Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Genesis

Genesis 2:8-17 10/21/01

Intro: 'Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, There's a land that I heard of Once in a lullaby.'

     After some teary eyed good-byes, Toto runs off after a cat and in the confusion, the balloon gets loose and takes off with the Wizard but not Dorothy and Toto. Glinda (the good witch) comes back after the Wizard accidentally takes off and  she tells Dorothy how to get back to Kansas. She tells her that she always had the power to return, all she had to do was click her heels three times and think  .there's no place like home...there's no place like home...there's no place like home.

     On Sunday mornings we sing  with great volume words like 'Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah, pilgrim thru this barren land' 'A pilgrim was I, and a wand'ring, in the cold night of sin I did roam, when Jesus the kind Shepherd found me, and now I am on my way home.'

     Home..where is home? Oz was not home for Dorothy and Toto and according to those hymns neither is where we each live. If this is not our home and we are just pilgrims passing through...where is home?

     Isn't there someplace that all Christians long to be, another home that is beautiful beyond all measure, gloriously splendid, more amazing and breathtaking than anything thing we have ever seen or experienced.

     There is and it is called heaven. Being naturally curious, we all want to know what heaven is like...don't we? Well, I believe heaven will be a return to the Garden of Eden where God first placed man after forming him with his own hands from the dust of the earth and breathing into his nostrils the breath of life.

     I believe that is what God will create on the new earth of Rev. 20-21. We will once again return to the place that Adam and Eve were barred from entering after their sin. To get a better idea of what our future home will be like, lets start at the beginning with a look at our first home. For in our text this morning we will find 3 more first acts of God's great love for mankind, and all 3 are connected to the Garden of Eden....our first home.

Trans:  Turn in your bibles to Gen. 2:8 where we will find a description of our first home.

The First Home (Genesis 2:8-15a)

     Verses 8-15a are what's called in Hebrew literature  an 'inclusio'. It is like bookends holding something in between. And what is in between is important and directly related to the bookends. What are the bookends? Verses 8 and 15a..where we are told that the Lord God placed man in the Garden. Everything that is mentioned between these two verses is for the benefit of the bookends... man.

When we look at the Garden of Eden, mankind's first home, we need to recognize 4 important truths.

    A. The Garden of Eden was a real place
         In Roget's International Thesaurus, Eden is connected with such words as; utopia, paradise, fairyland, and dreamland. It is not found in the historical section but under the topic of imagination. It would seem that the author of the Thesaurus believed the Garden of Eden was no more real than fairyland.

         Is this the Christian's view? No. You see, if the world can make the Garden of Eden a fairyland, then Adam and Eve didn't exist. If Adam and Eve didn't exist then there was no original sin, no fall. If there was  no fall then there is no need for a savior. If there is no need for a savior then we are truly like the animals...w/o the guilt of sin and evolution is our god.

         If it is not fairyland...where was Eden? Eden was located somewhere to the East of where Moses was in the wilderness when he wrote this book. But we don't know exactly where. It seems from the text that Moses is telling the people that at a specific period of history, in a place known to them, God placed the first man and woman in this Garden of Eden.

         For those first readers of Genesis, there was no doubt that the Garden of Eden was a real place..and we should have no doubt either about Eden or our heavenly home that awaits us.

   B. The Garden of Eden was a beautiful place
         Eden: means 'delight' and suggests that the garden was a paradise given by the hand of God for mankind's delight and pleasure. We can see that in the description of the rivers and precious gems that were found in the garden. We also see it from vs 9 which says that the trees were pleasing to the eye. Mankind's first home was absolutely breathtaking and so will be our eternal home.

    C. The Garden of Eden was a useful place
         We are told in vs 9 that not only were the trees pleasing to the eye but that they were good for food. It not only sustained life but with the Tree of Life in the midst of the Garden, it perpetuated eternal life. In the book of Revelation we see the return of the tree of Life where we will once again eat and enjoy eternal life.

    D. The Garden of Eden was a perfect place
         It provided the perfect opportunity to worship God.
            First in the recognition of the beauty God created for Adam and Eve.
            Second for the provision of food that was good for them to eat. a
            Third, for the pleasure, comfort and glory of God's company. We read in Gen. 3:8ff that God walked in the Garden of
                Eden and spoke with Adam and Eve. How great was that?  Greater still will be the opportunity to walk and talk with
                God in our heavenly home.
        Finally, we must remember the inclusio. God placed man in the Garden of Eden.
             Man didn't search around the world for a better place to live.
             He didn't ask God if he could move or be transferred.
             Adam didn't get tired of living where he was an decided to pack his bags and relocate.
            God placed him in the Garden. God placed him in the Garden. It was the loving act of a sovereign God.
            And God has placed each one here this morning just where He wants you to be.

