SEEING JESUS IN THE ONE WHO PUT ADAM IN THE GARDEN

 Seeing Jesus in the One Who Put Adam in the Garden

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        “The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:8-9).

Did Adam, before he sinned, have the right to eat of the tree of life? Notice the word right as used in the following verse, “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7, NIV).

This paradise of God is the same one that the repentant thief on the cross was going to with Jesus (Luke 23:43). It is the same paradise of God that Paul was caught up into where he heard “inexpressible words which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. 12:4). This is the same paradise of God from which the LORD expelled Adam after he had sided with the serpent and rebelled against God. “Then the LORD God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’—therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken” (Gen. 3:22).

So, in answer to our question asking if Adam had the right to eat of the tree of life before the fall, the answer is yes. However, he forfeited that right when he exercised his free will and chose to eat the fruit from the forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We note then that the One who put Adam in the garden and gave him the right to eat from the tree of life is the same One who ejected him after he had instead chosen to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which had been forbidden him. Therefore, Jesus is the One who gave the right to eat of the tree of life post-Fall, and, because He is the LORD God, He also can take away that right.

The paradise of God is a garden planted by God in the east of Eden. To us it sounds like and orchard, what, with all the fruit trees. And with all the animals, it also sounds to us like a park, what we might call a safari park. So, what is it then? A garden or an orchard or a park? Both the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures accommodate all these descriptions. Jewish scholars translated the Old Testament into the Greek Septuagint. They translated the Hebrew word for garden as paradeisos (παράδεισος), which had been borrowed from and ancient Persian word pairidaēza, meaning a walled enclosure. A walled garden makes even more sense when we remember that the LORD God “placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24b).

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        This walled garden or orchard, or safari park is being developed into the garden city of God by the last Adam, i.e., Jesus. The city will have twelve gates when the Developer is finished. Note the precious stones and gold etc.,

 The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide … The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth ruby, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth turquoise, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass. Revelation 21:16-21 abbr., NIV.

Now, we’ll get into this in more detail up ahead, but we need to introduce in broad terms one of the creatures in the garden, orchard, park – a snake, otherwise known as a serpent. The Hebrew word here for serpent has to do with the noise it makes, hiss, which is related to whisper (as in whisper magic spells) and enchant.

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        A more distant relative of the Hebrew word is copper. We are immediately reminded of the fiery or brass/bronze serpent on a pole, the snake on the stake (Num. 21:8-9). The fiery (as in burning) serpent is a poisonous snake that gets its name from its copper colour. Upon quick observation, the burning might seem to relate to the aftermath of its bite. However, upon further reflection, if you heat copper until cherry red and immediately plunge it into water, you will hear it hiss! Thus, we favour the copper appearance over the aftereffects of a bite for the name of the serpent. (And won’t he hiss when he is fully immersed forever in the lake of fire?!)

The seraphim mentioned in Isaiah 6:2, 6 are from the same Hebrew word. To be sure, fiery stones, i.e., sparkling jewels, are not the same as fiery coals but only resemble them. However, notice what the seraph has in his hand, “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar” (Isa. 6:6). Now notice who was in the garden of God walking amongst the fiery stones. It is the king of Tyre that is being spoken to directly. However, you begin to realise that Satan is being spoken to indirectly when you realise that the king of Tyre is simply a vassal of serpent when you see what is being said to him. “Thus says the LORD God:

 

You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. Ezekiel 28:12b-14.

We get the impression that all these precious stones were just laying around the place in God’s garden and that the anointed covering cherub walked among them. Also, note that that the garden, the orchard (as in a walled garden), park was on a mountain, “the holy mountain of God” (Ezek. 28:14). 

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        Speaking of mountains, not quite the garden of Eden, however, a town on the edge of the Great Dividing Range, located 132 km (82 mi) west of Queensland’s capital, Brisbane, gives echoes of Eden. It is around 700 metres (2,300 ft) above sea level. There are two valleys, originating from springs, forming two waterways. The soil is so rich that Toowoomba has become known as ‘The Garden City’ and holds an annual event called the Carnival of Flowers.

