Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: paradise

  • Reflections: Eden

    Reflections: Eden

    Genesis 2 English Standard Version (ESV)

    15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,

    “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

    18 Then the Lord God said,

    “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

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    Examine the Biblical text from ‘in the beginning;’ for before the beginning, GOD IS.

    The LORD יְהֹוָהYĕhovah GOD אֱלֹהִים‘elohiym

    made adam אָדָם ‘adam

    in his Image צֶלֶם tselem.

    First: LORD GOD, Yehovah elohiym; not Allah, not any other NAME. The LAW, or first five books of the Bible are a narrative written by Moses for the Hebrew people – God’s Chosen people. It is not an eyewitness account – Moses was not a reporter in the garden of Eden – yet Moses spoke directly with Yehovah elohiym. GOD told Moses!

    Second: The LORD God put Adam in Eden to work it and keep it.

    Third: The LORD God had not only created Man, God created everything in the heavens and the earth and made man in His Image in this place to glorify Him.

    God met with, spoke to and had a personal relationship with man in this special unspoiled garden. It was a place where the LORD God walked and talked with His beloved man of His creation, Adam.

    Think about it: the ALL-POWERFUL CREATOR of ALL, walking in a place with a creature of His creation – GOD carrying on a conversation with adam, enjoying the good of His creation with His personal friend, Adam.

    Would one made in the Image of a good God, a loving friend, not want to do all the Lord commands?

    Adam is an innocent sinless child of God! The first man and the first woman have no father and mother. They were both created by the LORD God!

    Does it matter if the LORD created them in His Image?

    Yes.

    Does it matter if the materials were dust or rib?

    Does it matter where an archaeologist might dig up this garden paradise?

    Could it possibly matter to a generation gorged on the tree of speculative knowledge when all of this took place?

    What, then, is important from the Biblical account of Genesis?

    The LORD raised Adam and raised Eve in the garden as a Father raises his innocent children.

    God provided. God gave them their purpose. God gave them love.

    And as a good father will do, God gave them a rule for their own continued good (as ones made in the Image of the God of Perfect Good).

    The LORD God did this for the perfect pleasure of the man, of the woman and of the LORD!

    (Note: If you haven’t followed the links to root definitions, you ought to – especially this last one.)

    To be continued…

  • A Temporary Throne – 14

    A Temporary Throne – 14

    CHAPTER 14

    Paradise? Eden? (Even before ‘adam?)

    Genesis 2:8 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 the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

     

    “Should the LORD plant the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?” I asked myself.

    I had never thought of the connection of my sins to this (really) or of any alternative.

    What if man never knew sin?

    (Of course God and I knew what Adam and Eve would do IF the LORD planted this tree.)

    What would I advise?

    Should the LORD GOD set this one tree in the midst of the garden – a tree to be used by the tempter, that serpent whose name is Satan?

    What IF the LORD did not give Satan this chance at original sin?

    “LORD,” I asked, “If you withhold temptation of man to know good and evil would it not be better for Your Kingdom on earth?

    Yet as I asked the LORD my foolish question, I knew the answer:

    THEN THE MAN IS NOT FREE TO LOVE ME.

    THE MAN WOULD SERVE ME BECAUSE HE MUST.

    I understood God’s dilemma: One tree; then One Command.

    Obedience to God’s Command is love given freely to God. Disobedience to God’s One Command would be putting our own will ahead the loving ALL-KNOWING will of God.

    I nodded, and THE LORD commanded the tree to grow. The tempting fruit of knowledge blossomed from its branches before my knowing eyes.

    To be continued…

    A Temporary Throne is an original work of Roger Harned,

    © Copyright 2013, All Rights Reserved by the author.

  • By the sweat of your face

    By the sweat of your face

    “By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
    till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
    for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.” –     Genesis 3:19

    worker thirstHad a rough day at work? Or maybe you have had a tough time finding work. Do you find as many women and teens in the workplace sweating to win the bread of this world?

    It is the result of sin. Punishment. We are not just a caretaker in the pleasant garden anymore, but God has cursed the ground where we must make our living and sustain our wives and children.

    grill girlgrill cookYes, even the wife with the jobs of the household and mother of the children complains of her sweat of the job where two incomes will not even provide the bread that once only the husband would sacrifice his sweat for his loved ones.

    Even now some women will choose this curse over obedience to a husband and obedience to God.  Teens with cars and cell phones and money for entertainment compete with Godly and ungodly family men in the marketplace of jobs, while they boast that they are “in a relationship” with another teen (an evil sexual relationship outside of marriage and responsibility of a God-led family).

    We have wandered far from Paradise. Many have run far from obedience to God’s will.

    Where did the journey of sin begin after original sin?

    Genesis gives us an insight as we observe a conversation between God the Trinity. (We will not dwell on the Trinity, the plurality of the One God at this point; yet hear God’s motive to expel mankind from Paradise.)

    Genesis 3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil.

    Adam and Eve have become like Jehovah Elohim: like God the Father; like Jesus when He would later walk the earth as the second adam; like the Holy Spirit, the Life of the soul. yada`yada`yada` – Knowing, knowing, knowing good and evil.

    Gen. 3:22b Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

    God IS.

    This is representation of eternal life with no beginning and no end.

    God created.

    This is representation of life with a beginning (man or animal, plant or mineral).

    Does the life of an animal have an end?

    Did God intend for man, created in His Image, to have a life that would end?

    The soul and life of Man is connected to God through God’s Fatherly act of creation.

    Hear God’s words to the Prophet Jeremiah [1:5]:

    “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
    and before you were born I consecrated you;
    I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

    We are sons and daughters of God! We have a beginning in Him. God intended for us to remain as faithful children of His heavenly family. For His children He created Paradise on Earth. Adam, before sin, could have remained in Eden.

    What is the concern of God at this point?

    It is that evil could live on. Evil could have life eternal.

    In the beginning, God created… and it was good.

    Evil must NOT have eternal life!

    How often does the Bible warn of a mortal man: “… and he did evil in the sight of the Lord?”

    Evil souls and evil men must be banished from the good of God!

    “Behold, the man has become like one of  Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—

    Did the Lord God not caution: “or you will surely die?”

    So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. – Genesis 3:24 KJV

    salinastodayTwentieth Century author, John Steinbeck, focuses on this in his (1952) novel about a family and their attitudes toward work in “East of Eden.” We have choices, knowing good and evil.

    Therefore God has guarded the gates of righteousness against the entry of evil men.

    The Cherubim, also creatures of God’s creation (but not for this earth), serve God. Angels (yet not all angels, for some rebelled to follow Satan) serve God.

    Mankind, but not all men and women, serves God (as best we can in this sinful mortal flesh).

    God had a relationship with man. Man had a relationship with God.

    God restored the relationship of righteousness, that we might once more have eternal life in relationship in the family of God our Father. He restored life to our souls by the Living Sacrifice of the Blood of Christ Jesus, Son of God, on the Cross.

    We have been banned in the nakedness of our many sins to a land east of Eden, dust beneath the feet of our descendants, and struggle of the sweat of our brow to remain in relationship with God and each other.

    The challenge of the grace of Christ is that it requires the harvest of our faith. Faith requires obedience.

    Jesus IS Lord.

    Do you believe this?