Creation, Life and Water ~ The Garden Life
Genesis 1 ends with the sixth day of creation and Genesis 2:1-3 is our first look at God's Seventh Day Sabbath. He rested, He sanctified (set it apart) and He blessed the Seventh Day. The Seventh Day carries with it a special blessing unlike any other day. No where else in Scripture do we find another day which the LORD blessed. We see again in Exodus 20:11 the "barak yom" blessing for a specific day. As such it is my belief that we also should set apart the Seventh Day and rest and bless the LORD as a memorial to our Creator.
With our creation comes the "nashamah chay" the breath of life. Was it just Adam and Havah (Eve) which received this breath of life? Genesis 7:22 tells us in the flood that all who had the breath of life died in the flood. If you are living you have the nashamah chay in you, the breath of life, that is what makes us "chay nephesh", living souls.
Deuteronomy 30:6 says we are to love him with all of our nephesh (souls) that we may chay (live).
In the garden was the Tree of Chay (Life) ...
Psalms 42:2 Tells us God is a living (chay) God ... it is only a living God who can breath life into His creation.
At any rate Adam was created and God became the first Gardener, planting an enclosed garden eastward in Eden and there he placed Adam. Where is this garden? There are lots of speculations. One thing we do know is there was a river there to water the land and that river broke into four heads:
- Pison "Increase" around the land of Havilah where there is gold and onyx
- Gihon "Bursting forth" around the whole land of Ethiopia where another Scripture says there is Topaz
- Hiddekel "Rapid" (possibly the Tigris river) going East and the fourth
- Euphrates "Fruitfulness" from a root meaning "to break forth" and it is said to be the largest and longest river in Asia and is said to be sweet and pleasant tasting
On another note, a side note, I do not know if this has anything to do with the Gan Eden (The Garden of Eden), but one of the first things from the life of Christ is from Matthew 2:2, 9 "Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was." As a teacher of mine used to say "that one is for free" ... it may have nothing to do with this or there may be something there?
When Christ returns it will be east of Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives.
Revelation 22:1-2 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 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.
Psalm 46:4 [There is] a river (nahar same word referred to in the Garden), the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy [place] of the tabernacles of the most High.
Ezekiel 47:1-2 Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house [stood toward] the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south [side] of the altar. Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.
John 7:38-39 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given]; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
Revelation 7:17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
Jeremiah 2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, [and] hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
After the description of the land and rivers is the recounting of Adam and the animals being brought before him to name and finding no suitable help for him. Then the formation of the woman from Adam's ribs and the famous verse heard in weddings through the ages "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one (echad) flesh." I find this verse interesting as Adam knew not mother (emma) and father (abba) as we know according to the creation story.
And finally we are told they are naked and unashamed. We come out of our mother's womb naked just as Adam and Havah (Eve) came out into creation and this verse to me speaks of the purity of the Garden before sin. There was no disappointment up until that point, no confusion, no shame. Shame brings tears (II Kings 8:11 there will be no more tears in the New Heaven and Earth Rev 7:17 above), shame is when our enemies (or Enemy) triumphs over us because we fail to trust in God (Psalms 25:2, 20), a virtuous woman does not bring shame to her husband (Proverbs 12:4), children who are not cared for properly (instructed, disciplined) bring shame to their parents (Proverbs 29:15) ...
What does Genesis 2 teach me today?
1) He is my Creator. He knows what is best for me.
2) His is loving and gave us the Seventh Day to stop (rest) and remember Him. With that comes a blessing.
3) He gives us LIFE.
4) His original plan for mankind was an enclosed space (garden) that was perfect in every way with no shame, no disappointments. A place where we could be totally naked, bare, without concealment or cover, open, exposed, nothing hidden, vulnerable without fear or shame. It was a safe (hence enclosed) space where we were free.
5) Next thing we see is the river from the Garden that split into four heads. Throughout Scripture as we saw above we see that from the Throne and Altar of God is a River of Life (life being another theme in this chapter). The Garden hence is a picture of the Throne and Presence of the Living God in it's midst and there is a promise in Scripture that the Righteous will one day see this eternal river from His Throne a time when it will be forever Sabbath (Hebrews 4:9) ...
I think with all of these loosely written thoughts today there is a connectivity and a beautiful picture (which I have failed to paint so far I think) of God's best for us ... a time and a place where we can be safe in His Presence without shame. Where from that place is bursting forth increase and rapid fruitfulness breaking forth. A place that those who seek Him out will find just like the Wise Men found Yeshua as a young child in his house in Bethlehem somewhere in the first two years of his life (Matthew 2:11). So what is the point? That wise men still seek Him? That's a catchy phrase, certainly there is truth in it certainly, but it's more than that perhaps, perhaps a longing for the Garden Life ... a place of healing, a place of life, a place where His Eternal Presence is ... we may not be able to find the earthly garden planted east in Eden even with it's descriptions of the rivers, but we can still seek Him out and wait for His return which is very imminent and very near ... nearer today than yesterday and oh how I long for it, to taste of the Tree of Life giving forth it's fruit and to bask in the Presence of His Light by the river proceeding from His Throne ...
"Behold I stand at the Door and knock ... "
1 comment:
I like your comments about the seventh-day Sabbath.
The account of God resting on the seventh day in Genesis 2:13 is important because it shows when the Sabbath was created. Some non-Sabbath keepers think that the Sabbath was only made for Israel at the time of the making of the Old Covenant and has been abolished since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But as I point out in a recent discussion on the Sabbath in my blog, Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27), or in other words, for mankind, not just Israel. Genesis 2 has the only account of the Sabbath being made, and it shows that the Sabbath was made immediately after God made man. This fits perfectly with Jesus's statement that the Sabbath was made for mankind because if it was made for all mankind, you would expect it to be made when man was made. It is not just for Israel and it is not just an Old Covenant ritual.
The Sabbath still exists for Christians today, and I think the spiritual principle behind the fourth commandment to keep the Sabbath is faith, which Jesus said is one of the three weightier matters of the law (Matthew 23:23). It takes faith for man to keep the Sabbath. Men can often figure out that it is wrong to murder, to commit adultery, to steal, to bear false witness, etc. But faith means believing what God says (Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:5-9, James 2:23, Genesis 15:4-6) and it takes faith in the Word of God to believe what God says about the Sabbath in the Bible.
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