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Genesis 2:14, Jeremiah 2:18-19

The Sweet Waters!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 18, 2022

Genesis 2:10-14 tell us about the four rivers that flow from the one main river that waters the Garden of Eden. The first one is the Pishon. The second one is the Gihon. The third one is the wild and wooly Tigris. “And the fourth river is Euphrates, or the sweet,’ from… parath, signifying to be sweet, referring to the sweet and pleasant taste of its waters.”[1] The ancient commentator, Philo, said, “For the Euphrates is very gentle and life-giving and nourishing, wherefore the wise men of the Hebrews and Assyrians call it ‘augmenting’ and ‘prospering.’”[2] Although the waters of the Euphrates might be “sweet”, the Children of Israel taken captive and taken as slaves into Assyria will not find their lives to be sweet. Jeremiah 2:18-19 says, “Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God.”

Walton has an opinion on the difficulty of using the last two rivers, even though we know their names and current locations, to locate the Garden of Eden.  The saying “all roads lead to Rome” isn’t giving directions to a physical place, but rather it was a statement about its centrality in all areas of life. He says, “Locating Eden in reference to the Tigris and Euphrates is the same kind of statement. Its location is not given so that it can be found but so that its strategic role can be appreciated. All fertility emanates from the presence of God.”[3]

There have been many symbolic interpretations of these four rivers. Carasik shares one; “The four rivers symbolize four aspects of creation: mineral, vegetable, animal, and human (Abarbanel).[4] The better symbolic attempts to understand the four rivers that flow from Eden attach them to either the preaching of the Gospel or the Gospels themselves. Voicu, quoting from an ancient Frankish Monk, Rabanus Maurus, who adds the Jordan River to the four rivers of Genesis 2, said, “The five rivers make the earth fruitful and cleanse it like the preaching of Christ’s disciples.”[5] An article from the Biblical Archeological Review shows a picture of the cross planted on Golgotha from which is flowing the four rivers from Eden. It says, “Christian tradition compares the four life-giving rivers flowing from the rock to the four Gospels, which quench the spiritual thirst of mankind.”[6] In the Wisdom of Sirach, an Old Testament Apocrypha book, the four rivers suggest that the wisdom of God flows out from the Jerusalem Temple Centered Torah. It says that all the wisdom of the world is like the four rivers flowing in the Garden of Eden. Speaking of the “Torah” It says in 24:25-29, “It brims like the Pishon with wisdom, and like the Tigris in the days of the new crops, It overflows like the Euphrates with understanding, and like the Jordan at harvest time. It floods like the Nile with instruction, like the Gihon at vintage time. The first human did not know her completely, nor has the last succeeded in fathoming her. For deeper than the sea are her thoughts, and her counsel, than the great abyss.”[7]

[1] Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. 1909. Genesis. The Pulpit Commentary. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

[2] Philo. 1953. Philo: Questions and Answers on Genesis and Exodus. Translated by Ralph Marcus. Vol. 1. The Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd.

[3] Walton, John H. 2001. Genesis. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

[4] Carasik, Michael, ed. 2018. Genesis: Introduction and Commentary. Translated by Michael Carasik. The Commentators’ Bible. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society.

[5] Voicu, Sever J., ed. 2010. Apocrypha. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

[6] BAR. 2004, 2004.

[7] Evans, Craig A. 2004. Of Scribes and Sages : Early Jewish Interpretation and Transmission of Scripture: Ancient Versions and Traditions. Vol. 50–51; 9–10. Library of Second Temple Studies; Studies in Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity. London: T & T Clark International.