Meanwhile back on the mountain of God.“By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones” (Ezek. 28:16). Matthew Henry comments,

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High Priest wearing ephod with precious stones

[The king of Tyre] seemed to be as wise and happy as Adam in his innocency. “Thou hast been in Eden even in the garden of God; thou hast lived as it were in paradise all thy days, hast had dominion over all about thee, as Adam had.” His rooms were set around with jewels, so that he walked in the midst of them, and fancied himself as glorious as if, like God, he had been surrounded by so many angels, who are compared to a flame of fire. Gold is mentioned last as far inferior in value to those precious stones, and he used to speak of it accordingly.[1] 

If we were to begin adding it all together, we should see then that, among other things, Ezekiel was giving us a picture of the paradise of God. The king of Tyre was picturing both the pre-Fall Adam and the pre-Fall covering cherub before they were subsequently cast out of the garden of God.

If we were using Sherlock Holmes’s three‑step method of deductive reasoning, which is to observe details, connect them to previous knowledge, and then construct a chain of inference, we would draw the logical conclusion that the covering cherub, yes, the shining serpent, must have been cast out of the paradise of God at some point after he had deceived Eve, yes, when she offered Adam the forbidden fruit and he ate.

After Adam and Eve’s encounter with the serpent, all were ejected from the paradise of God. “So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24). The One who cast them out of the paradise of God was the same LORD God who put Adam in the garden in the first place. “The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed” (Gen. 2:8). He is the Angel of the LORD, He is the preincarnate Christ, He is the One mentioned in the following verses. Read them with the paradise of God in mind and notice things like the golden band, eyes like a flame of fire, feet like fine brass, voice as the sound of many waters, countenance like the sun shining in its strength.

 

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength … These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass. Revelation 1:12-16, 2:18, (cf. 19:12).  

We see Jesus walking among the precious stones in the garden city which was “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2b). Remembering that “the Word became flesh and dwelt (i.e., tabernacled) amongst us, “And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God’” (Rev. 21:3).

Speaking of the Word becoming flesh, i.e., Jesus, and walking among precious stones and a bride adorned for her husband,

 

Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.” They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:4-9.

We may wonder why the LORD God mentions gold. “Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stones are there.)” (Gen. 2:11-12). Bdellium is a precious stone, some say amber, others say pearl. Where the same word is used in Numbers 11:7, the Geneva Bible footnote says that bdellium is “a white pearl, or precious stone”. Pearl or pearl-like would, of course, correlate with the “pearly gates” in the garden city which is “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”. Speaking of brides, says geologist Ian Plimer, (perhaps a little with tongue-in-cheek),

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        The only currency that’s been around for thousands of years is actually gold. And if you don’t believe me, go to the Bible. In Genesis 2 verse 12, we see the land of Havilah where gold was produced. Gold is the first mineral mentioned in the Bible. Now, the biggest consumer of gold is women, in their jewellery. And so we see in Genesis 12 verse 22, only ten verses later, that God creates women. So, first He created gold, then He created women. The Bible can’t be wrong![2]

We can just about hear William Blake singing, "Bring me my bow of burning gold! Bring me my arrows of desire!"

We have seen something of what the pre-Fall paradise of God was like: Adam to tend and keep the garden, a riverhead and rivers to irrigate the garden, precious stones to beautify the garden (gold, bdellium, onyx), a covering cherub (Satan) walking among them, (presumably) to guard the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, instead of guarding it, by deceiving Eve, the devil invited Adam to eat of it. The fall of “that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan” preceded and precipitated Adam’s fall. Yes, Adam, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8).

Satan was the covering cherub in the garden. The Old Testament word for covering has to do with entwining like a screen, (see Strong’s Concordance 5526). Though his role in guarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would be more like a scarecrow guarding a paddock, one cannot help thinking of the net that covers (entwining) a fruit tree to protect its fruit from marauding birds etc.