Big Idea: The geography and exact location of the Garden of Eden is not necessary to know. What is important to glean from this test is that God, in His great love for mankind, by His sovereign grace, placed our first parents, Adam and Eve in a beautiful, bountiful and perfect home. A home where Adam and Eve..and all mankind were meant to live for all eternity in the perfect presence of Jehovah God.

    The greatest thing in all the world is to be called and placed by God. No matter where that is, the place God chooses for you to be, is the best place for you to be.

Trans: But is that all we were to do in the Garden? Just sit around and have our wives feed us grapes with one hand and fan us with a large leaf with the other hand as we lay back comfortably in the most perfect hammock ever devised? No. Paradise, perfection, mankind's ideal environment included ...work!

The First Job (Genesis 2:15)
Read: Gen. 2:15

     Yes, you heard me right. Work was and still is part of paradise, part of perfection, and it will be part of what we will do for all eternity in the presence of God. God was the first employer, just think of the benefit package....do you job and live forever in absolute glory. The Garden of Eden was not a place exempt from work. And neither is our life today. We were not called to be Christians and to be idle. The God who made us with His own hands has given us something to do with ours.

    By placing man in the Garden to cultivate and keep it, and later we will read to name the animals, God gave purpose to life. It is an opportunity to use our abilities in cooperation with God. It is not a curse. Work is intended for our pleasure since the Garden of Eden was paradise and perfect.

     Notice that work came BEFORE the Fall, not after it. Therefore, part of what it means to be human and rightly related to God, His creation and to one another is that we work, that we are productive in what God calls us each to do. Whatever that may be.

Trans: Not only did God give man a home and a job, He gave him boundaries.

The First Command (Genesis 2:16-17)
Read: Gen. 2:16-17

     God created man and woman, He created the earth and the heavens and He created the Garden of Eden and all that was in it. God had the right to set the rules. But if God didn't want mankind to revolt against Him why did He place the tree of the Knowledge of God and Evil in the Garden? Because right at the heart of what it means to be human is to have the freedom to choose. And since we choose freely, we are morally and spiritually responsible for the choices we make.

     Adam and Eve enjoyed liberty and all that they needed was provided for them by God. They did not need to take the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to live happy lives before one another and before God. But, Adam and Eve had to choose. They had to make a decision. The tree was there and if they left it alone, they would be obeying God and would walk in God's presence forever in utter joy and perfection. If they ate of the tree, they would be disobeying God and choosing to walk their own way...away from God.

    God gave Adam and Eve every opportunity to choose:
        God's presence over separation from God
         peace over division
         obedience over disobedience
         freedom over enslavement
         righteousness over sinfulness
         purpose of uselessness
         perfection over corruption
         life over death

    God placed Adam and Eve within the physical boundaries of the Garden of Eden. He then placed spiritual boundaries on them. God wanted Adam and Eve to experience paradise, perfection in the Garden because He knew that they would soon be evicted, never to return this side of Heaven. But the Garden experience is intrinsically etched into our very hearts and souls.

     We long to live in perfection, in paradise...we long for heaven. But we are stopped because we sin, brake the rules, and disobey God's commands. But there is hope for our return.

Conclusion
     It is interesting that Biblical history began with a beautiful garden in which man and woman sinned, and ends with the glorious garden city of Rev. 21-22 where sin is no more. What brought about that change? A third garden, Gethsemene where Jesus surrendered to the will of the Father and then went to die on a cross for my sin and for your sin as well.

     And just as Adam and Eve had a choice to make in the Garden, so you too have a choice to make. Trust in Christ as your Savior, for the sin you choose to commit against a holy God and receive forgiveness for your sin and the promise of a new home in heaven for all eternity....or do nothing, thereby making the choice to go it alone and hope that some way, some how you will be spared eternal torment in Hell.

 Scripture is clear: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. But Scripture is also clear when it says: the wages of sin is death.

Deuteronomy 30:15ff
     'See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.  For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life.'

The only way to be assured of a return to the Garden of Eden, of eternal life with God in heaven is to  choose life in Jesus Christ.