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Genesis 2:14, Isaiah 8:5-8, 12:3

Tigris, Tigris, Burning Bright!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 17, 2022

One main river watered the garden of Eden and then broke up into four rivers as they flowed out of the garden. The Pishon, meaning “gusher” brought with it from Eden into the land of Havilah beauty: very pure gold, incense, and precious gems. The Gihon provided fertility to much of the Mideast. Commentaries abound with descriptions of what these rivers and their surrounding lands looked like. Indeed, some visions of Paradise came with them. It was probably a breathtaking sight. Kent Hughes added a quote from another historian that said “When Christopher Columbus passed the mouth of the Orinoco River in South America, he surmised that its waters came down from the garden of Eden. Of course, he thought he was on the east coast of Asia.”[1]

Genesis 2:14a adds another river to the Pishon and the Gihon which flow from the Garden of Eden. It says, “And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria.” Some suggest that this river got its name from the wild animal of the forests. If you search “Assyrian Tiger” and click on images, you’ll see numerous images of tigers and lions that were a symbol of Assyria. Philo suggests, “The Tigris is the wildest and most destructive of rivers, as the Babylonians and the Magians testify.” Daniel calls it the “great river” in Daniel 10:4. The older Pulpit Commentary suggests a different name identifying the Hebrew word as referring to an archer’s arrow. It simply says that the Hebrew word means, “a sharp and swift arrow, referring to its rapidity.”[2] According to a recent web article, “The river today has been dammed heavily to create both reservoirs and hydroelectricity. The dams and reservoirs also serve to control the flow of the river, which, in the past, flooded seasonally.”

The river is representative of the destructive character of the people of Assyria. God will bring them against the Israelites because they rejected the God who delivered them into their promised land and served them the sweet waters from Shiloah which is fed by the spring of the Gihon. In Isaiah 8:5-8, he tells his people, “The Lord spoke to me again: ‘Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah, therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks, and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.” But Isaiah doesn’t leave his people with the dread of hopeless doom. He, the great prophet of the coming Messiah, tells the people in Isaiah 12:3 that, when the child is born, when the son is given then “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” The Psalmist also brings hope to his people promising a return of God to dwell once again with his people in Eden, the Jerusalem of God. Psalm 46:4-5 says, “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.”

[1] Hughes, R. Kent. 2004. Genesis: Beginning and Blessing. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.

[2] Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. 1909. Genesis. The Pulpit Commentary. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.

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Genesis 2:13, John Various

The Only Source of Living Water

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 16, 2022

The first two of the four rivers that flow from Eden are the most difficult to identify today. My best guess about the first river, the Pishon, is a dried up river bed called by Archeologists “the Kuwait River.” Now, Genesis 2:13 gives us the name of the second river that flows out of Eden: “The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.” M’clintock argues that the Pishon flowed out of Eden and ran “…towards the east.” Then he adds, “…while the latter (river) turns westward, the Gihon.”[1] The land of Cush, according to the Anchor Dictionary, “Cush in the Old Testament often is associated with south Egypt and Ethiopia (Gen 10:6; 2 Kgs 19:9).”[2]

If the majority opinion of the location of Eden is near Babylon, then the Gihon flowed out of the garden towards the promised land of Canaan and Jerusalem. I only mention this because there are only three major sources of fresh water in Jerusalem and all three have their source from a spring named “Gihon.” An Article in the Biblical Archeological Review, “There are actually three water systems beneath the City of David. All begin at the Gihon Spring, low on the eastern slope, near the floor of the Kidron Valley. Indeed, the city was originally founded here because of the Gihon Spring, Jerusalem’s only freshwater source.”[3] Then another article says, “‘Gushing spring’ aptly translates the name of Jerusalem’s famous Gihon Spring. Located on the eastern flank of the City of David, the spring flows from beneath the stairs, which are probably medieval in origin. As the city’s only freshwater source, the Gihon Spring probably determined the original location of Jerusalem. Its waters were later directed into Jerusalem’s three ancient water systems. The Gihon was also the place where the prophet Nathan anointed King Solomon (1 Kings 1:32–40).”[4]