There was a bit more song and dance to ejecting the devil from Paradise. Now, we know that Satan, the devil, was cast out of the holy mountain of God, i.e., the garden (Ezek. 28:16). And we know that he will be cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10). “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 3:9). This is where the one who walked among the fiery stones in the paradise of God, now meets with the last Adam, yes, outside the garden, orchard, or park. Notice what the devil is walking amongst in the wilderness where he challenges the last Adam, “Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread’” (Matt. 4:3). Jesus, why don’t You turn these stones into something to eat, yes, reminiscent of Adam and the forbidden fruit. But Jesus kept God’s commandments.

So, we’re back to Jesus giving people the right to eat the fruit of the tree of life in the paradise of God. Unlike the pre-Fall Adam who chose to break His commandments by eating from the wrong tree, “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:14).

The LORD God put Adam in the garden. The LORD God gave Adam the right to eat of the tree of life before he disobeyed Him. The LORD God cast Adam out of the paradise of God. We see that the LORD God is Jesus. Thus, we have seen Jesus in the One who put Adam in the garden.

Crown Him the Lord of peace,

Whose power a sceptre sways

From pole to pole, that wars may cease,

Absorbed in prayer and praise.

His reign shall know no end;

And round His piercèd feet

Fair flowers of Paradise extend

Their fragrance ever sweet.[3]

---

[1] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary in One Volume, (Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1961), 1064

[2] Ian Plimer, a Geologist, plugging his book, Gold: Everything You Need to Know, on Rowan Dean’s, The World According to Rowan Dean on News24, 11 September 2026.

[3] Matthew Bridges & Godfrey Thring, The Revised Church Hymnary, (1927), Hymn 136.

THE PROMISE & THE PILGRIM

 

THE PROMISE & THE PILGRIM

“All the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.” Genesis 15:3.

Introduction

I’m sure you’re familiar with the saying, “The best things come to those who wait!” Well, that’s the way it is for Abram in our text, and that’s the way it is for each of us. The LORD promised him an inheritance some 4,000 years ago. Abram’s still waiting to receive it. The LORD promised him land and descendants. He lived long enough to see a few descendants. However, Abram died and was buried without receiving the inheritance of the land he was promised. So, either the LORD made a promise and failed to deliver, or the promise is still good.

In the following I hope to demonstrate that the LORD’s promise to Abram is still good. The general gist of what we’ll be looking at is: Faithful saints hold fast the good promise of the LORD.

The Promise

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We see then that the LORD said to Abram, “All the land which you see I give to you and your DESCENDANTS forever.” Therefore, the LORD has made a promise to Abram and his descendants or seed. So let us focus for the moment on the promise as it relates to Abram’s descendants.

Now, this is the third time the LORD has come to Abram promising him land and descendants. The other two times are recorded in Genesis 12:1-3 where it says, “Now the LORD had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” And again, in Genesis 12:7a, “Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your descendants I will give this land.’” This is the third time the LORD has promised Abram land and descendants, and it’s not the last. The LORD confirms this promise to Abram again in Genesis chapters 15, 17 and 18.

If the telephone company or somebody thinks you owe them money they keep on sending you reminders. One time we received a couple of reminders from somebody who got their wires crossed. So, you notify them and you get it all straightened out – or so you think, until you get another reminder in the mail! But here’s the LORD for the third time, in the text before us, reminding Abram of His promise to him and to his descendants.

Abram doesn’t even have any descendants, and Lot, his next of kin, has separated from him. However, the promise is to Abram and his descendants, not to his next of kin. Therefore, land was promised to Abram’s descendants.

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So, we ask: What land was promised to which descendants? Well, Abram’s descendants were promised the land as far as Abram’s eye could see. We take it that he’s on some hill or mountain. And the LORD is telling him to pan all around. “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, westward...” (Gen. 15:14).

