Man in the Garden of Eden

RIVERSIDE INDONESIAN FELLOWSHIP
Go to content

Man in the Garden of Eden

Riverside Indonesian Fellowship
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2018 · 4 November 2018

The peak of creation came on day six. There was no evolutionary process from species to species. In fact the God created the universe with all of its diversity and variety as we now know it in six, 24 hours days. But on day six, the final act of His creation was the creation of man and woman in his own image. And the rest of the created world was merely a stage on which man and woman would be the primary role in history.

God created man in his own image means with self-consciousness, with personality, with rationality, with intelligence, with creativity and the capability for relationship. Then He gave man sovereignty over all the created world and its vast and rich resources. With the creation of man then the real story begins. History is not about matter, it's not about stars and planets, it is not about the earth and the animals.

The real story is the story of man. Everything else was scenery for the story of man and his redemption. This starts from Genesis 2:4 to the end of Genesis 50:26. And here is the saga of man. Verse 4 begins the account of the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made heaven and earth. These are the generations of man when God created the universe.

There is no conflict between the creation account in Genesis 1 and the account in Genesis 2. In Genesis 1, you have the simple fact of man's creation. In Genesis 2, you have the details of that creation. Genesis 2:4 takes us back to day six and a more detailed look at the creation of man. Now please note the following: the creation of man, the location of man, the vocation of man and the relation of man.

Now last time we looked at the creation of man in Genesis 2:5-7 and according to verse 5 it says, “When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground.” But we know from Genesis 1 that trees and plants were created on day three.

So whatever these new plants are, they aren't the same trees and plants that were created on day three. When man was created, there were no thorns, and there were no weeds. Genesis 3:18 tells us that part of the curse there were thorns and thistles or weeds. So because of the curse God created weeds. Such plants did not exist on day six because there was no sin.

Secondly there were no crops. This refers to the kind of crops that man had to plant by tilling the soil. That's why it says at the end of Genesis 2:5, "these things didn't exist because there wasn't any rain on the earth and there wasn't any man to cultivate the ground." These were the things that took place after the fall. Moses tells us that when man was created, no weeds existed and no necessity to till the ground.

Plenty of food existed in the original creation. And they grew through God's creation in a perfect and very good way as Genesis 1:31 tells us, "Everything was very good." There was no need to bring forth these crops by the sweat of your brow and hard work. There was no need to fight the thorns and thistles that grew which impeded the growth of the crops after the Fall.

Genesis 2:5 says that there were no weeds on the earth because God had not yet sent rain on the earth. Now after the fall, rain didn't come until the worldwide flood. When the fall came in the Garden and God cursed the earth, at that point in time according to Genesis 3:18, "weeds came." So that man had to protect the crop and plant it and guard it and till it and keep it from the intrusion of the weeds.

The rain was a judgment from God when He broke the continual flow of water that once existed when water just gushed up from underground sources. The whole earth originally was being constantly irrigated from below. And in that marvelous earth, God provided everything for man's need and enjoyment. Everything producing in its fullness what God considered necessary.

And there He placed the man whom He had formed. The whole earth was very good, Genesis 1:31 says. But God made man a special home. God planted a garden toward the east and there he placed the man that he had formed. Again there is no testimony anywhere on the pages of Scripture that man evolved, it is always God who formed him and created him.

And so man's home was the special garden that God made for his joy and his delight called Eden. Eden actually means a place that is well watered throughout. The defining character of the garden was that it was well watered. Everything was lush, everything flourished. In fact the Babylonians call lush green land from which everything is well watered, Edenu.

Now we learn a little bit about this Garden from some other passages of Scripture. Look at Ezekiel 28:12 where we have a description here against the King of Tire, which most Bible scholars would associate with Satan where he is really talking through the King of Tire to the one who is behind him, namely Lucifer, the fallen angel, who is Satan.

Verse 12-14, “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared.

14 You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.” He says in verse 16, “I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub.” Now we learned that this garden was not only full of plants and trees, but it was also full of precious stones and is associated with the beauty of this fallen angel.

Notice Ezekiel 31 also gives us an insight into Eden. This is a judgment on Pharaoh. Verse 3, it was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches and very high and its top was among the clouds and he's talking about how Assyria was. And then in Verse 8, the sarcasm comes, that even the cedars in God's garden couldn't match them. This tell us is that Eden had cedars.

Now back to Genesis 2:9, man found that out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food. Now the whole earth is covered with plants and trees. Species existing everywhere created on day three. But God took the best looking ones the most beautiful ones and the divine gardener decided that you could make a choice.

But there was also a supernatural tree there. End of verse 9, "The tree of life also in the middle of the garden." And then another tree is mentioned, "The tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Now all of a sudden in the midst of this amazing variety of trees which God has selected for the special home of man are introduced two trees that have properties that indicate they might not be natural trees.

