An introduction to Paradise

Gen. 2:4-25

We have continued to see that God establishes key themes right from the very beginning of the bible and from the very beginning of time. The centrality of his glory, his goodness and greatness, man as the imager of God and resting in his finished work have already been mentioned. Today we examine the idea of the paradise of God and I trust we will see this theme throughout all of scripture. Let’s look at Genesis 2:4-25 with this in mind. But, let’s pray first.

There is much in this passage that is breathtaking. A chief idea here is paradise. This is really a picture of life in paradise. You know, whether we take our cues from the word of God or not, this theme of paradise is a major one in our culture and in our lives. Have you ever noticed how much money is spent in the pursuit of paradise? The paradise of a dream home is a big one. How many people love watching Extreme Makeover, Home Edition? I do too! Much of that shows appeal is the yearning for the paradise of a dream home. Dream homes, exotic vacations, blissful retirement and other pursuits of paradise are huge motivators in our culture. Do you identify with that? While not necessarily bad, I think these all reflect the fact that we know something is wrong with life and that there must exist something better that we were made for. And, indeed this is the case, and Genesis 2 as well as the whole bible gives us real answers for this.

Take a look at this passage. We have God creating man and placing him in Eden, in a garden. That word garden in the Greek translation of the OT called the Septuagint is paradeisos, or paradise. In verses 8-9 it says. “And the Lord God planted a paradise in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis 2:8-9, ESV). Chapter 2 of Genesis is about the creation of paradise. Let’s look at some details of this paradise.

First, this section begins in verse 4 with “these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” This is a familiar refrain in the book of Genesis. Actually the word Genesis comes from this very phrase. The word for generations in Greek is the word Genesis. And this phrase is repeated throughout Genesis. "This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.” (Genesis 5:1, ESV) "These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God." (Genesis 6:9, ESV) "These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood." (Genesis 10:1, ESV) "Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot." (Genesis 11:27, ESV) . Each time in this book when it is going to speak of God’s dealings with a particular family line it introduces the family this way. So, in chapter 2, after hearing the background of God’s creation and establishing some key themes, the story of the generations of the universe proceeds. Some have mistakenly thought that chapter 2 is an alternative and differing account than chapter 1. In the past two centuries a lot of work has been done in critically analyzing the text of the bible to better understand it. Much good work has been done. Sadly, many have been overconfident and narrow minded in their analysis of the bible and have missed the glorious self-consistency and literary genius of this book, mistaking subtle changes in style and approach not as inspired literary devices but as the combined work of generations of pietistic frauds. Instead, they should have come to the bible to see what a grand piece of literature it is and not assuming that the generations that proceeded them were dolts who somehow missed inconsistencies that they somehow were able to find. If not careful, we can have a historical arrogance that thinks that we know better than all the previous generations. Let’s not make that mistake but appropriately respect history and historical confessions and perspectives. Let us also approach the word of God in faith, knowing that any apparent discrepancies are better explained by our ignorance than by God’s incompetence. So Genesis 2-3 are not from a different author than Genesis 1, they are a key part of the grand drama of God’s dealings with creation and the subtle shifts are there for literary and theological reasons.

The shift we observe from Genesis 1 to 2 is to highlight some of the specifics of the creation of man and his original context, particularly the paradise of God in Eden. So in verses 5-6 we have the situation before the creation of man – no vegetation and a water covered earth. Throughout the account of Genesis 2-3, which by the way fits together as one long literary unit, throughout this account the interaction of man and agriculture remains a theme. So the section starts with the state of agriculture before man, it follows this them with the creation of a garden for man to tend and guard, man’s interaction with one particular tree comes to the fore and then it finishes finally in chapter 3, after the fall of man with man being sent out of the garden to agricultural pursuits under a curse of hard labor. That is what is going on here, a theme of agriculture, not an author that somehow lost his train of thought in Gen. 2:5 and restarts with a contradictory story of creation.

So, next we have God creating man, a retelling and amplification of what went on during the sixth day. Note that man is made from the dust of the earth but not just from dust. Verse 7 says God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and he became a living being, a being with a soul. Later on, we see the Savior doing the same thing in John 20 with his disciples. Except this time he is breathing on them and they are becoming new creations by receiving the Holy Spirit. Thank God for His breath of life and thank God for the breath of life we all have received in the new birth. Now, in Christ, we can truly live!

