lord God said, “Look, the man has become like one of us knowing good and evil, and now, to prevent him from reaching out and taking also of the tree of life so that he might eat and live for ever ----” therefore the Lord God expelled him from the plain of Eden, to serve the ground from which he was taken.'
Once again, as in Genesis 1:26, we have the introduction of ‘us' - ‘like one of us'. God again reveals Himself as surrounded by His heavenly court. But they remain in the background. The hint is there and nothing else. They have no place in creation and the working out of man's destiny. Yet they are a reminder that ‘behind the scenes' there are other beings who have not directly entered into the account. There is too the further hint that among ‘us' both good and evil have been experienced - ‘like us knowing good and evil'. Again we are made aware of the sinister power behind the snake, an evil heavenly being.
The sentence for man, although reduced, is again emphasised. Death will now become his destiny because the means of ‘life unto the ages' will be removed. He will no longer be able to eat of the tree of life, the tree whose fruit has the special quality that it can renew life and prevent old age. By this man is sentenced to a lingering death. The idea of a food of life which can give immortality was widespread in the ancient world, taking many forms, but it demonstrates that the idea was writ large in man's ancient memory.