Lot, as you know, lifted his eyes and he saw the well-watered plain of Jordan. He saw what looked like the lush land of Egypt. It was like the Garden of Eden (Gen. 13:10). But the LORD didn’t invite Abram to look at rivers, green grass, shrubbery and that sort of thing. No! Abram was invited to look at the dust – the dust of the earth. “I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered” (Gen. 15:16).

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            I used to have enough trouble counting my homing pigeons when they were flying around. Who could count even a handful of dust, never mind the dust of the earth! This is no “Guess the exact amount of lollies (i.e. candies or sweets) in the jar and you win the prize!” No! There was no guessing the amount of descendants. They were to be as the dust of the earth.

In the Hebrew, the word eretz can be translated either land or earth. Dust of the land, dust of the earth, eretz – land or earth. The word is used in the first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the eretz.” You wouldn’t translate it ‘land’, would you? So, usually the context determines whether the Hebrew eretz is to be translated land or earth. And we find these words recorded in Genesis 15:18, “On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.’”

As Abram walked the length and breadth of the land, between these two great rivers, what would he have been thinking? He would be thinking: “This is some promise the LORD’s given me and my descendants! The LORD’s shown me the land as He promised. Now He’s saying that we are heirs of this land, that my descendants and I will inherit it!”

No wonder he moved his tent and built an altar to the LORD. Abram’s hit the jackpot! You see the way some people carry on when they win a million bucks. They leap and jump all over the place kissing and slobbering over anyone standing next to them. But hang on a minute. All Abram has at the moment is a promise. All he has is the LORD’s Word. And is that not all that any of us has?

I remember as a new Christian trying to come to grips with eternal life. “Wow! I’ve got eternal life. So, this means... what does it mean?” I remember thinking, “What good is this eternal life? I still have to die.” Then I began to understand what Jesus was on about where He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). So it’s the promise of eternal life I have. And who’s the One who’s making this promise to me? Well, it’s the same LORD who made the promise to Abram and his descendants. And what did the LORD promise Abram and his descendants? Genesis 13:15 again, “All the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.” Take note at this point, the word descendants may also be rendered seed as in one or many. However, since we’re focusing on the promise, we need to ask to whom was this promise made? In other words: Who are the descendants of Abram? We take it that at this point in time Abram didn’t know. He didn’t know because he didn’t have any descendants at this time. And we find in the chapters up ahead that Abram first off thinks that one of his servants will have to be counted as his offspring. Then the LORD tells him that Abram himself will be the father of a child. So, he gets tangled up in the mess with Sarah’s servant Hagar. Then the LORD tells him that his, up till then, barren wife Sarah is going to bear his child. But for now, all Abram has is the LORD’s Word he will have descendants like the dust of the earth. And in 1 Kings 4:20-21 we read, “Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and rejoicing. So, Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the River [i.e., the Euphrates] to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt.”

So, we see that, at the time of David and Solomon Abram’s descendants are innumerable. They are living in the tract of land promised to Abram and his descendants. And apparently, it was much the same again during the inter-Testamental period. But were all those people really the ones to whom the promise of the land was made? Remember, the promise was made to Abram and his descendants.

Was Rahab, the harlot who was rescued from Jericho, a descendant of Abram? Was Ruth the Moabitess, who married Boaz, a descendant of Abram? Well, according to the Apostle Paul both Rahab and Ruth were descendants of Abram. He says, for instance, in Galatians 3:29, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

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            It’s true that Jesus says to some Jews who were claiming to be Abram’s descendants, “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants” (John 8:37). But He was talking about descendants as to flesh. For Jesus went on to say to these same men, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do [etc.]” (John 8:44). Therefore, their real father was the devil, not Abraham!

“When [John the Baptiser] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, ‘Brood of vipers! Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones” (Matt.3:7-9).

Paul in Romans chapters 3 and 4 goes to great lengths to tell the Jews their fleshly decent counts for nothing In Galatians 3:7 he says, “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abram.” Both Rahab and Ruth were of faith, as were all the Old Testament saints. So, to cut the long story short, the descendants who receive the promise of the land are only those who believe along with Abram, the father of all believers (Rom. 4:11;16).

