Sunday: The First School
Though we don’t think of a garden as a classroom, it makes perfect sense, especially one like Eden, filled with the unspoiled riches of God’s creation. Hard to imagine, from our perspective today, how much these unfallen beings, in an unfallen world, being directly taught by their Creator, must have been learning in that “classroom.”
Read Genesis 2:7-23. What do you notice about God’s purposefulness in creating, placing, and employing Adam?
Image © Justinen Creative from GoodSalt.com
God made the man and the woman in His image and gave them a home and meaningful work. When you consider teacher-student dynamics, this is an ideal relationship. God knew Adam’s abilities because He had created Adam. He could teach Adam, knowing that Adam could realize his full potential.
God gave the man responsibility, but He also wanted happiness for him, as well. And perhaps part of the means of giving him happiness was giving him responsibilities. After all, who doesn’t get satisfaction – happiness, even – from being given responsibilities and then faithfully fulfilling them? God knew the heart of Adam and what he would need to thrive, so He gave Adam the task of taking care of the garden. “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Genesis 2:15, NKJV). It’s hard for us to imagine, knowing only a world of sin and death as we do, what the work must have entailed and the lessons that, no doubt, Adam learned as he worked and kept their garden home.
In Genesis 2:19-23, God creates animal companions for Adam, and He also creates Eve as Adam’s wife. God knew that Adam needed the companionship and help of a peer, so He created woman.
God also knew that man needed to be in close relationship with Him, so He created an intimate space in Eden within the confines of the garden. All of this attests to God’s purposefulness in creation and His love for humanity. Again, from the great distance between us and Eden, it’s hard to imagine what it must have been like – though it is fun to try to imagine, isn’t it?
| Though we are far removed from Eden, we can still learn lessons from nature. What are some of those lessons, and how can we benefit from them as we interpret them through the lens of Scripture? |
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I am growing a vegetable garden. It is not going to keep me in food. In fact, I could buy the vegetables at the supermarket for much less than it costs me to grow them. And if I added in my time, I could take a decent holiday on the amount of time I have spent digging, weeding, planting, weeding, watering, weeding, fertilising, more weeding, and harvesting. We ate some of the first fruits this week; a Rocket salad! Those of you who know Rocket will know that it grows very fast. I grew it because it grows faster than the birds can chew it off. Why do I persist in growing a garden? Perhaps God planted a deep desire in us to grow things. More than any economic benefit, I find gardening therapeutic and deeply satisfying.
Our first parents were given a garden to tend and while some of the elements of my gardening, like weeds, may not have been an issue, they would have had to look after it and enjoy seeing plants grow and develop. They would have learned patience, understanding and appreciation.
Did we lose the appreciation for the development process, the time to reach maturity, the opportunity to observe and understand, when we left the Garden of Eden?
Brother Ashton,
The way you worded your last paragraph immediately took my mind to another garden that is being rushed...the garden of life.
Yes, I believe we did lose the appreciation for the development process, the time to reach maturity, and the opportunity to observe and understand.
Youth are in such a hurry to be grown-ups...and it seems the media is in even more of a hurry to get them there.
While I firmly believe that children, today, are coddled way too much and are not taught what true life is like when they "grow up" - responsibilities, budgeting, cleaning and making repairs, truths of life, loss and death, etc. - I believe that their "natural" curiosity for all things adult is being not only encouraged, but forced upon them by adults who either let their youthful explorations run wild...or wish they had.
The sad result is as you pondered over your vegetable garden:
[a] a loss in the appreciation for the development process (being children, then youth, and then young adults),
[b] the time to reach maturity (feeding GMO foods to youth with the result of creating Genetically-modified Organisms that have bodies which outpace, in development, their minds, hearts, knowledge, wisdom, responsibility, relationship with God, and self-control), and
[c] the opportunity to observe and understand - see point "b," above.
Again, this isn't where you were going with your comment but, if maybe "the world" had more appreciation for how God designed the world - by appreciating the work in a garden, then maybe "the world" wouldn't be in such a rush to grow a harvest of children into adults before they are spiritually nourished enough to do themselves and the world the good that could be done if given the time "to grow."