What interested me most is that the connection with the River flowing out of Eden and the spring that brought all the fresh water to Jerusalem has not gone unnoticed. Stolz observed that “…the temple spring of Jerusalem is called Gihon too. The temple of Jerusalem is, according to the cultic ideology, the centre of the world: so there could be a relation between the insignificant spring Gihon and the cosmic river Gihon.”[5] Then “gushing spring,” the Gihon, is the only source of fresh water in Jerusalem. While the Pishon carried fertility and every good thing from Eden to the East. The Gihon carried all the good things from Eden to the West. Jesus, the one who offered the thief on the cross admittance into Paradise (A name often given to Eden), used the precious commodity of fresh water in Jerusalem to illustrate His identity and mission on earth. In John 9:6-7 we read, “Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, ‘Go, wash in the pool of Siloam’. So he went and washed and came back seeing.” Then John 7:37-28 says, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Finally, In Revelation 21:6, as John concludes his book, as well as the entire Bible, he quotes Jesus once more says, “To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.”

[1] M’Clintock, John, and James Strong. 1894. “Paradise (1).” In Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature, 7:654. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers.

[2] Baker, David W. 1992. “Cushan (Place).” In The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman, 1:1219. New York: Doubleday.

[3] BAR. 1994, 1994.

[4] BAR. 1994, 1994.

[5] Stolz, F. 1999. “River.” In Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, edited by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, 2nd extensively rev. ed., 709. Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans.

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Genesis 2:11-12

The Gusher of Eternal Life!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 15, 2022

Working on the geography of the Garden of Eden, we read about the four rivers. Genesis 2:11-12 goes on to identify the first one. It reads, “The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.” According to the Handbook for translators prepared by the United Bible Society, the name Pishon is related to the verb “to gush.”[1] And Munday adds, “The word itself may mean “the gusher” or “to cascade” or “dispersive” (from a root meaning “to spread”).[2]

Nobody really knows where this river was and there are too many speculations about it to choose one. It is described as flowing around Havilah and having good gold and some precious stones. Scholars have tried to identify it by these descriptions. I think Barton has the best understanding of it. He writes, “Genesis 2:10–14 clearly places Eden in southern Babylonia. It is there said that the river Pishon ‘compasseth the whole land of Havilah,’ i.c., Arabia. By the Pishon, then, the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean, and Red Sea are meant. Ezekiel seems to have called southern Babylonia Eden. In Ezekiel 27:22-23 we read, “The traders of Sheba and Raamah traded with you; they exchanged for your wares the best of all kinds of spices and all precious stones and gold. Haran, Canneh, Eden, traders of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad traded with you. He places Eden in the series exactly where southern Babylonia lies.”[3] I just can’t see the Pishon “river” being the oceans referred to above. The Arabian Peninsula seems correct but I agree the article in the Biblical Archeological Review that suggests another alternative. It reads, “The ancient Bible scholar, Philo, writes, ‘Bible scholars have identified Havilah with the Arabian Peninsula because it is rich with bdellium (fragrant resins) and precious stones, but they have been unable to pinpoint the location of the river in this arid region. The recent discovery of the Kuwait River adjacent to the Cradle of Gold, the only Arabian source for such good gold,’” has led James Sauer to suggest that this dry riverbed may be the Pishon.”[4]

Coming out of the Garden of Eden, the Pishon gushed out, cascading over the land, bringing fertility along with beauty, precious metals, fragrant aromas and gorgeous gems which were used to decorate the tabernacle. Ancient Hebrew literature compares the good things flowing in the Pishon from the Garden of Eden with the good things that come to the lives of those who live according to God’s instructions. The Wisdom of Sirach 24:23-25 uses the Pishon as a picture of how wisdom, gushes or overflows the lands.  It says, “All this is no other than the Book of the Covenant of the Most High God, the Law that Moses enjoined on us, an inheritance for the communities of Jacob. This is what makes wisdom brim over like the Pishon…” Solomon was the wisest man in the world and yet “failed to live according to the wisdom God gave him.” I really like Newheiser’s approach in his commentary of the book of Proverbs. He writes, “Jesus is Wisdom personified (8:22–31; 1 Cor. 1:24, 30; Col. 2:3). It is in relation to Jesus Christ that we are able to live according to the wisdom about which Solomon writes. One of the objectives of this commentary is to take the reader beyond mere moralistic or pragmatic principles so that Christ can be seen on every page of the book of Proverbs.”[5] Jesus is the river flowing from Eden bringing all good things. When pierced by the soldiers spear, out of his side gushed a river of living water. Whoever drinks from the water that gushes from Jesus shall never die!

