What a Garden!

O.T. 12. "What a Garden!"      March 27, 2013
Genesis 2-Part 2
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.  Genesis 2:7 KJV

LET IT GLOW

Have you had the privilege of seeing any beautiful gardens? I have enjoyed walking through a few in my day. Oh, the sight of the flowers in bloom, the apple blossoms, the greenery and their scents. A few years ago, we went to Sands Springs for a business meeting. They had such huge gorgeous flowers in the resort outside, along the path to the pond and the golf course. Then there were those huge flowers in Porte Rico. I have dreams of having a wonderful garden in my yard. I haven't achieved it yet. Does one rose bush count? Can you imagine the exquisite garden that Eden was? We will talk about it later. First, let's look at a first mention.

This the the first mention of the word for God, the LORD. I looked it up in several sources and wanted to share them with you.

Liberty Bible Commentary states the LORD, is literally YHWH (pronounced Yahweh), the most significant name for God in the Old Testament. It's two-fold meaning of (1) the active, self-existent One (Ex. 3:14) and (2) Israel's Redeemer (Ex. 6:6), is used in contrast to the Elohim (the powerful God) of chapter 1.

Young's Analytical Concordance lists scriptures where a word is found in the Bible, has 13 different meanings for LORD-He (who) is, yahweh (read adonai).

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says LORD is Jehovah (pronounced yeh-ho-vaw) meaning self-Existent or Eternal; a Jewish national name of God. (There are almost 22 pages of scriptures listed  where the word is found in the Bible.)

Chapter 2, dictated by Moses, revealed to us by the LORD, tells several things He did, as an overview:

• He made the earth and the heavens. (verse 4)
• He had not caused it to rain upon the earth yet. (verse 5).
• He formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.    (verse 7)
• He planted a garden eastward in Eden and put the man there. (verse 8)
• He made every tree pleasant to see and good for food, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil to grow out of the ground. (verse 9) The tree was planted by God, but the cross was made by man. (John 19:15-16)
• He put the man into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (verse 15)
• He said that it wasn't good for man to be alone and made him a help meet. (verse 18)
• He formed every beast of the field and fowl of the air out of the ground, then brought them to Adam to name. (verse 19)
• He caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, then took on of his ribs and made woman from it. (verses 21-22)

Only God, our Jehovah, could do those things. Yahweh, Holy is Your name.


LET IT GROW

What was mentioned above that is new, not previously mentioned?
First of all, God made the Garden of Eden. It was a lush and perfect home for the man and woman.
(Later, it will be the sight of the Battle of Armageddon.)
God made the two trees of which man and woman were forbidden to eat the fruit-life and knowledge trees.
God made woman from a rib of man, to be his helper.

We read of a lot of "first" mentioned in chapters 2 and 3. There is the first man, first garden, first charge, first woman, first temptation and sin, first consequences of sin, first judgments upon sin, the first provision of God for man, the first act of salvation. (The Preacher's Outline and Sermon Bible)
We will touch on these later.

Here we have a perfect world with perfect people. But all that was going to change soon. (We don't know how much time lapsed, actually.) Eden could have lasted only a few days or a thousand days. (Guess we can ask about that when we get to heaven.) Notice that the warning was given to Adam that he would die if he ate from those two trees. (verse 17)

Here was Adam's first task, charge, and quite a job it was-name the animals. Today, there are some 17,000 air-breathing species of animals in existence. (Falwell)
Of course Adam was to dress (to serve) and keep (to look after or to have charge of) the garden, unlike that activity of work after the curse. It was productive and enjoyable. He was the caretaker.
Let's leave the man to his task. Tomorrow he will get some help.

How do I treat my world, my garden?

LET IT GO

Keep Jesus as LORD of my life.

Dress, serve, and keep, look after, my garden, own little world. Honor Jesus in all that I do.