Right then, if the LORD is giving the land to Abram and his descendants and we Christians are his descendants, then the land is ours, right? Does this mean that all Christians should start chartering airplanes to the land of Israel? Should we go there and demand that the present Christ-denying occupants give us our promised land? If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re missing something, something very important. Hopefully it’ll become even more clear to you as we move into our second point. But just before we move on, let me recap what we’ve looked at.

The LORD has made a promise to Abram. He has promised him descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth. We’ve taken note that the New Testament stipulates that Abram’s descendants are like him, i.e., believers. That Abram is the father of the faithful, therefore it is faith and not race or ethnic origin that makes a person a descendant of Abram. It’s faith and not flesh that counts with God.

And we’ve seen, in particular, that the land was promised to the descendants of Abram, i.e., you, me and every believer that has ever lived or will live. So, let’s move on.

The Pilgrim

The land was also promised to Abram. Yet Abram never took possession of the land, did he? But look at what the LORD says to Abram, “All the land which you see I give to YOU” (Gen. 13:15). Look also at Genesis 13:17, “Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to YOU.” But Abram remained a pilgrim, a sojourner, in the land until his dying day. In fact, Abram had to buy a field with his own money as a place of burial. So, in order to help us understand what’s really happening here, we need to bring the rest of Scripture to bear on this text.

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        Now, this is what we’re doing, we’re trying to understand what the LORD has in mind here. We are NOT trying to see how well Abram understood the LORD’s promise. We have the benefit of the rest of Scripture to help us understand this promise. However, you might be surprised at how much Abram had grasped already.

Always keep in mind that the LORD revealed His promise to Abram in one lump sum as recorded in Genesis 12:1-3. Then as a preacher expounds and opens up the Scriptures to his congregation each week, so the LORD opened up the understanding of Abram to what He has already said. The word of promise remains the same but under the LORD’s tutelage, Abram’s understanding grew by instalment. Like every other believer, Abram would grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ only so far as He had revealed Himself at that time. But as I said, we’re not trying to see how deep an understanding Abram had of God’s Word. Rather we’re seeking to understand what the LORD means by the promise of land and descendants.

The promise was made to Abram, and we Christians today testify that we are Abram’s descendants. Abram lived to see the birth of Isaac and other children. But you wouldn’t say he saw descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth. And neither did he receive the land the LORD promised him. Speaking of the land, listen to what Stephen says about it, “And God gave him [i.e. Abram] no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on. But even when Abram had no child, He [the Lord] promised to give it to him [i.e. Abram] for a possession, and to his descendants after him” (Acts 7:5).

Just think about that for a moment. We see that Abram was to receive this land, and the LORD promised it to him and to us. Therefore, the question we need to answer is this. How or when is our father Abram and we, his descendants, supposed to receive this promised land?

I was at a funeral where a man said that he was not going to miss his friend who had just died. He said that he wouldn’t miss his friend because his friend would be with him always in his heart. Is this how Abram was going to inherit the promised land? Was Abram carried around in the bosom of his descendants? Is this what the LORD meant when He promised the land to Abram? Is this what the LORD means when He promises the land to us? What do you think?

Look again at the words of Genesis 13:15, “For all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants FOREVER.” So, that word FOREVER sounds like a long time, doesn’t it? But did Abram ever possess the land even for five minutes? No! Have any of us possessed the land for any length of time? No! So there must be more going on here than the naked eye can see. Look at Abram. He was a pilgrim, wasn’t he? Like the words of the hymn,

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,

Pilgrim through this barren land;

I am weak, but Thou art mighty;

Hold me with Thy powerful hand:

Bread of heaven, feed me till my want is o’er. 

