The Garden of Eden - Genesis 2:5-20
In 1922 an Egyptian archaeologist, Howard Carter was coming to the end of a fifteen year dig in the Valley of Kings in Egypt. He had hoped to find the royal tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The money was now running out. Then the workers discovered a stairway leading down into the earth. Thousands of baskets filled with rocks and sand had to be removed revealing sixteen steps and a long passageway with a door at the end. Carter drilled a small hole in the door. There was a dark space beyond. He inserted a candle through the hole and peered in. As his eyes became accustomed to the dim light, gradually details emerged. He saw strange animals and statues, but everywhere there was the glint of gold. He had found the quest of his life. He later wrote about this occasion,
“For the moment, I was struck dumb with amazement”.
A partner asked him,
“Can you see anything?”
To this Carter replied,
“Yes, wonderful things.”
Life around us is hard for many people. Everything appears dark and prospects bleak, both personally and in society. Don’t you wish that sometimes the cycles of crime, deprivation, or hunger could be broken? Do you wish these awful things didn’t happen? Don’t you have a deep yearning for “paradise”? This word “paradise” comes from an ancient Iranian word where it was used to describe the magnificent private gardens of the Persian kings. One of the privileges that he gave to those he wanted to honour was the right of admission to his gardens. The word then entered the Greek language through Xenophon, an early Greek writer and from there it became an English word. It is interesting that in the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint , the word used for garden in Genesis 2:8 is this same word “paradise”.
There is a striking difference between the wording of Genesis chapter one and that of chapter two. In chapter one it is God (Greek ‘elohim’) who said, God who saw, and God who divided. In chapter two the word for God has changed to ‘Yahweh’ - the LORD. In English translations, whenever Yahweh is in the original, the word LORD is used, but is put in capital letters. The creator God is now personal, relating to the man he has made. If you scan through the chapter, there is no doubt who is in charge – it is the LORD who is calling the shots.
This story, like that in chapter one, teaches us that the world began as an amorphous planet with no rain and no plants. It is interesting that in this story, water first appears coming up from the earth, which is just what modern science now supports.
Then the camera zooms in on one man – he becomes the focus of God’s creation. This man is still very much a material being, his body being composed of chemicals from the ground. The word for ‘ground’ in Hebrew is ‘adamah’ and the name for man is a pun on this. Adam, which also means ‘man’, was made from ‘adamah’
We are reminded of this in our funeral services. The phrase ‘Dust to dust’ teaches us that we are material beings which will decompose, even though we are more than this. God ‘breathed his Spirit’ into us. Because of this we are more than animals. We have been made in the image of God.
But why has this story about God creating man been written as it has been. It is clear that two important questions are being answered,
Where does God intend to live?
What relationship does God want with man?
Where does God intend to live?
You may have heard the Christian gospel being described as ‘Pie in the sky when you die.” Some people do have some strange ideas! There was an old Sunday School song that had equally awful doctrine,
“Somewhere in outer space, God has prepared a place for those who trust him and obey.”
The first part is not true. God intends to live with man on a new earth and this story is to remind us of this.
Do note that the Lord God is described as being a gardener. He clearly likes hard work, getting his hands dirty. He has made us to be like him. He is not lazy and he does not want us to be so either. God’s people are meant to be workers, just as Jesus was.
So, in verse 8 we read that God planted a garden in Eden. The word Hebrew word for Eden literally means ‘bliss’ or ‘delight’
From verse 9 we read that our God is not only a worker but he also has an aesthetic sense. He appreciates beauty and he appreciates good food. As we have been made in his image, we also can appreciate beauty and good food. As God is, so he wants us to be.
The Garden
Let us focus for a while on this idea of the beautiful garden of Eden, this paradise.
There was running water flowing from Eden, so presumably there were springs there. This river divided into four. The Pishon river wound through the whole land of Havilah in a snake like fashion. We don’t know where this was. The Gihon wound through the entire land of Cush. Again the meaning of this is unclear. The usual Biblical Cush is now called Ethiopia and upper Egypt. These do have the Nile running through them but it flows in the opposite direction so it is unlikely to mean this Cush. The Tigris and Euphrates are well known major rivers in Iraq.
However there is something else included in the text that I have previously overlooked,
“It (the Pishon) winds through the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are there.) Genesis 2:11-12
Why were these items included. Are they symbolic? We will return to this shortly.
Clearly this garden paradise was for the Lord. Genesis 2 tells us that,
Man is put there to care for it for his Lord. v. 15
The Lord commands. v. 16
In spite of the obvious close relationship with man there is no doubt who is in charge.