So God creates this imager of his glory and places him in a garden, or paradise as we talked about. Look at what this paradise is like. Again, along the lines of the agricultural theme, God causes every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food to spring up. All the types of trees that you can imagine are in this garden. I picture a vast array of all types of trees in all their glory. I can see majestic oaks, giant sequoias, glorious spruce groves, dogwoods and cherrys, apple trees and peach trees and almond trees. We once had a small orchard at our house in Maryland. It was planted on a side of a hill and consisted of about 20 fruit trees of various kinds. There were apricots and peaches of two varieties, pears and apples and plums and walnut trees. Sometimes I would just sit amidst all the trees on the grass and take in all their glory. Well, that garden was glorious, but the garden paradise Adam was in was even more glorious. For every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food sprung up there. The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the middle. We’ll get to those two trees in a bit. Not only was the garden full of wonderful trees, it was the origin of four glorious rivers that flowed out from it. All of them are significant and very influential rivers, the Pishon, the Gihon, the Tigris and the Euphrates. There are precious stones and gold associated with these rivers.

Even better, God does something with Adam in the garden the blesses him beyond his expectations. In verse 18 God says, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (ESV) So he brings him all the animals he had formed. The man expresses his rulership of creation by naming the animals, but none of these suffice to be a true companion. That’s right, not even man’s best friend, the dog. So God tops off his glorious creation by forming a woman from the man and presenting her to him. When Adam sees his wife he bursts into the first recorded poetry in history. Loosely translated from the Hebrew, Adam says “hubba, hubba.” Actually, something quite close to this, “this at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.” Genesis 2:23 And this subsection closes with the statement, “And the man and the wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” Now we will spend some more time in August talking about the creation of man and woman and their interrelationship. But for now, we are to understand that this is a blessed and perfect relationship between the man and the woman and their God. There is no sin, there is no inappropriate self-consciousness, there is no guilt. Later on when there is sin there is a need for covering and clothing. Here, there is only blessing and bliss in this wonderful garden that God has created.

This is an awesome place. It was the garden of all gardens. Someone from the ancient near east hearing the description of the garden of Eden would probably picture it differently than you or I would. While we might thing of wide open spaces, maybe some tropical rain forest picture, they would understand it to be something more like an enclosed royal garden. This word paradise or garden is almost always used for an enclosed and cultivated garden, even a royal garden. So, a better way to understand the garden is in light of how the author and first hearers of this text would understand it. This is a royal garden God has made that is glorious and fit for royalty and into this beautiful place he puts the royal imager and ruler of his creation – man, to enjoy all its benefits and oversee and protect it.

Also, the garden is a place that God himself dwells. We see in chapter 3 that is was God’s practice to walk in the garden in the cool of the day, presumably with Adam and Eve. Can you imagine that? This perfect garden is full of wonder and wonder of wonders, the eternal God himself actually manifests his presence by walking and fellowshipping with the man and the woman he has created! Can you imagine what they talked about? Imagine talking with the Creator of the universe, the infinite God, the One the angels can’t even see in His infinite glory. Imagine talking with him regularly? It must have been one constant exhilarating and truly awesome experience. Do you know what I mean? It must have been something like the combination of my wedding day and my ordination boards – that’s the closest I can come to it. I think of my wedding day when my wife walked down that aisle. I remember the feelings I felt, how exhilarating it was, how wonderful to see my bride coming to be with me. I remember my ordination board and the sober significance of being examined thoroughly by three godly pastors. I think the garden was like that but even better. It was one continual exhilarating experience of the glory of God and his creation. It was perfect in every way. It was glorious and best of all, God was there in manifest glory. It was paradise.

There is more, for in the middle of the garden was the tree of life. This tree is, not just was, it is an incredible tree and a tree to beat all trees. We see it again in the book of Revelation, chapters 2 and 20. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’" (Revelation 2:7, ESV) "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." (Revelation 22:1-2, ESV) This tree serves as a sacrament, a significant physical sign of a spiritual reality. The tree of life is the sacrament of eternal life and the placement of this tree in the garden means that God intended that mankind would enjoy eternal life dwelling in this perfect paradise in his presence.