Abram was a pilgrim in a barren land. His nephew and fellow believer Lot, well, he spied the well-watered plains of Jordan. He rushed off to the place that was lush like the land of Egypt, like the Garden of Eden. But Abram was to walk the length and breadth of a barren land looking at and counting particles of dust. This was the land which couldn’t support Abram and Lot and their herdsmen. As Abram looked at the dust he surely must have wondered how this land would ever support a multitude like the dust of the earth! How would this land ever feed them? It couldn’t even sustain a bunch of herdsmen and their livestock. So Abram must have had a few questions running around in his head. Not the least of which was, how was he supposed to possess the land forever. I mean it’s all very well for the eternal God to say to Abram, “I’m giving you some land FOREVER.” “Oh! That’s nice, but it’s just a pity that I won’t be able to live forever to enjoy it forever!” At least Abram got to see it for a few years. But what about you and me? When you look at a passage like this, you’re thankful you’ve got the whole rest of the Bible.

So, as we begin to tie things up into a nice big bow, let’s shine some New Testament light onto the subject. Speaking of the Old Testament saints (including Abram) the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb. 11:13).

So, Abram died along with Isaac and Jacob after him without receiving their inheritance. But as a sailor catching a glimpse of land in the days of the old wooden ships, so Abram saw the substance of God’s promises in the far off distance – “Land ahoy!” So rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub, Abram, Isaac and Jacob, have yet to inherit the promised land, the land they saw far off in the distance. So, when then are they and we for that matter, supposed to inherit this land? Well, first let’s see if we can get a better idea of the length and width of this our inheritance.

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            Is our inheritance that piece of land which runs between the River Nile and the Euphrates? David in Psalm 37 mentions a couple of times, verse 9b, “Those who wait for the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.” And then in verse 11, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” And also in Psalm 25:13, speaking of the man who fears the LORD, he says, “His descendants shall inherit the earth.” However, the word for earth (eretz) in these instances may also be translated land, which is how the New International Version renders it in each case.

But what about what Jesus says in Matthew 5:5? Even the NIV renders it, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” But alas! The Greek word for earth used there is sometimes also used for land. So maybe we should charter some planes and boats and trains to the Middle East and claim our inheritance. But hold the phone! Let’s ask the Apostle Paul to help us. “For the promise that he would be the HEIR of the WORLD was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:13). So faithful Abram and his faithful seed, yes, even you and even me, are HEIRS of the WORLD!

But wait a minute. Does that word world really mean world, or does it really mean land? Well, the New Testament Greek word Paul uses is cosmos, the same word used by Jesus in John 3:16 “For God so loved the WORLD (Gr. cosmos)…” And I’ve yet to see any Bible commentator translate the word cosmos as land. For God so loved the LAND? No, He loved the cosmos! And as Paul uses it in relation to Abram it means the earth. So, the LORD has promised Abram and us the world, the universe!

So, here’s the tricky bit, how or when are we and Abram supposed to receive the earth or the world? Abram’s been dead for 4,000 years or something. So the LORD’s going to have to resurrect Abram, isn’t he? The LORD’s going to have to raise Abram from the dead in order to present him with the earth. And if you don’t think that Abram believed in the resurrection of the dead, then ask yourself what Abram was doing placing Isaac on an altar as a sacrifice? Hebrews 11:19 says Abram was, “Accounting that God was able to raise him [Isaac] up, even from the dead.”

And don’t forget that Abram has already seen a foreshadowing of Isaac’s resurrection. “Sarai is barren” (Gen. 11:30). Her womb is dead. Therefore, any child conceived therein and born therefrom is rising from the dead as it were, “as a root out of dry ground” (Isa. 53:2).

“Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” And the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son” (Gen. 18:11-14).

Abram’s body crumbled back to the dust, so did Isaac’s and Jacob’s after him. Your body, my body, all our bodies are going to crumble back to the dust, aren’t they? All of the children of Abram sleep in the dust. So will we. But what does the Prophet Daniel say? “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to everlasting shame” (Daniel 12:2). And what does John the Baptiser say to the Pharisees and Sadducees? “Do not say to yourselves, ‘We have Abram as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones” (Matt. 3:9b).