Thank you, Brother Ashton, for giving me food to ponder.
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Prov 22:6
Bro Hill, you made some points about children and the way they are going but remember we were once children with the same curiosity as the children of today.
I am older now but don't blame the children blame ourselves, parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents etc.
Some homes have SDA families, some other have Christians beliefs, and still some homes are non Christians. It was designed that the SDA home, the church and the Christians school teach the same things. Do we see that happening? How many parents can afford to send their children to our SDA schools? Do we leave our parental duties for the church to preform or the school? Do we instill discipline in our children at an early age. Did you ever had a controversy with a parent and their children stop talking or saying anything to you? why? what do children have to do in adult conversation? Who got them involved?
I will leave the rest for later as we go alone in our Christian journey praying for the Holy Spirit to open our eyes.
Psm 21:2
Can we all read the book Education, its a good read.
I also enjoy gardening. I have learnt to be patient and the joy of harvesting has thrilled my soul. True, gardening is therapeutic. It has been such a blessing to me and I praise God for it. I continue to praise God for the joy of gardening.
The cost of a garden is outweighed by the benefits. The work is pleasant, healthy, and rewarding, plus, we cannot forget the warnings of what will soon come, when our only food supply will be what we have grown. It takes some time to learn how to cultivate properly for the best results and I encourage anyone who will listen to start gardening. So many just don't have the time or interest, but one day they will wish they had realized that most of their time was spent on irrelevant and vain pursuits.
Pray for guidance, study the subject, apply what you learn and you will gain many blessings and probably better produce than you can purchase. Google and youtube provide great resources for learning "how to...".
The original plan is still the best plan.
For we know that the whole creation groaned and travailed in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. Rom 8:22-23
'We are far removed from Eden, we can still learn lessons from nature.'
True, not only humans are hurting but also nature. Although nature is about to give up it is still faithful to us. I like flower gardens so we have some small ones, I told my spouse to enlarge them but he refuses. He said to me all I like is to enjoy the final outcome; when they bloom, smells lovely and looks good. But before they become to that final stage is hard work. He said I am too busy and don't have time to do the hard work it entails and that is true.
Like many others we also have kitchen garden for years. He does all the hard work while I enjoy my lovely vegetables. We used no fertilizers or manure but allows nature to do its thing. This year was our third try before they grew. When we reap the crops we will store them in the fridge for short term use, and the freezer for long term use. What I realized even with organic vegetables, the do not last for as long as I expected them to last. Because of sin, nature is giving up and crying out for Jesus to return to save his people. Nature wants us to return to Eden made new. But before we return, nature can still give us and help us to provide food for our everyday consumption. Labor is hard work, it takes away idleness.
Eccles 5:12- The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
I can relate Lyn, I am the same way. I love to plant the garden and I love to reap the fruit, but finding the time for the work in between is the challenge. My husband says the same thing, he ends up doing all the work. He refuses to increase my garden as well. I do spend enough time in my flower gardens though to keep them looking good most of the season. I look forward to the earth made new and time to spend in our future garden home. In the meantime, keeping the weeds out of the garden of my heart by surrendering my will and my life to Christ is a daily work that I need to keep up with. Thanks for your post, Tammy
We are so blessed to be able to study nature right down to the inner workings of each cell. How complex it is, like a mini factory, there is no way it could happen by chance, it's design totally convinces me intellectually what I believe by faith that the LORD is the Almighty Creator of the Universe.
Is it possible that being created in the image of God with great intelligence that the LORD could and did explain the complexity of our cells to Adam & Eve?
Garden of Eden Lessons learned
1) Health law Genesis 1 and Genesis 2
2) Companionship - Married people tend to live longer even in our sinful world.
3) Obey and live; disobey and die is a command given in Genesis
4) Exercise
5) Rest
6) Responsibility
In Genesis chapter 2, God's wedding gift to Adam and Eve.
One thing I have noted regarding humanity: being alive (having life energy) without a constructive focus and purpose to devote that life energy to results in highly destructive 'living'/passing of time.
