The Garden of God

Woodstock. What do you think of when you hear that name? Well, if you’re a baby boomer, your mind goes back to those three days in the summer of 1969 when a half million rock fans descended on a muddy farm in upstate New York to listen to the best rock music on the planet. They ate together, drank together, slept together, and got high together.

And Woodstock became kind of a symbol—a symbol of what those young people were yearning for: a world filled with peace, love, and brotherhood. A simple world where you lived off the land, shared your food with each other, and slept under the stars.

Joni Mitchell captured the yearning of the Woodstock generation in the lyrics of her song: “We are stardust; we are golden. And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.” What garden was she talking about? The Garden of Eden.

You see, the Garden of Eden has always had an incredibly powerful tug on our heartstrings. It’s like that deep longing for home that you feel when you’re in a foreign country. Even people who don’t believe in the Bible hear the Garden of Eden whispering about that ideal of peace and beauty and tranquility, which is so different from a world filled with pain, ugliness, and violence.

The story of the human race begins in a garden. As we learned in Genesis 1, God created the world and filled it with life. And as his crowning achievement, he made a creature in his own image and likeness. He formed him out of the dust of the ground, breathed into him the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

And as we come to Genesis chapter 2, the Bible tells us what happens next. Gen. 1 is like a wide-angle lens. It takes in the whole scope of God’s creation. Gen. 2 is like a telephoto—it zeroes in on man.

Now there’s something you should know about chapter 2. It really ought to begin in verse 4. If you look at the first 3 verses of chapter 2, you’ll see that they really belong to the end of chapter 1. Don’t forget that the chapter and verse divisions in the Bible are not inspired. They were added to the text back in the Middle Ages. And sometimes they were added carelessly, so that they fall in the wrong places. This is one of those occasions.

The first 3 verses of chapter 2 finish the story of chapter 1. They tell us that God rested on the seventh day because his creation was complete. They finish the creation week. Now there are some great lessons for us in those verses about the seventh day, but I don’t want to consider them today. I want to begin at verse 4 and look at what God did for Adam—this man he created. What kind of relationship did he have with Adam? How did he provide for Adam’s needs? Let’s look at the text…

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created.

By the way, you’ll see that phrase ten times through the book of Genesis. Whenever Moses wants to introduce a new section of material, he uses that phrase—“this is the account of…” In Hebrew, it’s just one word “toledot”. It serves as a transition. It tells us that we’re moving on to a new subject.

When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens—and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground—the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

These verses review what God did on Day Six. Some critics have said, “No, this is a separate creation account. There was more than one author of Genesis, and this section must be from the pen of a different author.” But this is not a separate creation account; it’s simply an elaboration in more detail of what we’ve read in chapter 1.

Now if you want to know what Genesis 2 is all about, it’s really very simple. The overriding theme of Genesis chapter 2 is identical to the overriding them of the Bible as a whole.

It’s the message that people matter to God. The God who made us cares about us.

How does God prove that Adam mattered to him? He proved it by taking care of Adam’s needs. In Genesis 2, God gave Adam the four most important things in life that every human being needs:

• security - God gave Adam a place to live; a place to call home

• significance - God gave Adam a job to do; a service to perform

• boundaries - God gave Adam a command to obey; a set of guidelines to live by

• relationship - God gave Adam a very special person to be his partner, his helper, his teammate, his companion

1. God gave Adam a place to live.

Genesis 2:8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.

Isn’t it interesting that the Bible begins in a garden and ends up in a city. And both were places that God made. In fact there are many striking parallels between the first two chapters of the Bible and the last two chapters of the Bible. We don’t have time to do it today, but sometime you ought to read Gen. 1-2 and then read Revelation 21-22. And find how many similar things are mentioned in those two sections of Scripture.

Gen. 1–2 Rev. 21–22

heaven and earth new heaven and new earth

4 rivers 1 river

Tree of Life Tree of Life

But here in Genesis 2, God plants a garden in the east, in a place called Eden. Notice that the garden itself is not named; but it is located in a place that is named—a place called Eden. The word Eden in Hebrew means “delightful”. It was a delightful place.

Now I don’t know how many of you are gardeners, but I want you to try to imagine what kind of garden God would plant. Have you ever been down to Longwood Gardens? I’m sure that Longwood Gardens would look like a landfill compared to this garden that God planted. It must have been absolutely breathtaking in its beauty.

And this is the place God made for Adam to live. He deliberately placed Adam here. The word “put” in verse 15 is actually a very special word in Hebrew. It comes from the word “nuah”, which means “to rest”. So it has the connotation of being at peace; of dwelling in security and safety.