[1] Reyburn, William David, and Euan McG. Fry. 1998. A Handbook on Genesis. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

[2] Munday, John C. Jr. 1996. “Eden’s Geography Erodes Flood Geology.” Westminster Theological Journal 58, no. 1: 137–38.

[3] Barton, George A. 1925. Archaeology and the Bible. Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union.

[4] BAR. 1996, 1996.

[5] Newheiser, Jim. 2008. Opening up Proverbs. Opening Up Commentary. Leominster: Day One Publications.

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Genesis 2:10

Eden’s Location: The Definitive Answer!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 14, 2022

The mention of the River that flows out of the Garden of Eden has raised a lot of interest in identifying its location. Genesis 2:10 tells us, “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.” One commentator makes this observation about the location of the Garden of Eden. He writes, “The Garden, however, is more than a symbol. The narrator spent a large amount of narrative time (Gen. 2:10–14) stating the location of the Garden with respect to four rivers and three countries. Paradise was on this earth. Two of the rivers are not known today but mention of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers in verse 14 indicates that the location of the Garden was in Mesopotamia, perhaps present-day Turkey or Iraq.”[1] Munday says, “The geography of Eden has never been known precisely. For most adherents of the view that the garden is mythical, the garden’s exact location has no meaning, and the geography indicates only the story’s cultural origin. For those believing there was a garden in fact, the Bible provides tantalizing and specific geographic clues to its location.”[2]

According to the Anchor Bible Dictionary one of the earliest attempts to locate the Garden of Eden was done by Josephus.  They suggest he might have gotten it right. It says,” Josephus (Ant 1.37–39) provides the only reasonably coherent post-biblical Jewish account of the rivers of paradise. He identifies the Pishon as the Ganges (the “land of Havilah” = India). The Giḥon is the Nile, presumably because the land of Cush, through which it flows, is taken in its normal biblical sense of Ethiopia. The other two rivers are the Tigris and the Euphrates. Josephus seems to imply that all four of these rivers originate in the waters of the Ocean…”[3] The major problem with this is that from the current geography it doesn’t look like it’s possible for the rivers mentioned, regardless of which ones they are, could ever be of one and the same source. However, Hugh Ross argues, “At that time Earth was experiencing its last ice age. Ocean levels were much lower, and the pressure of ice on the north latitude landmasses caused several seafloors to rise. That meant it was possible that at the time of Adam and Eve, the present Persian Gulf was dry ground. With Eden located in the southeastern part of the gulf, all four rivers could have easily come together.”[4] Then we have the strange doctrine that come to us from the Mormon Church, Decker has revealed this one: “In accord with the revelations given to the prophet Joseph Smith, we teach that the Garden of Eden was on the American continent located where the City Zion, or the New Jerusalem, will be built. When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden, they eventually dwelt at a place called Adam-Ondi-Ahman, situated in what is now Davies County, Missouri” (Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p. 74).”[5]

The two rivers we know, the Tigress and the Euphrates seem to be the starting point for searching for the Garde of Eden. But what if those rivers were named after the rivers mentioned in the Bible instead of being the actual rivers. One source suggested that it was possible, “It could be that the modern rivers called the Tigris and Euphrates are simply named after those associated with Eden, in the same way that Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is named after the town in Judea.”[6] I think I’ll let my search for the location of the Garden go with the words of Warren Wiersbe, “Fortunately, it isn’t necessary to master ancient geography in order to understand the spiritual lessons of these early chapters in Genesis. In this beautiful Garden, God provided both bounty and beauty; Adam and Eve had food to eat and God’s lovely handiwork to enjoy. As yet, sin hadn’t entered the Garden; so their happiness wasn’t marred.”[7]

[1] Greidanus, Sidney. 2004. “Preaching Christ from the Narrative of the Fall.” Bibliotheca Sacra 161: 265.

