Genesis
2:8 ¶ And the LORD God planted a garden
eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to
grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of
life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and
evil. 10 And a river went out of Eden to
water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11 The name of the first is Pison: that
is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12 And the gold of that land is good: there is
bdellium and the onyx stone. 13 And the
name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole
land of Ethiopia. 14 And the name of the
third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And
the fourth river is Euphrates. 15 And
the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and
to keep it.
Speculation is
rampant as to where the Garden of Eden was located. However, the destruction
wrought by the Flood of Noah’s time has erased all traces and, even if it had
not, there are cherubim keeping it from being seen by us as you will see later.
The fact of later place names of Eden given to locations in the ancient world
or that name given to a person is not a guide as today we see how memory of
times past leads us to name towns and places in America after European places
and cities. Whether it be New York, New York or Hanover, Pennsylvania the newer
place was named after a memory of the older. I believe that Eden is in the
heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, based on what the Bible says in Revelation
literally. The word paradise comes to
us from the Persian for a type of large garden or park, typically a hunting
preserve for them.
General locations
of these rivers are given, hard to pin down today, which indicate a general
location for Eden. It was in the Middle East. I would suspect by all of the
references in the Bible to how special Jerusalem is that there was a beautiful
garden planted by God that encompassed thousands of square miles in the
vicinity of Israel and the land promised to Abraham’s descendants. This is the
part of earth that concerns God the most as this is the location for the drama
revolving around His restoration of mankind to where they were meant to be, but
not by their own doing, but by His actions.
Not only did God
plant beautiful, life-giving trees for food in this garden but the Tree of Life
was there. It is now in the heavenly city.
Revelation
2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to
eat of the tree of life, which is in the
midst of the paradise of God.
Revelation
22:2 In the midst of the street of it,
and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve
manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree
were for the healing of the nations…14
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to
the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Eating of the
fruit of the Tree of Life restores the body and permits the person to inhabit a
physical body forever.
Genesis
3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the
man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth
his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
So, clearly this
is like some tree you have never seen and has not ever been classified by a
scientist.
The Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil is the one that was in the event that cursed our
ancestors and us to death and dying. Why, we ask, was it called the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil? Maybe the fruit itself imparted no knowledge. Some
commentators believe that the tree represented all knowledge, therefore eating
it provided the knowledge of knowledge? But
others view the command not to eat the tree as a much more simple and less
philosophical command. The simplest answer is that not eating of the tree,
obeying God, is good, and eating of the tree, disobeying God, is evil. Doing
what God said to do and not doing what God said not to do is the essence of
good and evil. This is presented to God’s people several times throughout
history. There are two things to choose between; light and darkness, belief and
unbelief, obedience and disobedience. This does not mean that every decision in
life is either one thing or the other, as shades of gray color our lives. But
it does mean that there is a choice to be made between two authorities; God or
your flesh. The easiest way for Satan to undercut that, and we will see this
shortly, is to call into question what God said.
When you know,
from reading the Bible, that God says to love your enemies and you hate even
those who disagree with you, much less those who would do you hurt you have
made the evil choice because you are disobeying God.
Matthew
5:43 ¶ Ye have heard that it hath been
said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless
them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he
maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye
love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the
same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren
only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect.
When you have read
the book of Job and know that God is angry at those who misrepresent Him and
yet you, when somebody suffers, think you know what secret sin they are hiding
that makes them worthy of their pain, you are choosing evil. Evil is malicious,
meaning disaster, calamity, and trouble. Like vengeance, it is God’s
prerogative for those who oppose Him. It is not your right to express,
particularly in the congregation of the Lord.
For us, in the
context of our behavior in the congregation of the Lord, the local church, we
are not to even allow the appearance of such malice to express itself, but we
have failed in that, have we not?
1Thessalonians
5:22 Abstain from all appearance of
evil.
Romans
12:17 Recompense to no man evil for
evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
Which
way have you chosen?
If you wish to get
snarky about the Law given to Moses, the religious and civil law for the
Hebrews, and start using examples from there to point out things about killing
Canaanites or stoning wayward children, understand first that, for Christians;
Galatians
3:24 Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25 But after that faith is come, we are
no longer under a schoolmaster.
The laws given to
Moses are not your marching orders unless those commands are repeated by Jesus,
Paul, Peter, John, Jude, and James under the new covenant.
Mankind’s first
job, his constant employment, was to care for the Garden of Eden. What a
wonderful, unmodern, thought. Imagine the lack of running around like a madman,
keeping schedules, cellphones, televisions, timeclocks, deadlines, and greed.
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