Everybody needs a place to call home—a place where you can feel safe and secure and sheltered. And God knew that this was one of Adam’s needs and so he placed him in this garden.

Now you ask: Where was this garden? Was it a real place? Did it have an actual geographical location?

Well, Moses certainly seemed to think so. He tells us that it was in the east, and that probably meant the east from his perspective as he wrote the book of Genesis on the Sinai peninsula. But he also goes on in verses 10–14 to pin down its location even further in terms of four rivers.

A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Two of these rivers are known—the Tigris, and the Euphrates. They flow through Mesopotamia—the present day nation of Iraq. But what about the other two?

Verse 13 says that the river Gihon “wound through the entire land of Cush”. Later on in the Bible, we are told that Cush is the land of Ethiopia, which is located in East Africa. So the Gihon had something to do with East Africa. Perhaps the Gihon is another name for the Nile River, because the Nile river has one of its headwaters in Ethiopia.

But that leaves the river Pishon still a mystery, at least until recently. An Arab geologist from Boston University named Farouk El-Baz made an interesting observation as he was working in Kuwait a couple of years ago. He noticed that there were many pebbles of granite and basalt to be found there, even though neither of those rock formations are native to that land. The nearest granite and basalt formations are in the Hijaz Mountains over on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, about 700 miles from Kuwait. So something must have brought those pebbles to Kuwait.

El-Baz became intrigued by the possibility that perhaps there once was a river that brought those pebbles to Kuwait. He began to study satellite photos of the Arabian peninsula and gradually he was able to discern from the rock formations that there was a line that resembled a river bed faintly traced across the peninsula from east to west. There is certainly no river there today—Saudi Arabia is covered with sand and is one of the hottest and driest places on earth!

El-Baz requested that the Space Shuttle use its ground imaging radar to scan beneath the sand dunes. Sure enough, the radar map revealed a 650 mile long dried up river bed under the sand dunes. It was a big river—in some places it was 3 miles wide.

This river once flowed all the way across the Arabian peninsula and emptied into the Persian Gulf, but it has been gone for about 5,000 years. Could this have been the River Pishon?

Genesis 2 tells us that the river Pishon wound through the land of Havilah, where there is gold. The greatest source of gold in Saudi Arabia comes from a place called Mahd edh-Dhahad—the “Cradle of Gold”. This is located in the Hijaz Mountains about 125 miles south of the city of Medina. There is still a large gold mining operation there today. And that gold mine is right next to the headwaters of that ancient river.

Eden was a real place. The word for garden in Persian is the word “pairideza” from which we get the word “paradise”. It literally means a special place with a wall around it.

You have to understand that the first people who read Genesis were the Israelites who were wandering in the wilderness of Sinai - one of the most inhospitable, ungarden-like, deserts in the world. From that day to this the Middle East has been a dry, arid place. That’s why the people of the Middle East have always had a special fondness - almost a reverence for gardens.

In the 700’s, when the Moors invaded Spain from North Africa, they built some very beautiful gardens. Outside the walls were barren, scorching sands and searing dry winds, but inside was a paradise. The focal point of a Moorish garden was water. Water ran in channels down the center of the garden, and danced in fountains and little waterfalls. Beneath the branches of fruit trees, there was cool shade, the perfume and color of flowers, the songs of birds, and the gentle sound of splashing water. It’s no wonder they thought of it as a paradise.

So God gave man a beautiful and secure home in which to live, but he didn’t put him there to string up a hammock and while away the time.

2. When God placed man in the garden, he gave him a job to do. He didn’t give him a TV set and a La-Z-Boy. He gave him an assignment.

Genesis 2:15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

This was a great blessing. God created man to work, to be productive. This is where he would find his significance—in working for God, in serving God. It was not just working for work’s sake—that’s not what gives us significance. It was work for God’s sake—working as a steward.

Last summer when we were on vacation, I got acquainted with outboard marine engines. We chipped a prop on a rock and had to replace it. Over at the boat dealer’s shop, I noticed that they had a number of outboard motors on test stands. And each of those motors were standing in a barrel of water. When they would run them, they had to be in water. Why?

If you take a marine outboard motor, run it out of the water for any length of time, you’ll burn out that motor. The motor has been designed to work against the resistance of the water, and the water lubricates and cools the motor.

In the same way God has created us to run against resistance. He has created us to work. Now this is just the opposite of what the world thinks. The world thinks “wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have anything to do?”

In advertising, you see this ideal of endless leisure held up as the goal of our existence. We are told over and over that we should plan and work hard now and save diligently so that when we retire, we can just drop everything and do nothing and enjoy life.

