When God created the man, He had to create a place for him to live. This devotional reading looks at the Garden in which the ma lived and two of the trees inside it.
Nuggets
- A paradise was created in which mankind was to live.
- Originally having no restrictions placed on the tree of life, humankind was free to eat of its life-giving leaves.
- The tree of knowledge of good and evil is what offers humankind free will.
- These trees truly symbolize spiritual elements.
God had created humankind in His image. Then He created a garden that was a slice of Heaven.
This devotion went long, so I will finish it up in the next devotion.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Celebrating Creation’s Story series
The Garden of Eden
“Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground — trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2: 8-9 NLT)
A paradise was created in which mankind was to live.
The Garden of Eden was created specifically for humankind. Also called the Garden of God, the Garden had a sacred purpose.
God specifically made it Himself for us as an imitation of Heaven. It was a temple specifically appointed in the service of God.
I love that. It is here in the Garden that humankind had face-to-face encounters with God. It should be called His Garden.
The Garden’s name is significant. Eden means pleasure. It was a place of pleasure and delight.
Bradford said that the Garden of Eden was located in eastern part of the Land of Eden. Fun fact. The direction east is considered holy.
However, the exact location was probably lost because of changes of the earth’s makeup as a result of the flood. Hmmm. I figured the exact location was lost because the tree of life was there. God did want us to eat it in our sinful bodies.
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I’d say a bit of both, probably.
The Garden of Eden is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. Some versions translate Gan Eden, its name in Hebrew, as Paradise.
- “The LORD will comfort Israel again and have pity on her ruins. Her desert will blossom like Eden, her barren wilderness like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found there. Songs of thanksgiving will fill the air” (Isa. 51: 3 NLT).
- “You were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone — red carnelian, pale-green peridot, white moonstone, blue-green beryl, onyx, green jasper, blue lapis lazuli, turquoise, and emerald — all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created” (Ezek. 28: 13 NLT).
- “Because I made this tree so beautiful, and gave it such magnificent foliage, it was the envy of all the other trees of Eden, the garden of God” (Ezek. 31: 9 NLT).
- “And when I bring you back, people will say, ‘This former wasteland is now like the Garden of Eden! The abandoned and ruined cities now have strong walls and are filled with people!’” (Ezek. 36: 35 NLT).
- “Fire burns in front of them, and flames follow after them. Ahead of them the land lies as beautiful as the Garden of Eden. Behind them is nothing but desolation; not one thing escapes” (Joel 2: 3 NLT).
- “And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise’” (Lk. 23: 43 ESV).
- “Yes, only God knows whether I was in my body or outside my body. But I do know that I was caught up to paradise and heard things so astounding that they cannot be expressed in words, things no human is allowed to tell.” (II Cor. 12: 3-4 NLT).
Sounds like a beautiful, wonderful place, doesn’t it? And humankind got ourselves kicked out because we wanted to make ourselves gods.
It was assumed the Garden of Eden was in Mesopotamia because of the location of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.
Some feel it may be in the Fertile Crescent, especially if Cush is Ethiopia. This crescent-shaped area would span all or part of the modern-day countries of Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Kuwait, Turkey, Iran, Cypress, and Egypt. Civilization is thought to have begun somewhere within the Fertile Crescent.
Think about it a second. Where was humankind when God gave us the Sabbath? We were in the Garden of Eden — our place of Heaven on earth.
We haven’t gotten to Genesis 3 yet. Humankind hadn’t fallen yet, so we were still perfect in God’s image.
And we still needed a Sabbath day.
I love what Eden said. (Yeah, great name.) He wrote, “Better to wait in Paradise with God and the Sabbath, than go to find a lower happiness elsewhere.”
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How much more do we need a Sabbath today! And I’ve been wondering more and more lately if we are missing how we are supposed to be worshiping God.
No, we aren’t to be doing the sacrifices, but they were just to channel us to fixing our relationships with God. Are we missing something there?
White made a great observation. Yes, God made the Garden of Eden — and all the earth — for mankind. He didn’t, however, give us title to it.
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Instead, God blessed us with it and through it while keeping the authority over it to Himself.
Tree of Life
Originally having no restrictions placed on the tree of life, humankind was free to eat of its life-giving leaves.
For those of us who know what happens in the next chapter, it is easy to focus on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil being in the garden. But we tend to gloss over that the tree of life was there also.
The tree of life is only mentioned a couple of times in God’s Word. It, also, was located in the middle of the Garden.
- “And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2: 9 ESV).
- “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever’” (Gen. 3: 22 ESV).
- “She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called blessed” (Prov. 3: 18 ESV).
- “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life” (Prov. 13: 12 ESV).
- “A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit” (Prov. 15: 4 ESV).
- “through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22: 2 ESV)
“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (Rev. 2: 7 ESV).
But it is a real tree.
We may scratch our heads at its life-giving or life-sustaining properties. But it has those properties.
“Then the LORD God said, ‘Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!’” (Gen. 3: 22 NLT).
