Genesis 3:24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

I was thinking of writing about access. The thought came to me to use this opening verse as a basis for gaining access to the garden of Eden again, our idea of paradise.

Then as I read the passage over again, I had to change my way of thinking. The way is guarded to the tree of life. Sure the tree was planted at the center of the garden but the focus is not the garden but the tree of life.

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way….

He is the way to the tree of life. The flaming sword turning every way is to ensure only those whom God justifies can come near to our Lord and obttain eternal life.

Ephesians 6:17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Two edge swords cut both ways, that is the word of God.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Revelation 20:4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God…

From the very beginning to the very end this has always been about Jesus, as the Son, as the Word, as the Way, truth and life everlasting.

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Jesus is knocking at the door to your heart. If you hear His voice you don’t get to say “Come in” you have to open the door to your heart and invite Him in.

If you are not hearing His voice, perhaps you need to pick up your bible and read.

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

“This word study comes from the definition used yesterday about preeminence. The feelings we have about being “passed over” quote from yesterday.

When I read those words “passed over” it struck me. This is not the Passover Season. As Christians we have renamed it Easter because of the Resurrection. Some even call it Resurrection Sunday.

Originally holidays were Holy Days. They were designated days of remembrance and celebration. No one seemed to have more of them than the Jewish religion. It could be said with some fair amount of consideration that there would be none of them if it had not been for the night of the first Pass Over.

Exodus 12 English Standard Version

The Passover

12 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. 

Oddly enough verse 4 sounds exactly like what we do at Thanksgiving, gather together. It was never part of our Easter celebration. We were lucky if it even meant an Easter Egg hunt. That was a pagan leftover from a pagan ritual we never understood but did anyway. My mother and father never celebrated Holy Days.

This is the point of holidays isn’t it? Society has insisted it not be Holy and taken God out of remembrance and celebration. We are months away from the Passover, Easter, and are having the big three at the end of the year. All three have religious ties but only a few remember and celebrate them as Holy. Halloween, all saints day. Thanksgiving, giving thanks to God for the new friends that provided life saving food to starving Pilgrims. Christmas, the Mass for Christ to celebrate His birth even though we did not know the date of His birth. Saturnalia was converted to Christmas by Empirical decree.

Romans 14:5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.

Every day is a gift to remember and celebrate as a gift from God.

Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.