The Garden of God

By David Jones

'Now the Lord God had planted a garden...and there he put the man he had formed.' Gen. 2:8

What is the Garden of God?

At the beginning of Earth's history, God planted a garden for man to inhabit. At the end of time, the Bible reveals that mankind can once again walk with his creator in a perfect garden paradise. Between t

• Language: English
• Publisher: BETHEL COMMUNITY CHURCH
• Release date: Jul 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9780995738652

David Jones

David Jones is a writer living in Yorkshire England.His professional career started as a playwright winning a writer's development grant from The Arts Council England Yorkshire in 2005 and a place on the Yorkshire Arts Circus Writer Development Program in 2006.Since then he has written and had produced plays such as Pimlico - a hard hitting look at the plight of Asylum Seekers in Britain; Full English - highlighted the subject of schizophrenia in the black community; The Cleaner - A tough drama centered on the effects of child abuse and Spike now released and available on Amazon.He was the principal writer of the 'made for Internet' soap drama, 'Today and Tomorrow' produced by 2b Acting Productions, one of the first online TV series.David continues to write for 2b Acting productions.

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Introduction

‘You were in Eden, the garden of God.’

Ezek. 28:13

The Bible portrays mankind’s story as beginning in a garden and ending in a garden. Humanity’s inception and purpose was birthed in God’s garden. The full meaning of man’s existence cannot be understood without grasping the essential nature, attributes and features of God’s garden. God’s ultimate objective for everyone’s life can only be correctly outworked from the foundational context of the original blueprint of his garden. The garden was the prototype of the perfect environment that supplied and sustained mankind’s fruitful existence. Everything humans needed to fulfil their divine calling was supplied by their creator in the garden. The perfect woman was created in a garden, and the first marriage occurred in God’s flawless environment. The final chapter of mankind’s destiny will also reach its climactic consummation when humanity returns to a garden. The completion of history will witness God’s final and ultimate bride once again returning to paradise, to be reunited with the perfect man, in the garden at the end of time. From the first garden in the Book of Genesis to the final city garden in Revelation, the Bible reveals the eternal story of the garden of God.

‘Everything humans needed to fulfil their divine calling was supplied by their creator in the garden.’

The scriptures reveal that life flows from God’s garden, and life grows within his garden. Everything in this garden is to be seen as a living metaphor and an experiential picture of how people are to live and thrive in the habitat that God provides. All aspects of this garden - the river, trees, and fruit of Eden, that are described in detail throughout the scriptures - are essential parables of how people are designed to live with God. In each book of the Bible the divine narrative continually refocuses its readers on the specific attributes of God’s previous, future, and eternal paradise. Having rejected God’s original flawless state of being, mankind continues its own selfish pursuit for the perfection of Eden. Humans even attempt to build their own paradise on earth, whilst simultaneously rejecting the divine architect’s help. Man’s vain efforts to create Heaven on Earth, without their creator, is a futile quest. Only by accepting God’s method of being restored to the garden can humans regain their position in Paradise.

Jesus’ mission on Earth was to restore mankind back into God’s garden. Only through Christ can a person be restored into communion with God and re-join their creator in Paradise. Jesus’ life and teachings referenced the characteristics of the garden and revolved around the specific attributes originally presented in Eden. His final meeting with his disciples would be in a garden, his blood would be shed in a garden and his resurrection would take place in a garden; his agony and ecstasy would be experienced in gardens. Christ knew that his people needed to understand with their mind, and perceive in their spirit, the ancient story and essential meaning of his garden. This book is an attempt to help serious believers grasp these important truths, as revealed throughout the Holy Scriptures. This is the story of the Garden of God.

1

The Garden of God

‘And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.’