[2] Munday, John C. Jr. 1996. “Eden’s Geography Erodes Flood Geology.” Westminster Theological Journal 58, no. 1: 125.

Ant Josephus, Jewish Antiquities (= Antiquitates Judaicae)

[3] Alexander, Philip S. 1992. “Geography and the Bible: Early Jewish Geography.” In The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman, 2:979–80. New York: Doubleday.

[4] Ross, Hugh. 2009. More than a Theory: Revealing a Testable Model for Creation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

[5] Decker, Ed. 1995. In Decker’s Complete Handbook on Mormonism, 27. Eugene, OR: Harvest House.

[6] Got Questions Ministries. 2002–2013. Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

[7] Wiersbe, Warren W. 1998. Be Basic. “Be” Commentary Series. Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Pub.

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Genesis 2:9b

Living in Paradise

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 13, 2022

The great gardener, Himself, not only made all the beautiful and delicious plants to grow in the Garden of Eden, but he put two other trees there as well. Genesis 2:9b, says, “The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” These two trees are singled out because they represent death and life. Eat from one of them and you will live. Eat from the other and you will die. Now, it’s not because one tree was poisonous. No, both trees, in my opinion, were beautiful to look at and they were both edible and even delicious.  Living in communion with God in Paradise however, demanded an open and honest understanding and recognition of God. It involves trusting God to be a good and loving God who always has our best foremost in His mind, even when it doesn’t look like it. It’s trusting Him to know what’s best and resting in that trust.

Picture with me, if you will, on our left is the tree of life. It was given as food. It must have been one of those that not only looked good but tasted good also. But then on the right side is the tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil. This tree was forbidden to us by decree from the great gardener himself. But man listened to the lies of the great father of lies, the great deceiver, and they, seeing that it too was one of those trees that were both beautiful and good for food, decided to believe the lie and ate from the forbidden fruit, the tree that became the source of our sin. Since then, it’s been the other tree that has been forbidden from us. The tree of life that is now forbidden awaits all those who have washed their garments in the blood of the lamb. That’s the symbol of a third tree we should imagine between the two others. The middle tree, the cross, where the curse of death we accrued at the first tree, was taken by Jesus himself for us, and through which we gain access to the other tree, the tree of life. Jesus promises us “eternal life” instead of death. John 3:16 is key here. It reads, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

Now consider the three trees standing on the hill called Golgotha, the place of the skull. On the left we have a tree on which hangs a thief, that would take what did not belong to him and yet have no remorse or repentance in his heart. On the other tree is a thief, a sinner of the same kind as the one on the other side, yet he was filled with remorse and acknowledged the penalty as just and sought not to be delivered from his just deserts, but looked to the one between them suffering innocently and cast his lot with that one. The figure on the middle tree, said to him, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”

 

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Genesis 2:9

The First Gardener!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 12, 2022

From the same material that he used to make man, he brought every good thing to eat. It’s interesting to notice that God, himself, is the first gardener, not Adam. Genesis 2:9a says, “And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.” Not all of the pleasant looking plants and trees are good for food. Maybe we should understand this verse to say “some are pleasant to look at,” while others are “good for food.” You might even say that some are both beautiful and tasty. Lange quotes John Calvin who said, “The description of the fruit of the trees: Captivating to the sight and good for food, is not without its purpose; it shows that inclination and the proof of sense in respect to food and drink should be guides to men.”[1] How can attractive, delicious food be a “guide” to us? Well, I think I have that!