In the next chapter we read that something disastrous went wrong in this relationship between God and man. Adam was expelled from this garden of paradise; the Lord no longer walked with Adam. Man’s return to the garden was prevented by cherubim with flashing swords. No longer could man feed from the ‘tree of life’. The garden itself eventually disappears.
The Bible’s message is clear, a divide has occurred between man and the Lord of the universe. This is obvious to us all in our experience. Fortunately for us that is not the end of the story. ‘Paradise Lost’ is followed by ‘Paradise Regained’. These are not just the titles of John Milton two epic poems; they reflect the whole message of the Bible.
The story of Hansel and Gretel is one of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Two children lived with their very poor parents in a house within a deep forest. Because of their poverty the parents decided to lose the children deep within the forest. However Hansel thwarted this plan by filling his pockets with white pebbles which he dropped to the ground to show the way they had travelled. Consequently when they were deposited deep in the forest they were able to find their way home again. The theme of God’s Paradise Garden can be traced throughout the Bible, it also reminds us of the way home to paradise. God’s promise is that this will be restored and will again become the haven for the Lord’s people.
The Tabernacle
The tabernacle was the first of these reminders. This large tent, with its surrounding screened off area, was built according to the Lord’s specific directions after the Israelites escaped from captivity in Egypt. God designed it as a walled off garden. The inner sanctuary consisted of two rooms. At the rear was the most sacred ‘Holy of Holies’ whereas in front of this was a room called the’ Holy Place’. The two were separated by a thick curtain. The two rooms were covered with multiple thick layers preventing any access except through the one entrance which was at the front of the ‘Holy Place’. Entrance into the inner sanctuary was forbidden, except for a token visit by the High Priest once a year. Even he had to have a rope tied round him in case he died within the ‘Holy of Holies’. In this Holy of Holies the Ark of the Covenant was placed. This gold covered box reminded God’s people that their Lord had not forgotten them and that there was still a contractual arrangement, a covenant, made by the Lord with them. They were to be His people and He would act as their Heavenly Father. On top of this box were two cherubim facing each other, with extended wings. They were made of hammered gold. Their wings protected a very sacred area, the ‘Mercy Seat’. It was at this place of mercy that God said he would meet with his people and give them his commands. These cherubim, who we first met preventing man’s return into the garden of Eden, are now pointing the way back to a relationship with God. This way could only be found if God was to have mercy – it could only be through an undeserved gift from God. God had ordained that this mercy would only be made available through one ‘God-prescribed’ means – through the sacrifice of a perfect animal whose blood was to be sprinkled on the mercy seat once a year.
The curtain that separated the ‘Holy of Holies’ from the ‘Holy Place’ was embroidered with two cherubim These further reminded God’s people of the cherubim that prevented Adam and Eve, from re-entering the Garden of Eden and thus God’s presence. Entrance was still prohibited by the cherubim but there was now hope because of the commitment God had made to his chosen people.
In the Holy Place was a large tree shaped candlestick called the ‘menorah’. Even the words used for the seven candle holders reflect that this is meant to represent a tree – these cups consisted of ‘petals’ and ‘calyces’ that are found in flowers. Gold was everywhere, as it was in the Garden of Eden. The colours used were royal colours, blue, purple and scarlet.
The High Priest wore a uniform. This was made of linen, which itself has great significance in the Bible. On the shoulder pieces of the ‘ephod’ were two ‘onyx stones’ which were engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. What are ‘onyx stones’ there for? They remind the people of that garden where God’s people were intended to be. Even the journey into ‘the Promised Land’ reminded them that this was God’s intention. This Promised Land was again and again described as a rich garden. Again this symbolised that future promised land where God intends to live with his people. In this eternal paradise God’s people will again live in a close relationship with their Lord again.
The Temple
The temples in Jerusalem had the same essential design of the tabernacle but they were much grander. The prohibited Holy of Holies and the very private Holy Place remained. Yet still it symbolised the garden where God intended to live. Inside the temple the walls were lined with cedar wood panelling. These were carved with cherubim, palm trees and open flowers, all overlain with gold. No clearer picture of that original garden could be made. Again two cherubim guarded the inner sanctuary as they did the garden, yet now they were made of olive wood with a fifteen foot wing span.
