THE ROCK AND THE HARD PLACE

Then Yahweh God said, 'Behold, the man has become like one of Us to know good and evil; and now, lest he send forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever… Genesis 3:22

My brother-in-law recently passed on to live in glory. The last two times that I had seen him, he tried to be his normal self, but the pain from his cancer clearly showed on his face. The possibility of things becoming worse had been on our minds for a while, but as people do, we had suppressed it. Now, we had to accept the fact: it would be better for him to gain heaven, but better for our sake if he stayed with us. Anyone who has lost someone dear has been in this quandary. You feel between a rock and a hard place as to how to pray.
Thankfully, we are not alone in this. Genesis 3:22 shows us that Jesus, Who has faced all that we face, knows exactly how we feel. He had to decide whether to let Adam and Eve live on in an imperfect body with a sinful soul, sustained forever by the tree of life, hurting inside and out, or should He let them die and start over, being born again in both body and soul. The decision was heartbreaking for Him. So much so, that every translation I have ever seen of this verse doesn't end; it has a colon, a dash, or somehow just expresses the Lord's awareness of the dreadful brokenness of His heart. I think He had to stop talking and go weep.
Well, we know what He chose: the hope of eternal perfection won out over temporary corrupt cohabitation. The Rock won out over the hard place as our future living place. And we know now how broken hearts are healed by His broken body.

Davy L. Troxel