Genesis 2:8 - Homiletics

The garden of Eden.

I. A SCENE OF BEAUTY . Whether situated in Armenia or Babylonia (see Exposition), it was a fair spot in a sunny region of delights (Eden). This beauty was—

1. Luxuriant . Milton has lavished all the wealth of his creative genius in an attempt to depict "the happy rural seat of the first pair" ('Par. Lost,' bk. 4.). Yet it is questionable if even he has succeeded in reproducing the gorgeous spectacle, the endlessly diversified assortment of lovely forms and radiant colors that seemed to compress "in narrow room nature's whole wealth," entitling Eden to be characterized as "a heaven on earth."

2. Divinely prepared . Jehovah Elohim caused it to spring up and bloom before the wondering eye of man. All the world's beauty is of God. The flowers and the herbs and the trees have all their symmetry and loveliness from him. God clothes the lilies of the field; the raiment, outshining the glory of royal Solomon, in which they are decked is of his making. If nature be the loom in which it is woven, he is the all-wise ὑφάντης or Weaver by whom its wondrous mechanism is guided and energized. Let us rejoice in the earth's beauty, and thank God for it.

3. Exceptional . We are scarcely warranted, even by Genesis 3:17 , to suppose that, prior to the fall, the whole world was a paradise. Rather, geologic revelations give us reason to believe that from the first the earth was prepared for the reception of a sinful race, death and deformity having been in the world anterior to man's arrival upon the scene (cf. Bushnell, 'Nat. and Super.,' Genesis 7:1-24 .), and that the Edenic home was what the Bible says it was—a fair spot, specially planted and fenced about, for the temporary residence of the innocent pair, who were ultimately, as transgressors, to be driven forth to dwell upon a soil which was cursed because of sin. Let it humble us to think that the earth is not a paradise solely because of human sin.

4. Prophetic . Besides being a picture of what the world would have been, had it been prepared for a sinless race, it was also a foreshadowing of the renovated earth when sin shall be no more, when "this land that was desolate shall have become like the garden of Eden." Let it stimulate our hope and assist our faith to anticipate the palingenesia of the future, when this sterile and disordered world shall be refitted with bloom and beauty.

II. A SPHERE OF WORK . Adam's work was—

1. God-assigned . So in a very real sense is every man's life occupation appointed by God. "To every man his work" is the law of God's world as well as of Christ's kingdom. This thought should dignify "the trivial round, the common task," and enable us, "whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, to do all to the glory of God."

2. Pleasant . And so should all work be, whether arduous or easy, especially to a Christian. To be sure, Adam's work was light and easy in comparison with that which afterwards became his lot, and that which now constitutes ours. But even these would be joyous and exhilarating if performed by the free spirit of love, instead of, as they often are, by the unwilling hands of bondmen.

3. Necessary . Even in a state of innocence it was impossible that man could he suffered to live in indolence; his endowments and capacities were fitted for activity. His happiness and safety (against temptation) required him to be employed. And if God who made him was ever working, why should he be idle? The same arguments forbid idleness today. Christianity with emphasis condemns it. "If a man will not work, neither shall he eat."

III. AN ABODE OF INNOCENCE . This abode was—

1. Suitable . It was not suitable for sinners, just as the world outside would not have been adapted for a pair who were sinless; but it was peculiarly appropriate for their innocence. He who appointeth to all men the bounds of their habitation always locates men in spheres that are exactly suited to their natures and needs.

2. Provisional . Their possession of it was contingent on their remaining sinless. If their souls continued pure, their homes would continue fair. It is man's own sin that defaces the beauty and mars the happiness of man's home. When men find themselves in positions that are not compatible with their happiness and usefulness, it is sin that has placed them there.

3. Quickly lost . How long they continued innocent is useless to conjecture, though probably it was not long. More important is it to observe that not much was required to deprive them of their lovely home—one act of disobedience! See the danger of even one sin.

4. Ultimately recoverable . This truth was taught by the stationing of the cherubim at its gate (q.v.). Revelation 22:1 tells us it has been regained for us by Christ, and will in the end be bestowed on us.

IV. A HOME OF HAPPINESS .

1. Everything was absent that might mar man's felicity. No sin, no error, no sorrow.

2. Everything was present that could minister to his enjoyment. There was ample gratification for all the different parts of his complex nature.

(a) communion with a gracious God;

(b) the felicity of a loving and a pious home;

(c) the joy of life—physical, intellectual, moral.

V. A PLACE OF PROBATION . This probation was—

1. Necessary . Virtue that stands only because it has never been assaulted is, to say the least of it, not of the highest kind. Unless man had been subjected to trial it might have remained dubious whether he obeyed of free choice or from mechanical necessity.

2. Easy . The specific commandment which Adam was required to observe was not severe in its terms. The limitations it prescribed were of the smallest possible description—abstinence from only one tree.

3. Gracious . Instead of periling the immortality of Adam and his posterity upon every single act of their lives, he suspended it upon the observance, doubtless for only a short space of time, of one easily-obeyed precept, which he had the strongest possible inducement to obey. If he maintained his integrity, not only would his own holiness and happiness be confirmed, but those of his descendants would be secured; while if he failed, he would involve not himself alone, but all succeeding generations in the sweep of a terrific penalty. The clearness with which that penalty was made known, the certainty of its execution, and the severity of its inflictions, were proofs of the grace of God towards his creature man.