But another tree is there as well. It is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It seems it was in the middle as well and also served as a significant sacrament of sorts. For it is a significant physical sign of a key spiritual reality as well. It is a test. Adam and later Eve are told they can eat of any tree they like in the garden but they are not to eat of this tree. For, in the day they eat it they shall surely die. This tree plays a key role in biblical history. It is a sacrament of the reality of how we relate to God. The tree itself does not somehow transfer Adam and Eve from total ignorance or some sort of naïve innocence into full divine knowledge. We know that Adam and Eve already have knowledge of good and evil because they know not to disobey God by eating of this tree. It represents not so much the raw knowledge of good and evil but a knowledge that relates to the right relationship towards good and evil the results in discerning it truly. The tree is a test of our God-dependant ability to discern good and evil and see the good based on the word of God above all other things. This tree of knowledge of good and evil really has everything to do with how Adam and Eve and all subsequent mankind relate to the word of God. Do we choose good or evil based on our own preferences and an independent sense of right and wrong or what others, like the serpent, say or do we rely on the word of God even to what seems to be our hurt?

Now you may wonder how I can arrive at such a conclusion. Well, I think the text itself teaches us this, but I also think it is confirmed by the behavior of the second Adam when he was put to the test. (I encourage you to examine the scriptures to see that Christ is indeed the second Adam. You’ll find it in Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15. ) You see, we know Adam and Eve failed, but we also know that the Second Adam, our great and only champion, Jesus Christ succeeded where Adam failed. The test of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is replayed in Matthew 4. Once again the tempter comes to man. Once again he makes false promises. But something is different this time. Instead of relying on his own thinking Jesus stands by the word of God again and again. He stands at the tree of knowledge of good and evil and never eats its fruit but rightly discerns the devil as evil and God as good by sticking to the word of God even to the point of what seemed to be his hurt.

You see, Jesus succeeded where Adam failed. Now, I’ve given away Genesis chapter 3 way before we get to it. But I think we need to understand the incredible meaning of the garden and its situation. We also need to see how the garden-paradise, where God meets man in perfect sinless bliss is a theme that resonates throughout the bible. We ultimately need to see that Jesus succeeded where Adam failed. For, this garden was a garden of blessing and bliss but it was also a garden of probation, a garden of testing, a conditional paradise. The conditions were oh so simple. Adam and Eve were to enjoy eternal bliss, even to eat of the tree of life, if they first and simply stuck to the word of God and thus resisted the evil one and affirmed the goodness of God and the evil of Satan. If they obeyed this simple command all the glorious designs of creation were theirs forever. They had no sin to prejudice them. They had no harsh conditions to tempt them. They had only blessing. They had the fairest and best opportunity to obey God. They were sinless and could have succeeded. Yet, natural man’s best was not successful. He failed and you and I have been failing since then. Do you know what I mean? Have you ever found yourself at the tree of knowledge so to speak? Have you ever been tempted to believe something and do something that was contrary to God’s word? Did you take of the fruit and eat it? Did you rely on yourself or what others said before the word of God? Did you say, “if I believe that and do what God says he’ll make me lonely and friendless and empty” or maybe you said, “come on now, let’s not get too serious about the word of God!” Let me be more specific. Have you found yourself doubting God’s goodness and doubting that his ways are best? Have you found yourself choosing your own path for your life? Have you been seeking to find wisdom and refreshment somewhere else besides life in obedience to God? I know the answer is yes, for you are a descendant of Adam like me. It is our condition to one degree or another. Even the believer, who is a new creation and experiencing victory where there was only failure before still battles with the old Adamic nature. I found myself recently once again impatient and harsh with my wife. I picked her up from the airport and instead of Mr. Blessing she got Mr. Arrogant for a chauffer. Once again I was at the tree of knowledge of good and evil and chose to believe the lie that our marriage is all about my comfort. I believed the lie and I ate the fruit and it was bitter. Instead of believing Eph. 6 that my marriage is about the wonderful glory of God and the good of my wife I ate the fruit one more stinking time. What is your temptation right now? Take 60 seconds right now to search your heart, than we will proceed. Now listen to this. It took a man, a supernatural man, Jesus Christ to finally meet the conditions of Adams situation. Where Adam failed, where you and I failed in Adam as our representative head, and where you and I fail day after day, Jesus succeeded. He never gave in to sin or the evil one. He pleased the Father in all things. He put the word of God and the glory of God and the good of others ahead of self-interest, even to the point of a humiliating horrific death on the cross bearing the full weight of the sins of many descendants of Adam, even you and me. And he now invites us all to vicariously enjoy his full victory by repenting from self-effort and self-love, sin in other words, and placing our faith fully in this second Adam, Jesus Christ, the righteous One, our righteousness, your righteousness, my righteousness. Do you believe this? Is your faith in him and his obedience or are you still trying to pass the test? He has passed it for us – with flying colors. Believe this and rest in it. Believe this and walk in it. Believe it, walk in it and walk according to the forgiven and free new creation he has made you in him. Walk with him and watch your ability to choose the word of God above other options grow day by day. Watch him change your life from a son of Adam to a fully redeemed son of God.