One of the reasons, I like to argue, that I know God loves me and has my best interest foremost in mind is because of the many delicacies he’s provided for us as food. Wow! He created all the things that are “good” for food. Just think of it! Potatoes, carrots, corn! No, sweet corn! Cauliflower! I love me some Cauliflower. I even enjoy asparagus, broccoli, and best of all rutabagas!  Another great “guide” to God’s love for man is seen in the fact that the trees and plants were not only good for food but also “pleasant” to the sight. I know God loves me because he created all the colors in the world and gave me eyes to enjoy them all! Whether plants to just look at, or plants to just eat, or plants to eat and look at, they are all guides to show us God’s love for us.

James Jones has a great insight on the gardener picture. He writes, “God, the first gardener, sent his son, ‘the last Adam’ and the last gardener to inaugurate the new heavens and the new earth and ‘to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross’ (Colossians 1:20). It was the gardener, after all, that Mary saw, the one who in the Revelation to John, sits at the centre of the garden city of the new Jerusalem saying, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Adam, the first gardener after God, cursed the earth; Jesus, the last Adam and the last gardener, blesses the earth—with his sweat falling into it, with his body prostrate on it, with his blood shed for it and for us all on the cross.”[2]

[1] Lange, John Peter, Philip Schaff, Tayler Lewis, and A. Gosman. 2008. A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Genesis. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

[2] Jones, James. 2003. Jesus and the Earth James Jones. London: SPCK.

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Genesis 2:8, Ezekiel 28, John 14:1-3

A House is not a Home

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
June 11, 2022

Genesis 2:8 tells us, “…the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.” This is often referred to also as the garden of God. It was a literal place of course, but there is much more to it than that. When Wallace writes about the Garden he suggests that the real significance of the Garden is that it’s the place where God will dwell with man in intimate fellowship. He writes, “The description of the garden of Eden in Gen 2:4b–3:24 contains many of these motifs. These include the unmediated presence of the deity, the issuing of divine decrees (3:14–19, 22–24), the source of the subterranean life-giving waters which supply the earth (2:6, 10–14), abundant fertility, and trees of supernatural qualities and great beauty (2:9). Eden should not be understood as a garden planted strictly for the habitation of humans. It is essentially Yahweh’s garden which humans were invited to enjoy and cultivate. The narrative is therefore concerned with the issue of humankind entering and dwelling within the presence of deity.”[1] Paradise is being with God in intimate fellowship.

My Dad built a new house for us in 1961. We had been living further North near Miller Park in Omaha and he wanted to get us into the Holy Name Parish so he bought one of the only vacant lots in the area and built a house for us by himself from scratch. He began by building the basement, then he framed it all in after laying down the floor. We would drive over there to check it out several times during the summer of 1961 before we were ready to move it. By the end of August, he had built a nice house for me, my brother, my sister and my mother. But it was just “things” until we moved in and made it a home. God made a house so to speak, the Garden of Eden, but it didn’t become a home until we moved into it with God. What makes a home is the “fellowship” of the family.

God wants to live with his people. He had once dwelt in the Garden (it seems) with what Job and some other passages refers to as “morning stars.” He’s speaking of “The Sons of God” that is referring to the angels until things went bad. Ezekiel 28 is often interpreted as the fall of Satan from God’s favor and God casting him out of Eden. We read in that chapter, “You were in Eden, the garden of God…Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground…” As we read on in Genesis we see that the same fate awaits our first parents, Adam and Eve. They too rebel and are cast out from the presence of God. But Jesus came to bring those who believe in him back into the presence of God in a new home. Jesus told us all about that in John 14:1-3. He said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

[1] Wallace, Howard N. 1992. “Garden of God (Place).” In The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, edited by David Noel Freedman, 2:907. New York: Doubleday.

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