There is a supernatural property to the first tree for certain. It is the tree of life in the midst of the garden. Now what that tells us is that it had special properties to sustain life eternally in the one who ate from it. When one ate from that tree, they would live forever. This tree was placed right in the middle of the garden.

And this tree was so powerful in sustaining life eternally that even after Adam and Eve fell, even after they became sinful, mortal people, if they had eaten of that tree, they would have continued to live eternally." And so according to Genesis 3:22, "they had to be thrown out of the garden, less man stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever."

To live forever as a sinner would be a worse fate than death. Among the Jews, the tree of life became a phrase used a number of times in the book of Proverbs. And it is used to express life's best joys and greatest delights. When the Jews said that something is like a tree of life, they were acclaiming it with their highest regard. Once Adam and Eve sinned, they had to be removed from it.

But there's another tree in the garden, verse 9, calls it the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is an actual tree with actual fruit on it. In pictures you see Eve or Adam eating an apple, but we don't have any idea what kind of fruit this was. In the middle of the garden was the tree of life and there was also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But if men ate of that tree, he would die.

So in the whole created earth, in the magnificent Garden of Eden, there was just one test. And we know the sad story. They had everything else, but it wasn't enough. The story will unfold for us in Genesis 3. How Satan who was that angel in the garden of God tempted Eve and she fell. Adam followed and they knew evil, experientially because they did not obey God and death came into existence.

And the day they ate, they would lose all innocence. And they would be aware of evil because they had just done it. When man was created, he was happy in the garden that God made for him. And God gave him the most wonderful environment and fed him with the most incredible array of food and filled that garden with many jewels and the beauty of that place was staggering.

From the original creation, Adam knew God as generous. God didn't make an earth full of riches so that everybody could be poor. God has created all things for us to enjoy. God loaded this little planet with so much wealth and so much wonder and so much beauty and gave man, made in His image, the creativity to do incredible things. From magnificent architecture to the ability to travel to the moon.

God just gave him one prohibition. Don't eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That was the test. But man like a child that disobeys his father, did harm to himself. He didn't want to be just dependent on God. He wanted to make his own choices. So he was banished from the Garden of Eden as we shall see the whole human race was catapulted into tragedy as a result.

Verse 10-14, "A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. And from there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden. That is the way it should be translated in verse 6 rather than mist. Now this river must have been an immense river. This is a huge garden. The water comes up and goes through the garden and it provides surface water and from there it divides and becomes four large and long rivers. Hard to find it now because of the flood, the earth was dramatically altered.

The onyx stone is more familiar to us; the gem used in the garment of the high priest was onyx. So the rivers go east and the south. The Euphrates also runs parallel to the Tigris and empties into the Persian Gulf. But you cannot compare any current rivers with the pre-flood rivers. This was a massive garden throughout that part of the earth where the water gushed out of the ground.

What does man do in the garden? Verse 15, "Then the Lord God took the man, put him into the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it." Work has always been dignified, even before the fall. It literally means serving and keeping. What did he do? He just did what a gardener would do, taking care of a magnificent garden. I'm not sure what it would be. But when we get to heaven, we're also going to serve the Lord, right?

God is still working in the wonders of redemption. He upholds the whole of the creation by the word of his power. We will someday in heaven have a vocation somewhat like Adam had. A vocation which expends no energy. A vocation which never makes us weary. A vocation which always brings us delight and blessing. Even before the fall, work was a noble part of man's life vocation.

Verse 16-17, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” There for the first time we see that word “die” in the Bible. There in the middle of the garden was a test. A test to determine man's love, to determine man's loyalty.

We are also tested every day. God loves us very much just the way we are, but He does not want to leave us in that condition. He wants to change us to become more like Jesus. And He uses trials and tribulations to test and change us. When you are going through difficult times, do not be angry at God. Tests are one of the ways that God shows us that He cares and that He is using everything for our good and His glory.

Man when he sinned was truly inexcusable. And he already knew good; that's all he knew because everything was very good. But if he disobeyed he would know evil. Because that is what evil is, disobedience. And it didn't matter really what the fruit was, it was a good fruit from the outside, it was the act of disobedience that experientially showed you what evil was. And that catapulted man into death. Not physical death but instant spiritual death.

And the whole Bible shows us what our heavenly Father together with Jesus and the Holy Spirit did through the ages to redeem us from a fate worse than death. And to show us His plan to let become heirs of everything that He owns, through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the whole universe. And He continually calls us to repent and believe during our lifetime. Praise the Lord. Let us pray.



JOIN OUR MAILING LIST:

© 2017 Ferdy Gunawan
ADDRESS:

2401 Alcott St.
Denver, CO 80211
WEEKLY PROGRAMS

Service 5:00 - 6:30 PM
Children 5:30 - 6:30 PM
Fellowship 6:30 - 8:00 PM
Bible Study (Fridays) 7:00 PM
Phone (720) 338-2434
Email Address: Click here
Back to content