Words of Hope Daily Devotional
Separated from Heaven
Read: Genesis 3:8-24
The LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden. (v. 23)
A common disciplinary technique used by parents and teachers is the “time-out,” in which a disobedient child is temporarily separated from the rest of the group. Why is it effective? Because we were made for communion. Most of us would do anything to avoid separation.
In Genesis 1-2, God created “the heavens and the earth”: one world made up of two complementary realms. God placed human beings at the center of this world and declared it “very good” (Gen. 1:31). We had perfect communion with God, each other, and all heaven and earth. But when we fell into sin, we cut ourselves off from paradise. Our sin placed a barrier between heaven and earth. Genesis 3 describes Adam and Eve banned from Eden and barred from re-entry by a flaming sword. This captures the reality that we, the inhabitants of earth, cannot force our way into heaven. Heaven must come to us.
At the end of Genesis 3, the Lord makes a promise: the woman’s offspring will one day break sin’s hold on the human race and burst the barrier between heaven and earth. When this son, Jesus, appeared, he did indeed undo the powers of sin and death and hell. He himself became the way that the lost people on earth could gain re-entry into heaven. Through Jesus we have “access by faith into this grace in which we stand”(Rom. 5:2). Heaven is within reach. We who belong to Jesus wait, and work for, the restoration of our lost paradise.
As you pray, praise God for his persistence in restoring the union of heaven and earth.
About the Author
Ben Van Arragon
Ben Van Arragon is a preacher and writer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He preaches and teaches the Bible in church, online, and anywhere else he has the opportunity.
Daily Devotional Template
Read: Revelation 1:4-6; 5:1-14 . . . to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. (Rev. 1:6) In Greek, doxology means a “word of glory.” Doxologies are brief ascriptions of praise that Christians have used in worship since the
Blessed Reading, Blessed Hearing
Read: Revelation 1:1-3 Blessed is the one who reads . . . this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it. (v. 3) Jesus didn’t just rise from the dead; he is risen.
Who Moved the Stone?
Read: John 20:1-10 Who will roll away the stone for us? (v. 3) More than eighty years ago an English skeptic named Frank Morison set out to explain Jesus’s resurrection in non-supernatural terms. His study led him to call that
On the Third Day
Read: Matthew 28:1-10 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. (Matt. 28:6) What a story! Several of the women who were closest to Jesus went out to the garden tomb early Sunday morning to finish the
Dead and Buried
Read: John 19:31-42 Since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. (v. 42) On Saturday, Jesus was dead. Christians call this day, the day when life itself stopped and Jesus’s body lay in the tomb, Holy Saturday.
Beneath the Cross of Jesus
Read: John 19:17-30 And I, when I am lifted up . . . will draw all people to myself. (John 12:32) Beneath the cross of Jesus was not a nice place to be. The sights and sounds and smells of