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8 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 the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ~ Genesis 2:8-9
Today, we return to our study of Genesis where we have learned of God's creation of the heavens, the oceans, the land, the animals, and man. And, after God created everything, He rested. His was a rest of completion, not a rest of exhaustion because God never gets weary. The Sabbath was given by God to Israel, according to Exodus 31 to remind them that they were His special people. It also is a symbol of the eternal rest that the believer in Christ has with Him for eternity.
In v.8 of today's passage we read, "The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed."
After creating man, God planted a garden eastward in Eden. Eden means "delight" or "pleasure." Eden was, if man obeyed God, to be a place not for work, but for a different purpose. This garden was something special and something intended for the man God had formed in His image. The Garden of Eden was the perfect environment, yet, man still rebelled against God because he had a choice. Later, on toward the end of time, we read in the book of the Revelation, for a thousand years Satan will be bound. So, during the Millennium the devil will not be present. And, after the thousand years is up, Satan will be released from the Abyss and a huge rebellion will take place. This will happen after the Millennium, after a thousand years of a perfect environment on earth. The Millennium will be another Eden for a thousand years; it will be a perfect paradise. But mankind will sin yet again rebel against God because man is depraved by his sin. The problem is the evil within the heart of man. It is not the environment that makes us do what we do, it is the wickedness that man invited into his heart so long ago that makes us so rebellious.
Human history involves three gardens: the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane and the Garden in heaven where God will take all of His children to live in eternal bliss. Interestingly, in the Garden of Eden man sinned, and in the Garden of Gethsemane the Lord Jesus paid the penalty that was created by that sin on His cross. Believing on the Lord Jesus will yield eternal bliss for the believer in the heavenly Garden.
The indication here was that these two trees were in the middle of the garden. The trees were there as a test. It wasn’t that there was anything in the forbidden tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that was toxic; that tree in particular was just a test. When Adam ate of that tree it was an act of disobedience which separated him from God.
Interestingly, the ground in the Garden of Eden needed to be tilled. The ground was outside of the Garden of Eden, not in it. And, God knew well before the fall that man would fall. And so the garden, despite being made as a place where God would fellowship with man, didn’t fill the entire earth. Instead, the Garden was a localized place of grace and of abundance. It was, as God knew from the beginning, a temporary place for Adam to dwell. This isn’t readily apparent though. In this verse, it was there in the Garden of Eden that God "put" Adam.
For Adam, appreciating the Garden meant he would need to leave the Garden. This is how we learn to appreciate anything, by contrast. If there is no contrast, then we have no ability to appreciate our current state. God knew that man would start in the Garden and then be removed from that Garden because of our interaction with, believe it or not, a tree. But God’s plan is that we are to be restored to the Garden because of our interaction with another tree. The plan is so intricately woven and presented in the Bible that it’s almost beyond imagination. Everything fits so beautifully.
In v.9 of today's passage we read, "And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
There were many trees in the Garden of Eden and God accentuated two trees there; the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And of these two trees, the fruit of only one is forbidden. More than a little was tied up in those two trees. Choices were tied up in them, conditions were tied up in them, blessings and curses were tied up in them, life and death were tied up in them, the law and grace were tied up in them.
Although Adam was told to not eat of this tree, the choice was still his to make. God placed the tree in the Garden when he could have simply not have placed it there at all. By placing it there, it was possible for Adam to eat it even though he was told not to. The choice had to be there in order for love to be a reality. Obedience is always a test of our priorities and our allegiances.
Sadly, as the story unfolded Adam chose foolishly and he knew evil experientially. Before he ate of the forbidden tree, Adam was like a little innocent child because he knew nothing about evil. But the day he ate, he lost the innocence, and he was shackled by the enemy himself.
Before he sinned, Adam knew God as the generous God who loaded this little planet with so much wealth, wonder and beauty, and He gave man, made it His image, the creativity to do and make some incredible things. It was all there for Adam to enjoy. God had furnished him a garden, and in it was everything he ever needed. But man ignored God and he chose not to be dependent on God. Man wasn’t content with the life that God had given him. So he rebelled and God had no choice but to banish man from the Garden and all of man's progeny was hurled into chaos and a world of death. Sadly, it didn't have to be this way.
