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BACKGROUND
(Specially for more Serious Students)
GARDENS
GARDEN
PARADISE
PARADISE
EDEN
EDEN, GARDEN OF
GETHSEMANE
GETHSEMANE
RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
RESURRECTION
RIVER OF GOD
The
full background to this teaching is available online at this link
THE 3 GARDENS OF GOD
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Online links to scriptures (New International Version [NIV] unless otherwise stated) are shown in blue
| INTRODUCTION - IN THE GARDENS |
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 Each of the 3 'key' events in the Bible took place in a garden. Each was the culmination of a battle in the spiritual world. Each too, was to have a
profound effect on the human race's future and God's relationship to it.
The first one is obvious. The Garden of Eden was God's perfect creation, designed for mankind's eternal habitation, provided people obeyed one
simple (not so simple as it turned out) rule! Today, we still experience the effects of this 'lost' battle in the spirit. As a former horticulturist, I well understand the consequences of weeds and sore backs! And my wife, Kathy, has experienced the pain that accompanies the pleasure of childbirth, four times! But no more! Now it is the next generation's turn. A real plus of being a grandmother!
The remaining two gardens, on the other hand, are less obvious, but both involve the 'putting right' of Adam and Eve's spiritual failure in Eden's
luscious landscape. They involve therefore, the death and resurrection of Jesus. For Jesus, like Adam and Eve, battled with satan, but unlike our
human predecessors, He was successful in overcoming the cunning adversary. A success which, we can participate in today, through joining
with Jesus. This is succinctly summarised in one simple verse, hidden away in the Bible's final, Book of Revelation.
11 They (the ones prepared to make the spiritual sacrifice Jesus did) overcame him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
(Revelation 12:11) 3
As we move through our study we will see what happened in the three gardens and what we can look forward to in the garden yet to come.
3 Unless otherwise stated, all scriptures are from The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.
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| THE GARDEN OF EDEN (Part 1 of 2)
<i>A GARDEN OF PROVING, TEMPTATION AND SEPARATION</i> |
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 EDEN, GARDEN OF. The place which God made for Adam to live in, and from which Adam and Eve were driven after the Fall.
I. The name
The MT states that God planted a garden in Eden JDQ_E_ ´H.GBHQ; Gn. 2:8), which indicates that the garden was not co-extensive with Eden, but must
have been an enclosed area within it. The LXX and Vulg. and subsequent commentators have noted that to a Hebrew-speaker the name ´H.GBHQ would
suggest the homophonous root meaning ‘delight’; but many scholars now hold that Eden is not a proper name, but a common noun from the
Sumerian HGLQ, ‘plain, steppe’, borrowed either direct from Sumerian, or via Akkadian (HGLQX), the garden thus being situated in a plain, or flat
region. From its situation in Eden the garden came to be called the ‘garden of Eden’ ( JDQ_´H.GBHQ; Gn. 2:15; 3:23-24; Ezk. 36:35; Joel 2:3), but it ‘ was also referred to as the ‘garden of God’ ( JDQ__ OR.KɦP, Ezk. 28:13; 31:9) and the ‘garden of the Lord’ ( JDQ_<+:+, Is. 51:3). In Gn. 2:8ff. the word JDQ, ‘garden’, and in Is. 51:3 ´H.GBHQ itself, is rendered SDUDGHLVRV by the LXX, this
being a loan-word from Old Persian (Avestan) SDLULGDH.]D, ‘enclosure’, which came to mean ‘park, pleasure ground’, and from this usage came
English *’paradise’ for the garden of Eden.
The New Bible Dictionary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.) 1962.
Let's have a brief look at the story to again remind ourselves what happened to turn a peaceful, perfect paradise into a pathway of paganism
and perversion, peddling personal pride.
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| A GARDEN OF PROVING |
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 On the third day of the 'Creation Week', God created the perfect garden, one without weeds!
Genesis 1:11-13
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 God placed man in the Garden to tend to it and its inhabitants.
Genesis1:27-8
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 And was given beautiful, healthy fruit to eat. No Big Macs in those days! There was no competition for food. The animals didn't eat each other, nor
compete with humans, eating only the green plants. As there was no competition for food resources, all lived in harmony.
Genesis 1:29-31
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 The Garden was perfect, with an automatic watering system, an abundance of trees and plants for beauty and food. Adam was charged with looking after it.
Genesis 2:4-14
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 BUT! Have you noticed that there are always 'ifs and buts' in God? For the promises, the good things of God, are always conditional, dependent upon people's response to God's provision. It was this way from the very beginning!
