Sex, Sin, and The Sanctuary
From the Garden to Golgotha God is Gracious
Judah is a Lion's Whelp
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall dwell in his Holy Place?
God's Masterpiece - Garden Design
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Gen. 2:8 And 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 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.
10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.
11 The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12 And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.
13 And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
14 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.
15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
4 These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
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Here we are told that the Lord God made every plant of the earth before it was in the earth and every herb of the field before it grew. Sounds like a nursery to me, with seedlings. God made sure each plant had a proper start before they were placed in the ground. What meticlousness, care and concern God exhibited in in planting the Garden eastward in Eden.
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He created the plants and then he transplanted them into the garden. And he made every tree to grow. All was sewt and all was ready to go. And man was placed in the garden designed and planted by God himself.
The home and habitation that God created was a Garden called Eden. Now Eden was not the entire garden. The garden was planted eastward in Eden. What was Westward and Northward and Southward, we dont know.
We know of the location and position. The garden was in a place called Eden and it was eastward, Eden may have been a very large place or large country or continent. At this time Satan was already thrown out of heaven, so he could have been occupying part of Eden and being free to roam the earth " going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it".
Eden also had a river. This river flowed thru Eden and served to water the garden. The river flowed out of Eden from whence it was parted into four heads .
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We are told that the Pison River took over the whole land of Havilah. The Gihom River took over the whole land of Ethiopia. The third river the Hiddekel goes toward the east of Assyria. The fnal river was Euphrates. We are not told what land the Euphrates encompassed. But of the four rivers it is the only one that is known and recognizable to day. It originates in Turkey and flows through Syria and thence through Iraq and flowing into the Persian Gulf.
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The original river watered the Garden of Eden. God planted the garden and the river watered it and the man dressed it.
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God decorated the garden with beautiful trees - pleasant to the eyes and trees that bore fruit - pleasant to taste and bodily nourishment. He also planted two more threes - the tree of life and the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
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In this beautiful, well equipped garden, God took man and placed him in the garden to dress it with one prohibition - of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it.
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Was this a real tree. Or was this figurative language? And does it matter to us? The point is God gave them a command.
God set a boundary and he made it known to them.
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