The Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:4-17)

The Garden of Eden

 

Genesis 2:4-17

 

Today’s text tells us the story that God made the man and planted the Garden of Eden for the man he had made. The term “Garden of Eden” is often used to mean “an ideal land” like Paradise or Utopia. Indeed, the Garden of Eden in the Bible shows us how the paradise looks like before man’s fall. This garden is the paradise that we once enjoyed, and lost for our sins, and therefore, it is the prototype of the paradise to be restored. Therefore, in our journey to heaven, it is quite meaningful to study the Garden of Eden. Every individual may have some image of paradise that he or she is pursuing in the heart. The essential requirements of paradise that people are seeking are “security” free from all dangers and threats, “abundance” of everything they want and need, “peace” among the members of the community, and so on. Fictional paradises such as Shangri-La in the novel Lost Horizon, and Utopia depicted by Thomas More reflect these ideas of paradise. We may expect to enjoy the life of paradise if we have absolute security, abundance, and peace. So, we work hard to attain these requirements for heavenly life. However, this idea

is itself contradictory. It is like we are saying, “If I have absolute security, abundance, and peace, it will be the paradise, and there I will enjoy a happy life, which is a secure, abundant, and peaceful life.” Thomas More describes Utopia this way: “In Utopia, where every man has a right to everything, they all know that if care is taken to keep the public stores full, no private man can want anything.” According to this statement, in Utopia, every individual enjoys “absolute abundance.” And this abundance comes from “the fullness of the public stores.” There is not a detailed explanation of how the stores are filled. It is simply said, “If care is taken to keep the public stores full.” It is almost like saying the Big Bang theory that happens out of nothing. In fact, security, abundance, and peace are not the preconditions of the paradise. They are merely natural consequences of paradise. The Garden of Eden tells us where the paradise comes from. This is what I want to talk about through this sermon.

 

Verses 4-6 say, “This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.” On the third day of creation, God already made the land and let the land produce vegetation, all kinds of seed-bearing plants and fruit-bearing trees. According to verse 5, however, no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up. It was because God had not sent rain, and there was no man to work the ground. Although the land was prepared, it needs rain from God and man’s work in order to produce vegetation and feed animals. The beginning of paradise is “God who is working” and “people working with God.” Deuteronomy 28:12 says, “The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.” In John 5:17 as well, Jesus says, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” The paradise is not “a still state,” but is “a dynamic action.” The paradise is a living organic body in which God is working unceasingly. Only when God sends rain, the land comes alive and produces vegetation. This is the important truth that we should remember to enjoy the paradise. In Jesus’ parable of the rich fool in Luke 12:16-21, the rich man stored a lot of crops for himself in the barns, and said to himself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry!” He found the paradise in his abundance. But he didn’t thank God who had been working for him, sending rain to his farms and blessing his harvests. He didn’t know that God was the origin of his abundance. After all, he lost his life and everything he had laid up for himself.

 

Verse 7 says, “The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” God made the man out of the dust, and only when God breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, the man became a living being. Like God sent rains on the earth and the earth became a living ecosystem for many lives, God breathed the breath of life and the man became a living being. Like the earth should receive rain from heaven in season, man should keep breathing God in order to keep his life. Man’s life is sustained and strengthened by breathing God. When I was young, my mother made various dishes with vegetables from the garden and herbs gathered from the wilds. To my mouth, however, sweets at the store were much tastier. And because I couldn’t get them as much as I wanted, such “processed foodstuffs” looked much more valuables. Looking back now, I was foolish, hating the healthy organic vegetables and herbs and coveting unhealthy stuffs. There is this saying in Thomas More’s Utopia: “The folly of men has enhanced the value of gold and silver because of their scarcity.” Borrowing Thomas More’s insight, I say, God hid scarce metals such as gold and silver deep under the ground so that they cannot be found easily. God did so that foolish people may waste their lifetime in chasing after the “useless” metals out of their vanity. On the contrary, God’s supply is greatly abundant for elements essential for our life such as soil, water, and air. So, the wise eat, drink, and breathe these elements from God, and enjoy a healthy and happy life. In Acts 17:25b, St. Paul introduces God to the Gentiles, “He (God) himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else,” and in 28a, he says, “In him we live and move and have our being.” This is true. It is only because God is continuously breathing his breath of life into us that we now live, move, and have our being. It may not be easy to explain what the breath of life is exactly. I read an article on the Internet, titled “YHWH the Breath of Life.” This article says that the name of God “YHWH” mimics the inhalation (Yah) and exhalation (Weh) of man’s breath. Every time of inhaling and exhaling, we are uttering God’s name, being aware of his presence with me, and respiring his power of life. Our life is not far away. Our life is not in scarce mentals such as gold and silver. Therefore, we don’t have to be hungry or anxious for them. Our life is placed right under the nose. There is always the breath of God breathing the breath of life into our souls abundantly. Only through this power of life, we live, move, and have our beings.