But it was never God’s plan for us to do nothing. If you take away the resistance of work, you’ll destroy yourself. That’s why so many people die soon after they retire. There is no more work to do. They have no more reason for living—they have lost their sense of significance. So they begin to break down physically. Wise is the person who stays active in retirement.

God put man in the Garden to work it for Him, and work is how we find our significance.

3. God gave Adam boundaries.

Genesis 2:16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”

God gave Adam tremendous freedom when he placed him in the garden. He could eat from any tree that God had planted, and I’m sure that the fruit was delicious. But Adam’s freedom was not unlimited freedom. God placed a restriction on him. He gave him liberty, but he gave him liberty with limits. He gave him a moral boundary.

A lot of people have speculated on what kind of fruit was on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Was it an apple? Was it a grapevine? What was so special about that one tree?

I think getting all wrapped up in questions like that really misses the point. The tree itself may not have been unusual, or had any special properties. It was what it represented. It was like a door that has a sign on it which announces what’s beyond that door. The door in and of itself isn’t significant; it’s what’s beyond the door that gives the door the significance.

When God put that one tree off limits, He was really saying to Adam “Look, I’m giving you a choice. You can obey me and trust me, even though you may not understand why I’m telling you not to eat of that tree.

“Or, you can go ahead and disobey me and eat that fruit. But if you do that, you are going to be saying that you don’t really believe that I know what is best for you. You are going to sever that relationship of trust and dependence on me. And if you go down that road, you are going to reap devastating consequences.”

Psychological studies have shown that in the raising of children, freedom without limits produces insecurity. Parents who do not spell out clearly where the boundaries are—who never impress on their children the consequences of the choices they make, and let them feel those consequences—parents like that raise children who wonder whether anybody really loves them.

We matter so much to God that He gives us limits. He says that there are certain things that you can do that will hurt you, that will be harmful to you, indeed that will even kill you. And because I love you, I don’t want you to do those things.

God didn’t make this rule up about the tree just to bug Adam. He didn’t give Adam boundaries in order to irritate him. He loved him. That’s why he gave him limits.

In the same way, the principles and commandments of God’s Word are not there just to bug us, or be an irritation to us. They’re not there to put a damper on our enjoyment of life, to spoil our party, to rain on our parade. They’re there to keep us from doing things that will ruin us, that will make us miserable. Because God loves us and wants what’s best for us.

So far, we’ve learned that God gave Adam:

1. A place to live - he met his need for security

2. A job to do - he met his need for significance

3. A command to obey - he met his need for moral boundaries

But there was still one thing missing. Look at verse 18…

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

All the way through chapter 1, God says about his creation “It is good…it is good…it is good…” Until he observes that man is alone. That is not good. So he does something about it.

4. God gave Adam a companion.

A few years ago, a college roommate of mine went to Israel. He was still single at the time and he went alone. He stayed on a kibbutz and hitchhiked all around the country. He walked alongside the Jordan river and stood beside the Western Wall of the Temple. He drank from Jacob’s well and sat on the shores of Galilee. In telling me about it later, I’ll always remember one thing he said. He said “I just wish that I could have had someone there with me to share it with.”

This is what Adam was feeling in Eden. “I wish I had someone here with me to share it with.”

Verse 20 tells us that “for Adam no suitable helper was found.”

So God did something about it. He created a woman to be a companion for him. Notice that he didn’t create another man. He didn’t create Steve, he created Eve. Because Eve was someone who met Adam’s deepest needs for relationship and partnership and love.

We’re going to talk more about Eve next week. But let me just conclude this week by saying again that the theme of Genesis 2 is the theme of the whole Bible.

John 3:16 says “God so loved that he gave…”

But Satan wants you to believe that God doesn’t love you, so you’d better take. You’d better go out and get whatever it is you think you need to find security. You’d better go out and get whatever you need to find significance. You’d better knock down those boundaries and ignore those restrictions that God has set up because he doesn’t care about you. He just wants to hem you in.

So for thousands of years, we’ve been trying to make ourselves happy and fulfilled by relying on ourselves to get our deepest needs met. We’ve turned our backs on God and gone our own way.

Maybe there’s an area of your life this morning where you find you are trusting in your own power, in your own resources. A problem you’re wrestling with, a frustration you face. A failure you’re finding it very difficult to deal with.

I want you to remember that you matter to God. And that area of need in your life matters to Him as well. Just as God took care of Adam’s needs in the Garden of Eden, he wants to take care of your needs today. Are you willing to let him?