God sends the man out of the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. The exile is painful and immediate — the same ground that was his home and his delight is now his place of hard labor. The phrase 'to work the ground from which he was taken' echoes Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 3:19 — dust to dust, earth to earth, but now outside the garden. The exile from Eden is the first of many exiles in the biblical story — Israel will be exiled from Canaan, and the entire human race is in a kind of cosmic exile from the presence of God. Isaiah 51:11 promises a return to Zion with everlasting joy, and in Revelation 21:3, God's dwelling is once again with his people — the exile ends. Luke 15:13–24, the prodigal son narrative, traces this same arc: departure, far country, longing, and return. The application today: do you sense the far-country ache of exile — the awareness that things are not as they should be? That ache is real, and it points toward the homecoming that is coming.

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