WEEK EIGHT
PART TWO… ‘WHAT'S IN PARADISE?’
“THE BEAUTY & FALL of Ms. EVIE”
CHAPTER
SIX: “THE FELLOWSHIP”
OUR FOCUS TEXT…Genesis 2:8-9 (NIV)… Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and
there he put man he had formed. The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out
of the ground – trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. Verses 15-17… The LORD God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it
and take care of it.
POINTS to MAKE…
POINT ONE….“EVEN IN PARADISE THERE WAS RESPONSIBILTY!”
Eden means a pleasant place. The Hebrew word was paradeisos, which translates to…Paradise
The LORD God took man and
put him in the Garden of Eden
to work it and take care of it.
The job of both Adam and Eve was to take care of the Garden; to harvest
its yielding for their food. God planted the garden eastward, an extensive park,
a paradise, in which they were placed to be trained under the paternal care of
their Maker for two things… piety and usefulness. We’ll get to the lesson on
piety further in this study.
Mathew Henry describes…The Garden of
Eden, though it needed not to be weeded (for thorns and thistles were not yet a
nuisance), yet must be dressed and kept. There is a true pleasure in the
business which God calls us to, and employs us in. Adam’s work was so far from being an allay that it was an
addition to the pleasures of paradise; he could not have been happy if he had
been idle: it is still a law, He that will not work has no right to eat, 2 Th.
3:10; Prov. 27:23.
This taught the first couple responsibility
from the beginning. Paradise itself was not a place of exemption from getting out of work,
although little was probably needed.
NOTEWORTHY: None of us are brought
into this world to be idle. Ecc. 10:18… ‘Through laziness, the rafters sag; because of
idle hands, the house leaks.’ God
created our bodies with a mind, hands and feet, therefore, giving us means of
something to work with; and He that gave us this earth for our habitation,
therefore, gives us something to work upon.
Do you see a re-occurring ‘word’ throughout these
eight weeks, and we’re still walking with Eve? The word RESPONSIBILITY keeps resurfacing,
doesn’t it? I think we’ll continue to see that word from now on throughout our
studies. Do you think God has a message to ALL of us with this one word?
Christians and non-Christians alike!
Very quickly, off the top of your head, give at
least five responsibilities you know
you have as one of God’s creations.
POINT
TWO…. “RESIDENCE IN ITS HIGHEST PERFECTION”
The place created especially for Adam and Eve’s residence was a
garden… The Garden of Eden. It’s quite apparent that God wanted
Adam and Eve’s lives to be one of serenity and happiness; after all, He had
placed Adam and then brought Eve to Adam to the most beautiful place on earth. The Garden of Eden, which signifies delight and
pleasure, was a paradise like we cannot even fathom. It was not a field of
uncontrollable weeds; instead it was a manicured garden you would only hope to
find on the grounds of great kings and queens palaces. Every tree and plant was
of natural beauty that was
not only pleasant to the eye but the richness
provided a variety of produce for food.
The
place appointed for Adam and Eve to live was not an ivory palace that was
overlaid with gold, exotic woods or an architectural grandeur made of stone and wood to gaze upon with
unbelief of how the structure was made by man. It didn’t display priceless art
on its walls or furnished with valuable antiques.
What it was…was a garden. Adam and Eve’s home was a ‘garden!’ But
not like any other garden!! What it was to the eye was an
indescribable garden of nature’s beauty designed by the Almighty Artist…our God
in heaven, therefore, the greatest of all visionaries cannot even vision all
the beauty this man and wife got to experience!
Throughout the Garden flowed fresh clean refreshing rivers and
streams providing the first couple water that gave nutritional balance with the
food in their bodies.
The heavens were its
roof, out stretched above this land of paradise. The sun, moon and stars were
their lighting. The earth was laid for the flooring with special features that
demanded superiority. Never has any floor been so richly inlaid since. The grass was the
first couple’s furniture. The shadow of the trees was their retreat. They lived in and out in the
openness of the Garden.
It was in Eden, which signifies delight and pleasure, a heavenly
paradise. Everything man needed was provided for the senses in this garden of
paradise, which was….