On the other hand, the most constructive foci and purposes are those that are 'other-beneficent' (focused on being of genuine benefit others) in nature.
God gave Adam the task of naming all of the animals. Adam must have taken note of the fact that there was “not found a helper comparable to him” (Genesis2:20), and must have felt the great need for one. It was at this time that God, the great Educator, provided one. He knew that lessons are better remembered when students discover things on their own. Adam probably never forgot his great need of Eve, and therefore would have treated her with great love and respect. This is an important lesson for us to remember in our marriage relationships. We need each other and therefore should treat each other with love and respect.
I have always wondered what the development of civilization would look like if Adam and Eve had remained faithful to their God!? Man was the last of the ‘creatures’ to be ‘made’. The ‘Garden’, fully established, a perfect Garden to live in and to receive their food from, was handed to them with the directive ‘maintain’. God remained available to interact with them, but Adam and Eve are able to go about their work on their own; they knew how.
Gen.1:26-28 “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’: ... “. Why was man made and for what purpose – just to tend the Garden? If growth and maturity (implied by caring for the Garden) was part of the original design of Creation, where would this design lead to? Would it have been confined to the Garden or, with the directive ‘be fruitful and multiply’ would it turn the whole world into a Garden?
Was Adam and Eve and their offspring meant to live all of their lives in this Garden-environment as caretakers and beneficiaries of God’s Love for His creation?
God’s vision for our world’s creation might have been just that – a perpetual Garden environment. Can you imagine this, our world, without its industrialization - all things that sprang from the ‘discovery of fire and wheel’?
What if our heavenly Father would still be our Teacher, Instructor - would we include such ‘tools’? Would we have developed the earth’s environment and our habitations into a physical, structural, ‘modern’ environment after His design's vision?
How would this environment look like?
Phil.3:21 - Could we live in a ‘world made new’ with this body? How would this work out if we are translated from this, our body of flesh, and receive a new body?
Isaiah Chapter 43 is the heartbreaking account of our Creator's unwavering Love for mankind. Isaiah 43:3"For I am the LORD they God, the Holy one of Israel, thy Saviour: ..". (11)"I, even I, am the LORD, and beside me there is no saviour." (21)"This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise."
Rev.21:1-8 – (7)”He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” (8) “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
You start with one question and question upon question follows !!!
Has anyone else ever wondered? Did Adam and Eve sleep in the garden before they sinned?
Yes, I have wondered the same. How long were they there? The way the story progresses it makes it sound like a short time but it could have been decades or centuries or even millennia. We just don’t know.
Well we do know, Cain and Abel were born after Adam and Eve left Eden and Adam was 130 years old when Seth was born and Adam died when he was 930 years old.
130 years old after the fall. That was day one of his "birth and march to death. Before that he was partaking of the Tree of Life and could have been there for ions.Respectfully, we do not know.
Without lamps, what would they do all night, if not sleep.
Sleep is designed to be restorative. Living in harmony with the natural rhythm of light and dark is conducive to good health in so many ways. So, yes, I believe that Adam and Eve enjoyed restorative sleep every night. 🙂
I'm not so sure... We know that God caused Adam to fall to sleep when He made Eve (Genesis 2:21). But things will be different on the new earth (Revelation 21:1). I don't believe we will necessarily need sleep as there will be no night (Revelation 21:25).
The closer we come to nature, the many valuable lessons we will glean from our surroundings will become obvious. The very nature and wonder of life found in so many forms shows the value and purpose of every useful plant, flower, fruit and vegetable for enhancing the life of all who partake of these bountiful gifts. Following a plant-based diet makes the lessons even more obvious, especially if cultivating a garden for one's food. So easy to miss these important lessons when we are detached from the reality of nature. There is too much that is artificial and meaningless that comprises the life of most today. Can we understand why Satan makes urban/suburban life so attractive to so many? The promise of greater affluence and opportunity leads many to take this path which often leads to folly and ultimate ruin. Useless amusements distract and take so much time and means, when a simpler life would provide useful benefits and eternal values.