Eden vs Snooze...

John Lubby Park

Sure - this picture isn't the Biblical Eden - but I love the suggestion it speaks to my mind about God coming in the cool of the day to visit Adam and Eve in their garden home.  Genesis 2 introduces us to Eden. Let’s look at the simplest elements of the story and ask God to open our eyes to see the message He has for each of us.

Dear Jesus - Please help us to see with Your eyes what You have for us...

Genesis 2:8-14 (KJV)
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.  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.  And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;  And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.  And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.  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. 

Eden is a garden that is the source of 4 rivers listed in this order: Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel, Euphrates.  We are probably all familiar with this story – though perhaps we have forgotten the names of some of the rivers. Let’s look at the definitions of these words:

Eden – the name of the garden.  It means “pleasure”, “delight”, “happiness was to be experienced there”.  Before sin entered the world the word and it’s meaning described “perfect pure pleasure”.  Another word for “pleasure” would be delight or happiness and all these words pop up when you look for the definition of the word “Eden”. 

Garden - the word ‘garden’ in Hebrew means “to surround”, “covered”, “to enclose”

The word picture now becomes: The garden of Eden:  To surround with pleasure, to cover with delight, to enclose with happiness.  Now that’s a place you want to be right?  What made Eden this way?  Well, living in the Northwest – we have an idea it is probably related to water.  And a few verses down we see this. 

River –  In the Bible the word 'River' represents life.  Remember Revelation and the 'river of life'?  And what kind of life do each of us crave?  A good life!  Sometimes we have difficulty expressing to ourselves exactly the life we want other than to say we want to be “happy” – a rather nebulous term.  Sometimes the life we crave is just a life of 'no more' misery/illness/spouse/sibling.  Could Jesus be trying to teach us something about the life He designed us to have?  Let’s look at the definitions for each of the rivers:

Pison - dispersive, increasing or drawing

Gihon - stream, a river of Paradise, bursting forth, budding – a spring of water bursting out of the ground

Hiddekel/Tigris - arrow, rapid, giving the idea of speed & energy

Euphrates - break forth, rushing, fruitful

Just uttering these words give us a sense that God is telling us – I want you to have a “happy” life and here’s a more specific glimpse of the life I have for you – I have a life for you that is increasing, bursting forth, budding, energetic, breaking forth, fruitful.   And yet – when I get up in the morning do I feel I am bursting forth with joy?  Do I feel energetic?  Do I feel I am decreasing and want to snuggle in bed longer?  Hey - I'll take some of that Garden of Eden water!  In a bottle - to go! 

What are the 3 components that made the Garden unique?  The 3 chief things Adam and Eve had to say goodbye to when they left the Garden?

1. Tree of life:  Gen 3:24 –  Adam and Eve ate at this tree to sustain the 'eternal' quality of their lives
2. Garment of Light:  Gen 2:25, Gen 3:7 – we see in these verses that they were termed 'naked and not ashamed'.  How is that?  And apparently once they sinned they gained new understanding or visibility to their condition of shame & guilt.  What is that about?  Were they blind before and now they could really 'see'?  I don't think so.  I think we need some logic here.  We know they were created in God’s image, so what does God wear - is He naked and He just doesn't know it because He hasn't sinned?  Psalms 104:2 – He wears LIGHT.  So from this we can infer that those created in His image also wore light.  They “glowed or were always covered” – once they committed sin – the light went out.  Now they “see” they are naked.
3. Face to face communion – after sin, no more face to face communion

What do these 3 things say about the qualitative nature of life experienced in the Garden of Eden? 

1. Tree of Life – life should be forever
2. Garment of Light – The Bible says life should be without shame and without guilt.   The opposite of shame and guilt?  Healthy confidence and peace.  The Bible says you are a child of God - and we could go on and on here...
3. Face to Face Communion – Babies experience failure to thrive when they are deprived of the ability to exchange the communication of all things 'baby'.  To feel like you are alive/living – you must communicate.  We could have been created without the capacity for communication.  Jesus gave us HIS image – in Gen 1 He speaks over and over and in that speech He creates and gives life!  Which is why we show His image based on what we say. 

We don’t live in the Garden of Eden so we are as separate as Adam & Eve were from them.  But deep within our natures - we crave them.  Consequently we seek for replacements: 

1. To live forever – we focus on our health, going to the gym, eating, supplements.  Hoping to extend our lives.  Doesn’t change the reality that some day: I will die.
2. Our job, our talents, our abilities, our clothes, body shape – we use these things to give us confidence & peace – and yet at the end of the day we feel unease/empty/dark inside.
3. We communicate like crazy to feel alive.  We watch movies, go to the theatre, we enhance the experience with theatres that offer a meal with the viewing experience.  We Facebook, we go to book clubs.  We create art, we craft, we cook, we bake, we long to express ourselves.  Regardless of the form of our communication or expression – we achieve only temporary freedom from the reality that some day: I will die.  Sometimes a vagueness or empty/dark feelings lurk in the corner of my mind regarding my future.  This is because I get no pure life unless I am communicating with the source of life - God.

The truth is we were born to CRAVE, in our physiology, the Garden of Eden.  We were created that way.  We miss it.  And our God – foreknowing this would happen – provided something just for you and for me!  Ex. 25:8  Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.  We could flesh this out a bit to say:  Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell with them as I did in the Garden of Eden.  Let’s look at the parallels between Eden & the Sanctuary:

1. Was the sanctuary covered, enclosed, surrounded?  Yes
2. When you enter into the sanctuary, into the Holy Place you see 3 objects.  What are they?
1. Table of Shewbread – bread represents the WORD of God.  You eat bread.  We are to ‘eat’ the Word of God which will give us life eternal.  Instead of the 'Tree of Life' – we have the Table of Shewbread.
2. Candlestick – what gives the candlestick the light?  The Holy Spirit.  The light is given by using the oil which is also used to anoint or ‘cover’ with oil.  The picture is we are covered with the ‘oil’ of the Holy Spirit giving us the garment of light.
3. Alter of Incense – Incense represents Prayer.  Prayer – we are restored to face to face communion with God through prayer.

God says – I will give you back the 3 things taken from you when Adam & Eve left the garden and I will show you how they work.  So if I want to have the paradise experience again I need to go back to the Garden and take Sanctuary in the place I was created for.  Let me be explicit here:  I better get my Bible-read on ASAP!  First thing in the morning!  Praying for the Holy Spirit to guide me to what will feed me for the whole day and even better - what will fire me up!  As I do this - I am promised real actual communion with Jesus!  Test it!

Father in heaven - Thank You that we are not left in darkness or ambiguity about living outside of Eden.  Please show us how to do this!