But none of this makes any sense without Christ. Christ is the true descendant of Abram, isn’t He? Those words of the Lord’s Apostle Paul, “Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). But again, Galatians 3:29, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

If we belong to Christ, then whatever belongs to Him belongs also to us. Therefore, the promise of the earth is made to us in relation to Christ. Only those who trust in Christ, as did believing Abram, will receive their inheritance in Christ. And doesn’t Psalm 2:8 say that the nations are His inheritance and ends of the earth His possession? And where do the nations live? In Palestine? Between the two great rivers? No! The nations are scattered over the whole face of the earth like dust; Christ’s inheritance is Abram’s and our inheritance in Christ.

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        And Christ’s resurrection guarantees Abram’s resurrection and our resurrection and secures our inheritance. And it’s through the spread of the Gospel as the poured out Spirit applies it, that the LORD raises up the children of Abraham from the dust of the earth. As the flood waters in Noah’s day were God’s poured out judgment-curse upon the earth, so the Holy Spirit in our day is God’s poured out blessing upon the earth. So this means that even those dry and parched nations will yet turn to the LORD, for they, and all the ends of the earth belong to Him. This was the promise the LORD made to Abram when He said, “All the land which you see I give to you and your DESCENDANTS forever.” The whole world and everything in it is ours in Abram’s Seed Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

God has promised that faithful Abram and his faithful offspring, even you and me, will inherit the earth. He has given His promise to pilgrims. The promise given Abram is the promise given us. We are the heirs of the world. The meek SHALL inherit the earth. So, even though Abram’s body, like ours, was made of dust and crumbled back to dust, the promise of God remains. So like Abram our father, we look forward to that day when all the graves shall open up. As Jesus Christ says, “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves shall hear His voice and come forth” (John 5:28).

Oh what a day that’s going to be! And father Abram is going to look into the faces of all his children, including your face and mine. But he won’t be able to number us. We’ll be as numerous as the dust, the dust of the earth, the earth we’re inheriting for our habitation forever.

We’ve seen then that the LORD’s promise to Abram is still good. And that we too, like our father Abram, should hold fast the good promise of the LORD, because the best things come to those who wait. Therefore, wait on the Lord Jesus Christ.

MIND EXERCISES

Mind Exercises

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            When it comes to writing, exercising the mind is important. A strong vocabulary comes from working out with weighty words. Muscular minds. Warmup exercises may involve things like crosswords and scrabble, with spells on the thesaurus and dictionary. Share your drink bottle with your readers. Give them verbal electrolytes.

Like prose on steroids, weighty words and even archaisms can uplift readers, supplying them with a poetic adrenalin rush. Add weights to the bar by saying, e.g. “gird up the loins of your mind” (KJV) rather than, e.g. “with minds that are alert” (1 Pet. 1:13, NIV). In the arena of the Bible, the former stays in its lane. It brings to mind the Biblical picture of a man gathering up his robes lest he becomes entangled when running. “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1, KJV).

The New Testament word for train or exercise, is from where we get gym and gymnasium etc. It refers to being disencumbered by clothes, even nakedness. As Christians, we are to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Rom. 12:2). Therefore, to think clearly, we need to disrobe our rags of sin to exercise our minds. “But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:6-7, NKJV). “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air” (1 Cor. 9:26, KJV).

Mind exercises produce strong minds that will win gold medals in the verbal Olympics. As writers we ought not to be afraid of introducing freshly coined words into the currency of thought. Mind minting.

For inspiration, test the weight of each of the following examples. These, and countless others like them, have been in circulation since 1611: 

Apple of his eye (Deut. 32.10), the blind leading the blind, (Matt. 15.14), eating one’s words (Jer. 15.16), an eye for an eye (Matt. 5.38), the skin of my teeth (Job 19.20), a thorn in the flesh (2 Cor. 12.7), the writing is on the wall (Dan. 5.5), bridle your tongue (Psa. 39:1; James 1:26), clear as crystal (Rev. 22:1).