No, this doesn’t mean that God isn’t powerful enough to countermand the effects of a tree. God has given us life-sustaining medical knowledge that doctors use daily to extend our lives.
We will find in Genesis 3 that it is not talking about the physical condition. Rather it is focusing on the spiritual conditions.
If we hadn’t sinned, we would have had eternal spiritual life. This tree symbolized that.
So, does that mean Adam and Eve never ate of it? They may have before the original sin. They didn’t after the sin because they definitely did die.
Bonar clarified that. He wrote, “Not that one eating of it could confer immortality; but the continuous use of it was intended for this. The link between soul and body was to be maintained by this tree. So long as he partook of this, that tie could not be broken.”
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It was a promise of spiritual life as long as humankind was obedient.
That is why, we will see in the next chapter, God went to great lengths to keep it out of humankind’s reach.
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
The tree of knowledge of good and evil is what offers humankind free will.
So, here is another tree. It has unique properties as well.
Only this tree was to enhance our intellectual and moral nature. How can that be?
Good is what is pure and holy. Evil is sin.
We will find in Genesis 3 that Adam and Eve had a choice to make. Were they going to bite or not?
But let’s think about it. They knew what good was because Adam and Eve were obedient to God up until that time.
Once, Adam and Eve bit, they gained knowledge of evil. Was it given to them by what they ate?
Or was the knowledge given to Adam and Eve because they realized they did exactly the opposite of what God told them to do?
I would say probably a bit of both.
I think we have to take God’s Word literally. God isn’t going to hide what sin is. So, He is not going to hide what holiness is.
When we come right down to it, isn’t holiness a state of obedience?
Isn’t that what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil taught? Humankind has to desire obedience to good.
The sad part is that Adam and Eve had that good in them. But they may or may not have realized it.
What? Do we really realize we have holiness in us? It is in God’s children.
Witsius had a good reminder. He wrote,
“That man was sincerely to contemplate and desire the chief good, but not to endeavour after it, but only in the manner and way prescribed by Heaven; nor here to give in to his own reasonings, how plausible soever they might appear.”
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The question became, how far would humankind go to see that good in Him, or would we seek that good in everything but God?
Jacobus made a fantastic observation. He argued it wasn’t that humankind wanted the knowledge of good and evil. Rather, he felt we wanted knowledge on par with God.
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I’d agree with that. Isn’t that what science is about many times? We want to know the how in order to debunk the Who.
Even here in the second chapter of the history of the world, it is about faith — and not just I believe faith. It is faith in the unseen — therefore, unknown.
“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see” (Heb. 11: 1 NLT).
Why did God make this the way we are to shout our love for Him? Spoken like a true Parent, “Because I told you so.”
I think it goes deeper than that, though. I think it was because God just didn’t want us to know anything about evil.
We like to say that sin invaded because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. But wasn’t it already here? Didn’t it really invade God’s universe when Satan disobeyed Him?
No mention is made here of Satan. Nothing has been said about angels, period.
When God came to meet with Adam and Eve (Gen. 3: 8), He may have brought an entourage. They wouldn’t have needed to be bodyguards, but maybe they came to keep praising Him. You know, a wherever-He-goes-they-go deal.
We aren’t told one way or another. So, if we take it literally, the topic of Satan and the angels never came up.
Humankind was going to have to make its decision on its own whether they would be obedient to God.
What we can’t and shouldn’t gloss over is the fact that humankind was formed with the ability to discern what is good and what is evil. That is one way we were made in God’s image.
Both Trees
These trees truly symbolize spiritual elements.
So, we have two trees with unique properties. Witsius said that they were sacred symbols.
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Think about it this way. When the Wilderness Wanderers were wandering around, they would set up camp. The Tabernacle would be in the middle. The divisions would circle around the Tabernacle.
Both trees, symbolizing spiritual things, took the place of honor in the middle of the Garden. Honoring God is paramount.
Making the Connections
I don’t know how many sermons I read that said pieces of Eden have been scattered all over God’s world. That is true. There are some beautiful, calming places scattered around.
But don’t diminish the presence of God within us.
- “You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever” (Ps. 139: 7-12 NLT).
- “You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever” (Ps. 16: 11 NLT).
- “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” (Rev. 21: 4 NLT).
- “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” (Jn. 14: 2 NLT).
- “You have made known to me the paths of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence” (Ac. 2: 28 NLT).
- “And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Ex. 33: 14 NLT).
God is with us always.
White made a great observation. He noted that the Garden of Eden was blessed above other parts of the earth.
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Yes, the God of love does not make everything completely the same. The God who shows no favoritism (Rom. 2: 11) divides and separates.
How Do We Apply This?
- Obey God’s commands.
- Recognize our sins are because of disobedience.
- Accept that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and surrender our lives to Sovereign God.
- As Gray said, “Cultivate flowers of holiness, and fruits of godliness; possess the Rose of Sharon and the true Vine, and paradise will be regained.”
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Father God. You created this beautiful world, and then You created a beautiful Garden in which Adam and Eve were to live. Lord, if only we could have stayed there! Forgive us for our sins. Amen.
What do you think?
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