 

For the man he made, God planted a garden in Eden and put the man in the garden. And God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden, God put the tree of life and tree of the knowledge of good and evil. According to verses 10-13, there was a river flowing from Eden, which watered the garden and separated into four headwaters. Their respective names were Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates. The river flowing from the Eden became the origin of the four great rivers. This means that water from the garden of Eden supplies life to the whole earth. The garden of Eden is itself the paradise, and it is also the source of life to all the lands. The fictional paradises such as Shangri-La and Utopia have the common characteristic, which is that they are totally isolated from the world, enclosed with high mountains or deep waters. In order to build and enjoy a perfectly peaceful paradise, they surrounded themselves with insurmountable barriers. The Jews, often running against God who called them to be “the priests of all nations,” built a high fence around them and separated themselves from the Gentiles. These days, America is also erecting high fences on the borders in order to stop the flow of blessings from God to its neighbors through this nation. But the Garden of Eden planted by God embraces the whole world and shares its blessings from God. When God gives heaven to a man, God expects that the heavenly blessings may flow to the world through the man. God called Abraham as “a blessing,” and said to him, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3). Jesus the Lord called Peter as his disciple, and made him “a fisher of men” (Matthew 4:19). Again, the Lord called Paul and used him as “a chosen instrument” to carry his name to the Gentiles, their kings, and the people of Israel (Acts 9:15). An enclosed paradise is like a reservoir full of trapped filthy water. But one enjoying the true paradise seeks only God’s blessings, and he lets the blessings flow freely to his neighbors and to the world.

 

God put the man in the Garden of Eden and said to him, “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 from it you will certainly die.” God’s commandment prohibiting fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil raises the tricky question: Why did God put this dangerous tree in the middle of the garden, and give this “inhibitive” commandment? Probably the man in the garden, looking at the tree in the middle of the garden, might ruminate this question over and over again. Despite this doubtful question, however, his conclusion was always the same. “As God prohibits, I will not eat it.” God’s commandment prohibiting the tree of the knowledge of good and evil preaches God to the man every day. This commandment preaches about God’s goodness, God’s righteousness, God’s truthfulness, and God’s faithfulness. Despite the question arising inside, the man accepted God’s goodness, God’s righteousness, God’s truthfulness, and God’s faithfulness, and stayed in the paradise and enjoyed it. Childless Abraham, seeing himself and his wife Sarah too old to have a baby, raised the question before the Lord, “What can you give me since I remain childless?” (Genesis 15:2a). God said to him that his descendants would be countless like stars in the sky. And Abraham, despite the doubtful question in his heart, believed in God. While Jesus was in the world, he obeyed God in every way and served the sinners with love. However, the end of the Lord’s faultless life was death on a cross. In the suffering, Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). With this question, however, Jesus trusted in God’s goodness and committed his spirit into God’s hands (Luke 23:46). In 2Corinthians 1:18, St. Paul says, “But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not ‘Yes’ and ‘No,’ and in verse 20, he says, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” Paul said this because the saints in the Corinthian Church had doubted Paul’s love to them, and moreover, God’s love and faithfulness to them. We live in the paradise planted by God, but every day, we see the tree of the knowledge of good and evil standing in the middle of the garden. It is a question about God’s goodness, God’s righteousness, God’s truthfulness, and God’s faithfulness. And the tree gives us a secure and safe guidance so that we trust God and his goodness and stay in the paradise despite some doubtful questions in our heart.

 

The paradise doesn’t come from security, abundance, and peace. God is our paradise, and in God, we enjoy security, abundance, and peace. God gives himself as abundant as the air covering the whole earth. Because of God’s abundance, we are submerged in him, and we are breathing, drinking, and eating him with no limit. In God, our paradise, we receive everything from God and share the blessing with our neighbors. So we don’t have to be anxious in the world or to fight with others to get more. God, our paradise, gives us perfect peace. God’s paradise is safe and secure because God is good and faithful, and his goodness never changes. In this God, we enjoy perfect security and safety even when dying on the cross. God is our paradise, and in God, we enjoy security, abundance, and peace. Amen!