·
Water, food,
warmth, and shelter
·
Beauty that
engaged all given senses
·
Shapes and
colors for the eye to enjoy
·
Fragrance for
the nose
·
Thousands of
textures for the hands to examine
·
Music to the ear
from the birds and rushing rivers
·
Endless tastes
for the tongue to taste...except from one certain tree
If you didn’t pick up in the above list all four of
the senses here they are…
1)
TASTE...example...
To a chef there would be taste buds to tantalize with endless flavors of fruit
2)
SMELL…ex…To a
florist would come the beauty of arrangements with sweet heavenly aromas
3)
SOUND…ex… The music
lover would be captured by the music of rushing streams and birds singing to
fill their ears
4)
SIGHT…ex… To an
artist it would be a dream come true to fill a canvas of endless color to rest
the eye upon
And, from a decorator’s point of view, Eden
had…
·
Texture
·
Color
·
Fiber
·
Atmosphere
·
Symmetry
It
was perfectly balanced from one room to the next. What a dream that would have
been, to walk into Adam and Eve’s residence and not immediately see things I
would change, BECAUSE IT WAS PERFECT just the way GOD created it! Not wanting to repaint, remodel, rearrange, throw
away or add to. David tells me that he wish he could see that, because it would
be the first time I would have been satisfied with the way things were in a house.
LOL!
God, as our tender Father, puts us into an ‘Eden of Plenty and Pleasure’ does He not?? Look around you at this very moment….what do you
see?? A roof over your head? A plate before you at mealtime that’s spread with plenty
of food? Is there not threads sewed together that covers your body in a trendy
fashion? Do you not have at least one vehicle in your driveway to get you where
you need to go? Is there a bed from which you climb out of every morning? Need
I go on???
A CJisum…. All the material
things that we have may not be the appearance likeness to a portfolio of a
wealthy person, but all that we have is a provision from our Father who takes
care of all our needs; AND a lot of our wants and desires! God delights in the
prosperity He provides for His beloved children!
Another responsibility for
us should be… to serve God with joyfulness, gladness and thankfulness in our
hearts for the abundance of the good things He gives us. At this very moment,
take time to give thanks to God, your Provider, for all the provisions and all
the extra blessings that surround your life.
POINT THREE…. “THE INTIMACY LIKE NON OTHER”
This POINT is the topmost important POINT in this Chapter!
Intimacy…a close,
familiar, affectionate, loving personal relationship with another person (online Dictionary)
In this ‘Garden,’ Adam and Eve had no worries, no fears, no problems, no
pain, and no reservations about anything. It was a time they lived in total
bliss and harmony! It was their heaven on earth!! In the Garden was where they commence
their own spiritual development within God. The three (God, Adam and Eve) had a
close, familiar, affectionate, loving personal relationship with one another as they walked together through the Garden of Paradise.
The garden of
the Lord as it is referred to in other parts of the Bible (Genesis 13:10,
Ezekiel 28:13) indicates, it was in fact an open-air
temple in which Adam and Eve worshipped God with communication of thanksgiving
and praise.
The situation
in this garden was extremely sweet. At
all hours of the day and night Adam and Eve talked personally with God one-on-one
as if there were three bodies in the Garden. The two gave attention and honor
to the presence of the Supreme God who walked among them. Their relationship
was one of no boundaries, with the exception of one command God gave them… Genesis 2:15-17… And the LORD God commanded
the man, “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.” (We will be covering this topic in the next
two weeks)
Can or do we have that kind
of relationship with God? I truly believe that what Adam and Eve experienced at
the beginning, before the knowledge of sin, is what we will only experience
once we walk through the gates of heaven upon leaving this earth, when we see
God face to face!! Is this a new concept
to you? It was to me when God laid it in my heart! What are your thoughts?
YES, we can have a close relationship with
God as we walk upon this earth, we can live a life of piety, however, because
of sin within our lives and in the world around us we cannot experience what
Adam and Eve experience at THE BEGINNING of TIME, before sin entered into their lives. (The HCS Bible refers to this
time as… the ‘pre-sin’ state of time)
Our fellowship with God can be very
powerful, it can be very close, it can be totally open, and can be explained as
heavenly without even knowing what we truly will experience once we see God in
heaven.