Isaiah
The prophet Isaiah, who lived seven hundred years before Jesus, recognised the importance of ‘the garden’ paradise as the future home of God’s people. He wrote,
“The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.” Isaiah 51:3
Jesus’ Burial and First Resurrection Appearance
John, who also wrote the book of Revelation, keeps alluding to ‘the garden’. After Jesus’ crucifixion, his body was buried in a new garden tomb (John 19:41). On the third day after his death, Jesus is first seen alive in this garden. Here he first appeared, walking and talking with Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene sees Jesus but doesn’t recognise him, mistaking him for “the gardener”. This symbolism is typical of John. Jesus, the LORD who came to earth, came back to his garden.
Revelation
The final chapters of the book of Revelation are most important to complete this picture that God is going to return to live again with His people in a new garden. Paradise will return to earth. There is one major difference however. There will be a city of God that descends to merge with this garden. There will be no more death, mourning, crying or pain. The city indicates that many people will be there, there will be no loneliness. Some of the features of this ‘garden city’ are clearly meant to remind us of Eden. In the city there is a spring giving rise to a river, just like in Eden. This flows out from the throne of God, the water being called ‘the water of life’. This surely refers back to what Jesus had said to the woman he met at the well in Samaria,
“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14
In the book of Revelation, the one sitting on the throne, who is both God the Father and the Son says,
“I am making everything new!” . . . “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.” Revelation 21:5-6
“On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit. . . “ ( Rev 22:2).
This is a clear reference to the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. The city is of ‘pure gold’ (Rev 21:18, 21), reminding us of the gold in Havilah. Many jewels cover the city (Rev 21:11, 19-21) There can be no doubt that John wants us to understand that the garden of paradise has been restored but with much greater glory. I live in the first Garden City in England, Letchworth, but this eternal garden city will wildly surpass everything we can imagine. This really will surpass anything Ebenezer Howard, the founder of the first garden city in Letchworth, could conceive of.
2. What sort of relationship does God want with man?
In the Garden of Eden a covenant was established with Adam,
“The Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” Genesis2:16-17
What does ‘the tree of knowledge of good and evil’ represent? It is most likely that God is saying that it is not up to man to determine right and wrong. He reserves this right for himself. Any who take this onus on themselves will die spiritually. Man cannot redefine as good something God has called evil. The problem is that we have all behaved as Adam and Eve did. And just like them, we have been excluded from God’s presence. Yet God still wants to live on earth with man. He wants this to start now, as a foretaste of what it will be like to live with him in his final garden city on the new earth. That really will be paradise.
The end of the Bible again emphasises this message. There are only two fates for human people.
“He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death.” Revelation 21:7-8
Some people, called the overcomers, will be admitted into in this paradise. These are they who ‘drink from the spring of water of life’. This privilege is free, yet in spite of this many will opt to turn their backs on God’s offer. Yet those who rely on the Lord Jesus Christ will be adopted into the family of God himself. “I will be his God and he will be my son.” (Rev 21:7). God will be able to tell those who turn their backs on this gospel , whatever words they use, because their lifestyles will make this clear. Their destiny will be hell. It will be no use saying we are Christians if there is no impact on the way we live. This is why it is so important to be converted to and then stay close to the Lord Jesus. Only then will we quickly feel his tug whenever we begin to step out of line.
Yet the pull of the world is strong. It is interesting that ‘hedonism’, living for my pleasure, has an anagram ‘His demon’. Too late, many come to realise that living for our own short term ends, is the route to disaster – it is demonic. To make the reality of these two fates abundantly clear, John repeats this lesson for us in the next chapter.
“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” Revelation 22:14-15
What we believe affects the way we live. God wants to live with us so that we can begin to enjoy his company for ever. We all know what it is to be away from God and to be cut off from him. Sometimes this is very painful. Praise God that there is a way back to God. There was one mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant, which looked forward to the one atoning sacrifice paid on the cross by the Lord Jesus. His blood was the final ‘blood of the lamb’. God has promised to accept us if we come to Jesus on his terms, ready to live for His glory. There is even more – he has promised us his Holy Spirit to enable us to keep living as God’s representatives on earth until we meet him.
Professor Joad was a renowned atheist who became a Christian. He concluded that,
“Trying to find happiness from this world is like trying to light up a dark room by lighting a succession of matches. You strike one, it flickers for a moment and then goes out. But when you find Jesus Christ, its as though the whole room is suddenly filled with light.”
We can have glimpses of paradise here in this life, but in the eternal garden city there will be many mansions that our Lord has gone to prepare for us. The desert will not be for ever.
BVP
Dec 2009