SEEING JESUS IN THE RIVER

Seeing Jesus in the River

The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads Genesis 2:8-10    

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        A schoolfriend and I, when we were ten-year-olds, planted a small garden in a corner of the woods. We transplanted little trees and shrubs and what have you, all of which quickly died. Turns out that when you uproot plants and trees you need to make sure you don’t snap off roots in the process. Between that and a lack of watering, thorns and thistles taking over, we soon lost interest.

“The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden” (Gen. 2:8a). Eden means pleasant, delight(ful). Therefore, unlike the garden with the withered trees and shrubs my friend and I had planted and neglected, God’s garden was pleasant. It was well watered. “Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan towards Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the LORD…” (Gen. 13:10a).

Now, though different words are used in the original Hebrew, watered well and well watered can mean the same thing in English, i.e., that the garden was watered well as in good or that it was watered from a well as in from a spring. Both are true! “Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads” (Gen 2:10).

We shall look at the four rivers that flowed out of the garden more closely in a moment. However, we notice that a river out of Eden flows east through the garden that the LORD had planted and had placed the man. So now we are beginning to see Jesus of whom it can be said. “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper” (Psa. 1:3). Yes, “there He put the man whom He had formed.”

Like a river out of Eden, the motif of being planted next to a river flows through the Bible from beginning to end. “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; but its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit” (Jer. 17:7-8). “Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing” (Ezek. 47:12, NIV). “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7).

        In Scotland, uisge beatha is Gaelic for water of life. It is where we get the English word whisky from. Be that as it may, Jesus is the true water of life. We can clearly see His face being reflected in the river out of Eden. He said to the woman at the well, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14, NIV). “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37b-38). So, the idea for us today is to make sure we are planted next to the last Adam so that, like a river out of Eden, out of our hearts will flow rivers of living water.

I read the following in a book with the attractive title, A River Out of Eden,  

 

In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no other good. Nothing but blind, pitiless indifference. As that unhappy poet A.E. Houseman put it:

‘For Nature, heartless, witless Nature

Will neither care nor know.’

DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is. And we dance to its music.[1]

Wow! Talk about the blind leading the blind! Has the author of that book been overindulging in the uisge beatha? “A universe of blind physical forces”?! We’ve noted already that, like Mr Magoo reading Genesis, not everyone is able to see Jesus’s reflection in the river. However, this reading of the Bible is so far beyond the “myopic proof-text hermeneutic” that it is gone down the river and has become totally lost at sea! Send the lifeboats!

            There’s a scene in the movie The Perfect Storm that perfectly illustrates what it means to be lost at sea. A man escapes from his sinking boat in the middle of an enormous raging storm. We see his head bobbing in the water as the camera retreats to show the vastness of the man’s lostness. The Bible often uses the raging sea to show the hatred and rage that fallen man has against the Creator.

 

Woe to the multitude of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas, and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters; but God will rebuke them and they will flee far away, and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. Isaiah 17:12-13.

            Though the pain is searing and real, because they have seen Jesus in Scripture, like Horatio Spafford who lost four daughters at sea, Christians can sing the hymn he wrote afterwards,

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll,

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Surely the Biblical imagery in the following is not hard to see. Unbelievers are unlike the eight who were baptised in the ark but are like those immersed in the Flood. They are unlike those “children of the mist” who were baptised in the cloud but are like Egyptians in hot pursuit who were immersed in the sea. They are unlike the man planted by the rivers of water, whose leaf shall not wither but are like “the ungodly … [who] are like the chaff which the wind drives away” (Psa. 1:4).

The Bible begins with God bringing order to His creation and ends with everything totally in order forever because of Jesus.

 

The earth was barren, with no form of life; it was under a roaring ocean covered with darkness. But the Spirit of God was moving over the water … The sea was no more … Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” Genesis 1:2; Revelation 21:1b, 22:1-2, CEV.

        So, surely even Mr Magoo is able to see the reflection of Jesus in the river flowing out of Eden in the following words spoken to Ezekiel,

 

He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. Ezekiel 47:8-9.

“And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people” (Matt. 4:23).

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[1] Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden, Phoenix, 1996, 155.