Gen. 2:8

Before God created man, he had already prepared a place where Adam would be placed. This simple fact is very profound and reveals something of God’s divine character and nature. God always prepares a special and unique location in which the cherished objects of his creation are to be placed. God does not change.¹ Despite the fact that the memory of Eden having been forgotten by mankind, God still desires to place his people in a specific and pre-designed place that he has prepared in advance for his children. As it was in the beginning, at God’s original creation, so it will be at the final climax in the new creation.² The Bible refers to this place as the garden of God.³ It is a living metaphor of all the good and perfect things that God wants to give to his beloved children. The garden reveals the loving nature of the heart of God who desires to bestow wonderful gifts upon his people and who undertakes to provide a perfect environment where they can flourish and thrive. The garden was a tangible revelation to mankind, and a unique expression of the glorious goodness of God. Everything in the garden is a multi-dimensional picture of the essential elements of life that God’s people should experience. It reveals the fullness of God’s desire for each individual and the blessing that he has prepared for everyone to enjoy. It is an essential meeting place where all Christians must dwell, in order to enjoy the prerequisite components for the life God has created for them.

Gen. 2:15 ‘And the Lord God took the man, and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it.’

‘Adam did not casually wander into this perfect place by accident, nor did he discover it for himself.’

At the commencement of the Genesis narrative, before Adam’s activities are discussed, it is stated twice that God ‘put’ the man in the garden. Adam did not casually wander into this perfect place by accident, nor did he discover it for himself. The placing of the man in the garden was pre-ordained, pre-prepared and specifically orchestrated by God. It was the divine plan from the beginning of creation to ensure that the central focus of the life of Mankind was discovered and experienced in the garden. Everything in the garden was an environmental parable of the perfect existence that mankind was to enjoy in God’s presence. It was a real, tangible place where Adam was to know and encounter the fullness of the blessings of his creator. His life was not to be a mere mystical and spiritual encounter, but a living and physical reality that would permeate and affect every fibre of his being. The Garden would assault his senses with its beauty, aromas, and sounds. He would touch, taste, see, hear, and smell everything in this idyllic place and would absorb its intoxicating reality with every breath of his new life. It was literally Paradise⁴ on Earth, an incomparable place of unsurpassed glory and astonishing perfection.

Gen. 3:8 ‘They heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day.’

The beauty and perfection of the garden cannot be overestimated or exaggerated. Since mankind’s fall and Noah’s flood, there is no longer a specific geographic place on earth that can compare with the original Paradise in Eden. It was literally Heaven on Earth, a glorious utopia designed specifically to cater for mankind’s needs. Despite the reality of that long-lost place, there was something in the garden that had an even greater glory than its natural beauty. It was something that did not have a mere physical radiance but a transcendent majesty from another dimension, infusing man’s inner being with holiness and power. In the garden was the presence of God himself. In Eden, Adam would encounter the tangible, manifest presence of God in bodily form.

According to the Biblical account, it appears that it was only in the garden that God would walk with and talk to, the leader of his new creation. Although God had instructed man and woman to travel and rule over all the Earth,⁵ it is recorded that it was only in the garden that he would walk and converse with them. The nature of God’s relational intimacy with his children was only fully experienced in this sacred space. God’s emphasis and central focus was placed on the attributes and activities of the garden. That was always his priority, and it was this foundational location that underpinned all of Adam’s other activities on Earth. Whilst Adam and Eve would be entrusted with running and managing a planet, their central sanctuary and top priority was always to be found with their God in the garden.

Gen. 6:9 ‘He walked faithfully with God.’

Not only did God speak to his children in the garden (communication being essential in any loving relationship) but he purposefully ‘walked’ with them. Scripture is silent about where they were going, but clearly states that God and man originally walked together on a regular basis. The destination of this daily stroll appears secondary to the nature of its communal purpose; God clearly enjoyed walking and talking with Adam. The purpose of this stroll of fellowship appeared tied to its intimate enjoyment rather than simply arriving at a specific destination. It was a walk of friendship and close relationship that seemed to find its major purpose in enjoying each other’s company.