Genesis 2:15-17
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 Adam and Eve could retain their 'garden lifestyle', one of walking in harmony with God forever, through eating from the Tree of Life, BUT
only as long as they were prepared to obey His instruction not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. A tree of human
independence: yes, one of separation from the protection of God. For God does not want to relate to robots, programmed to automatically do His
bidding. Both then and now, He seeks relationship through choice, not compulsion.
God gave the promise of eternal life under His care and provision. What would mankind's response be?
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| A GARDEN OF TEMPTATION |
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 For our freewill to be effectively exercised, there must be alternative choices available. If Adam and Eve, in their state of (unproven) perfection, were to prove their desire to continue to relate directly to God, there had to be an alternative, ungodly relationship available.
This same principle applies to angels too. While we aren't exactly sure how it happened, but God used a 'fallen angel' to provide us with an alternative.
Ezekiel 28:11-17
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 We now know this alternative spiritual being as 'satan', lucifer, the 'devil', or the 'evil one'. Like God, satan is a spirit, unable to be seen. As Adam and Eve were created perfect however, they were able to 'see', or perceive, God's presence, 'in the garden in the cool of the day'. So satan then, needed to take on a physical form, in order to be as convincing. He inhabited and used the serpent to achieve this. The scene of decision was set. As is normal, then and now, he convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit by twisting the truth, by making it sound plausible, rather than telling outright lies.
Genesis 3:1-6
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| A GARDEN OF SEPARATION |
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 Once the choice had been made, the forbidden fruit swallowed and digested, Adam and Eve realised what they had done.
Genesis 3:7-13
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While Adam and Eve had always been naked (must have been a warm climate!), they were covered before God with garments of relationship (salvation) and robes of (unproven) righteousness.
Isaiah 61:10
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 These were stripped away once they decided to side with satan, exposing their nakedness. To this day, we still wear clothes to cover our nakedness.
As a consequence, the serpent, for allowing satan to use him, and satan himself, were punished. The serpent lost its legs and satan, was destined to
eventual defeat by the offspring of the woman he misled. Yes, God has senses of both humor and justice, always having the final say!
Genesis 3:14-15
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Likewise, Adam's work in the garden was turned from pleasure into pain. Having been a horticulturist, I too have experienced the never ending, unpleasant work of weeding, the sweat required, and the sore back resulting from the effort involved.
At this time too, they experienced a degradation occurred in their diet, from eating all green plants along with the fruit. The harmony between
species disappeared, for there was now competition between man and animals for the available food.
Genesis 3:17-20
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 The final degradation in diet came at the time of Noah, when man started eating animals, and animals, each other, the situation that exists today.
Genesis 9:1-3
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 However, contrary to most people's understanding, God did not desert his creation! For He extended Adam and Eve grace by killing an animal, or animals, on their behalf. For God demands a 'life for life.' (Leviticus 24:18)Although we may not understand or like it, God requires the sacrifice of a life for relationship with Him to be restored.
Leviticus 17:11
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 In spite of what they had done, God showed His love for them. Here we have the first case of 'salvation through grace' and the first picture of what Jesus would do for you and me on the cross.
Genesis 3:21
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 However, the consequences of sin, even when forgiven, still have to be faced, both then and now. Satan's lie was exposed. The effects of aging and death were established and Adam and Eve banished from the garden of perfection, the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 3:22-4
Yes, the first dealings between God and mankind took place in a garden.
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| <I>NEXT WEEK</I> THE GARDEN OF EDEN (Part 2) |
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 We will have a look at the implications of the Garden of Eden for us today.
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| A NOTE FROM DAVID |
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 We all have different thoughts when we look back to the garden of Eden. As a horticulturalist in earlier years, I naturally think of weeds and sore backs! Kathy would think of child birth!
The remarkable thing though, is that God had it all planned out, right from the very beginning. Thank you Lord!
JESUS WRITTEN IN ANCIENT HEBREW
This is how the name "Jesus" would have been written in ancient Hebrew documents. The four letters or consonants from right to left are Yod, Shin, Vav, Ayin (Y, SH, OO, A). Jesus is the Greek name for the Hebrew name Joshua or Y'shua.
Source: http://www.bible-history.com
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So until next week.......
MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND YOU BLESS GOD!
His servant and yours
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A DAVID'S DOODLING
392. On earth, there is life and death, in heaven, death and life.
David Tait
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