We cannot explain or put into words what
we’ve not yet experienced! In the Beginning of Time, before sin, the experience
that Adam and Eve once had will only come to us when we enter the gates of
heaven and see God face-to-face. God is reserving that relationship until then!!
??? Is that not something to
truly look forward to experiencing??? WOW!!!!
A CJisum…. If we have accepted Christ in our hearts we have reached the
first step toward experiencing our place in that heavenly paradise! Now we need
not distress ourselves with a search for such a place of an earthly paradise.
If you’re reading this and
you’re not sure you will ever experience that kind of fellowship with God face
to face you’ve just read about, I encourage you to send me a personal email and
let’s visit. My email address is on this blog.
NOTEWORTHY: THE BEGINNING of TIME… Adam and Eve lived their lives
without knowledge of the meaning of sin, because they had no sin in their lives
as of yet. The fellowship between the three was blissful and pure up to the day
that evil and sin entered into their lives, and then all things changed for
them. Did God walk away? Did He pull away from them once they sinned?
This
will take us into the next two week’s study on how sin entered into Adam and
Eve’s life and how sin broke the kind of intimacy they once had with God.
???
Will God totally abandon them?
???
Did God overlook their sin?
???
How did sin affect their lives?
???
How does sin affect our lives?
???
Can we still have intimacy with God even after we sin?
???
Does God still hear us when we call upon Him?
???
Does He still answer our prayers?
All
these questions and more will be answered in the next two weeks. We will see how Adam and Eve’s lives changed
once they allowed sin to enter. A much different fellowship with God came to be
for them!
AND
THE MESSAGE IS???
The Message
Is…
· None of us
are brought into this world to be idle.
· The Garden of Eden signifies delight and pleasure, it
was a paradise like we cannot even fathom.
·
The ‘Garden’ was a natural beauty
designed by the Almighty
Artist…our God in heaven. The greatest of all visionaries cannot even vision
all its beauty!
· Where God placed Adam and Eve to begin their lives
on this earth is the perfect picture of what heaven is going to look like and
more!!
· Everything man needed was provided for the senses in
this garden of paradise.
·
The three (God, Adam and Eve) had a close,
familiar, affectionate, loving personal relationship with one another
as they walked together through the Garden of Paradise.
· Our fellowship with God on this
earth can be very powerful, it can be very close, and can be explained as
heavenly without even knowing what we truly will experience once we see God in
heaven.
· In the Beginning of Time, before
sin, the experience that Adam and Eve once had will only come to us when we
enter the gates of heaven!!!
[From this point on in our studies, I will be wording the MEMORY STATEMENTS as words in a prayer you can
pray or as words you speak as first person]
1st MEMORY STATEMENT…
“God, I know You created my body
with a mind, hands and feet, giving me means for something to work with; and
You have blessed me on this earth a place of habitation, therefore, giving me something
to work on. Help me to not sit in an idle stage of mind and heart but to stand
up and serve You in ways Your Word teaches!”
2nd MEMORY
STATEMENT… My
God can take me to a place
of peace, tranquility and delight, so therefore, I will give all respect and acclaiming
tribute to my Creator.
3rd MEMORY
STATEMENT… I may not have the
wealth of a millionaire, but all
that I have is a provision from my Father who takes care of all my needs; AND a
lot of my wants and desires.
4th MEMORY
STATEMENT… I
so desire to have a close, familiar, affectionate, loving personal relationship with God
as I walk through this life here on earth!
5th MEMORY
STATEMENT… “Father
God, I
am so looking forward to experiencing what Adam and Eve once had and more when
I enter the gates of heaven!!!”
Your READING ASSIGNMENT this week: Revelation 22
ALSO...Write a
list from these verses of…
· all the ‘Names of God’ that are
spoken
· all the promises that God has
promised
· which ones crosses over into both
COMING
UP…
Next week we will go into - CHAPTER NINE… “TWO TREES EDEN”
My prayer
for you this week is… You will seek to have that close, familiar, affectionate, loving
personal relationship with God in your ‘daily’ walk!
Find a few
minutes each day to escape by yourself to find your ‘garden time’ with God and see what a difference it will make in your life!
Blessings to you...
cj
1-23-2013