You see, that is our destiny. What God promised in the garden of Eden he will fulfill. This theme of the garden-paradise served as the motif for the tabernacle and the temple. In the tabernacle and temple was a tree of life symbol, the almond tree shaped lampstand. In the temple were precious stones like those in the rivers of Eden. In the temple God dwelt with man.

Furthermore, in the book of Ezekiel, chapters 40-48 we see a new and better temple restored to the people of Israel. Take a look at Ezekiel 40. Here is a description of a new and better temple high upon a mountain. It is walled like a royal garden. God himself dwells there and a river of living water gushes forth from it , just like in Eden, bringing life wherever it goes. This picture is filled out in Revelation 21-22. Check out these verses "Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—" (Revelation 21:9-12, ESV) "The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass." (Revelation 21:18-21, ESV) "And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations." (Revelation 21:22-26, ESV)

"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever." (Revelation 22:1-5, ESV)

You see, the paradise that God originally made is a promise respoken throughout scripture and throughout time. We all long for paradise. We all long for the place of perfect bliss and harmony. The reason for our longing is that we are made for paradise, not this world. The reason it eludes our grasp is because of the ravages of sin. Yet, God has remedied what we have ruined. He now offers us paradise in his son. Ultimately, that paradise awaits us. It is not of this world and we wait for it in faith. That is what hope is – faith anticipating the future. Now, we do experience the remnants of the original paradise and if we are believers, we experience the foretaste of the final perfect paradise. But we must never try to make our ultimate paradise here. This world is doomed to pass, it is a sinking ship, let’s not try to create something permanent on a sinking ship. Let’s live for what is truly permanent – what we are made for and what we are remade for in Jesus Christ – the paradise of God. Yes, that will mean doing much paradise building now. Yes, that means we make the most of our time now and live in this world enjoying its current blessings and our foretaste of heaven but never clinging to this passing world. If we do, we will find ourselves ultimately disappointed. In case you haven’t noticed, this ain’t paradise, it’s good but it ain’t paradise. It is the hope of paradise, of the new heaven and new earth that will sustain us through the trials and ups and downs of life. I remember watching a good friend of ours die of cancer. Rene was a wife and mother of four not yet grown children when she was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer. She had been wonderfully converted to Christ and knew the hope of heaven. I remember watching her struggle through the fears and temptations of her impending death. She experienced some times of great anxiety. Something like that can shake you to the core. But there was something at the core of Rene’s life that was unshakeable, Jesus Christ. So as she struggled God met her and you know what got her through it? It was the anticipation of paradise, the anticipation of the streets of gold and the singing angels and endless joy before the very face of God himself. The hope of the paradise she was made for and the faithfulness of the God that lives there gave her power to face death with courage and even joy. I look forward to seeing Rene very soon. It will be very soon, sooner for some of us than for others. It may be tomorrow or even today. Or maybe not. It might be impending death but some trial or tragedy that you face. Where will your ultimate hope be? Where is it this very minute? Truly? What is your hope right now? – that I finish this sermon soon? That there are enough donuts left when you get downstairs? There is something much better than all that and much more substantial. God has made us for paradise, that is our home and our sure and certain destiny in Christ. Set your heart on that home, set your heart on the Savior who has won it for you and awaits you, and live life now for that home, live life to the maximum.

Let’s pray.