The description of man walking with God in the garden is outlined as a prerequisite to all of Adam’s other activities on earth. Walking with God is a clear metaphor throughout the Bible, particularly for specific people who found their greatest joy in experiencing favour and friendship with their creator. Even after Adam was banished from the Garden, and lost his daily walk-through paradise, a select number of his children rediscovered their creator and found their way back into this special relationship with God. Even in the beginning, after the dawn of prehistory, Enoch⁶ and Noah⁷ both ‘walked with God’ and their friendship with their creator saved them both from the coming judgement of God’s wrath against man’s sin. One was raptured to God’s presence before the judgement fell and the other was saved through that first terrible period of tribulation, when the flood covered the Earth.

Gen. 5:24 ‘Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.’

People who walked with God in the pages of scripture are always signs and symbols of what God has in store for his friends. The Genesis pattern of God’s judgement and wrath in the anti-diluvian era will be repeated at the end of this present dispensation.⁸ People of genuine faith, such as Abraham, are usually described as walking with God⁹ and even when Jesus himself called his disciples, it was always understood that they were called to walk with him.¹⁰ Christ’s call to disciples in this present world is the same. He does not just ask them to believe, he commands his people to walk with him in this life. When Adam forfeited mankind’s access to the garden, he lost his essential walk with his creator and his lamentable story is a sober warning to all his children who were born outside the paradise of God.

Paradise Lost

Gen. 3:23 ‘So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground.’

After Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sinned against him they were evicted from the Garden in Eden. Their entire world changed, physically as well as spiritually. It is not possible for modern humanity to fully grasp how the whole earth was dramatically altered for the worse when the first man lost his unique place and fell into sin. The beauty of the present world is so corrupted by the decaying effects of sin and death, that it is difficult to envisage its original glory. Although degraded, the world was still intact and man could still walk upon the earth. But there was no access to the garden; it had been lost. Adam sold his eternal home and inheritance to taste the temporal pleasure of sin, and all his children would suffer the same loss.

What is interesting to observe, is which abilities and attributes Adam hadn’t lost after his departure from Eden. Firstly, he did not lose his belief in God; he and his wife still believed in their creator, and so did their children. Secondly, the Adamic family had not fully lost their ability to communicate with God after leaving the garden. The post Edenic chapters in Genesis record the humans talking to God and listening to him. Thirdly, even after the fall, Adam’s family is observed giving and receiving things from God. Clothing and sacrifices were exchanged between deity and humanity, even after sin had destroyed the perfect life of creation. If all these abilities were still active, it is not unreasonable to inquire of what exactly had drastically changed?

The single biggest observable change was that they were no longer living in the garden, they had lost their special place. Essentially, they were not where God had planned them to be, and they were now existing in a different environment, one that they were not originally created for. They did not have the same access to God’s presence and they no longer walked with him as they once did. They had lost their unique home where they communed and connected with God. They now felt like aliens existing on a hostile planet. Like the Angels who would later fall from dwelling in God’s presence,¹¹ they had lost their perfect place of habitation. They were homeless and wandering under a curse instead of being blessed in their tailor-made paradise. They had been evicted from their beautiful abode and any immediate improvement in their situation appeared hopeless. Like Adam, after leaving paradise, many people today still believe in God and may even pray to him, but never experience the reality and blessing of the Garden.

Gen. 3:24 ‘He placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden Cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way.’

The man and his wife possessed no ability to return to the garden, as God had forbidden it. Powerful Cherubim now guarded the entrance, prohibiting future access. In the Bible, Cherubim are always seen to be guarding the very literal presence of God himself.¹² There appeared no way back to the idyllic existence as they had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.¹³ All humanity, since Adam, has inherited his fallen nature and, as a result, has lost immortality and are banished from the glories of Eden.

All Adam’s descendants feel this acute sense of loss today. They discern, within the core of their being, that something is missing; and they feel like lost strangers in an alien environment. They still believe in God, and may even attend a church, but they don’t appear to be walking in the fullness of joy that comes from abiding daily in his presence. They know that the only way back would be if God had another plan, a redemption strategy, that he could orchestrate to bring mankind back to its original home. They secretly yearn for a way back to the garden and hope that, somehow, this longing can one day be realised and be made possible. If there was a way back, surely it would mean that God would have to provide that way and declare it, as only he would be able