God's Paradise

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

GOD'S PARADISE

Gen 2:8-17

8 Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 And the LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground — trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12(The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush.   14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

NIV

The first truth is that man's attempt, as intellectual as they think they are, is only a feeble attempt at best to discover the location of the Garden of Eden, and the current names, if in fact they are relevant, of the four rivers. This place and its rivers will never be found, just as the ark of the covenant. The garden in the east, Eden, was a specific place created by God for the express purpose of placing the man he formed in a paradise that supplied all his needs. We should consider the future paradise that Jesus has prepared for those who follow him, those who are born again. There will be another physical place created by God, the Son, which will come down from heaven. It is the new city of Jerusalem that will rest on the new earth. Just as there are many opinions about where the garden was, there are just as many about what this new city looks like. Ours is just that, an opinion, but we cannot help but think because God appeared to Moses on Mt Sinai, referred to as the Mountain of God, this new city will be a Mountain of God, only its base will be fifteen hundred miles long and wide, and just as high, with a great high and wide wall around it. The point is that it is a paradise where God will place his people, where every need will be met. From the description, there will be many trees of life, bearing fruit that will never perish. However, there will be no tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We know what happened to Adam and his helpmate Eve, as they were deceived by the serpent through the influence of Satan. This is the choice every person must make in their life. To eat from the tree of life, representing the influence of Jesus in their lives, and live, or eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, representing the influence of Satan in their lives, and surely they will die. Of course, there is the question of believers accepting the influence of Jesus in our lives; we are constantly faced with temptations by Satan, but that is all they are, attempts to draw us away from Jesus. Sure, we are not perfect beings, as God intended Adam to be; his fall, his disobedience, his sin is upon us all, yet Jesus came to give us a fresh start, a new life, so we live under his influence. Let us live so that we will be in God's paradise.