CHAPTER ELEVEN
THE THICK BOUGHS
Thou hast been in Eden, the Garden of God
The Spirit…speaking through the prophet Ezekiel…now reveals the rest of the Garden story. Over 3,000 years have passed, since Adam roamed its lush furrows…working naked…with no sweat on his brow. And yet Ezekiel speaks of this very same Garden…but with a different set of residents. Most will tell you that Ezekiel’s Eden is metaphoric, or symbolic. Don’t believe them. If God says thou hast been in Eden, then mark it down…they were there.
Consider Ezekiel’s Eden, in light of the written chain of events. This is the order in which they are written, in the first three chapters of the bible.
. God creates the heaven and the earth.
. The six days of creation.
. Every thing created, is pronounced very good.
. The seventh day of rest.
. Man becomes a living soul.
. God plants the Garden of Eden.
. Man is put into the Garden.
. Trees made.
. Beasts of the field made.
. Birds made.
. Eve made.
. The fall of man.
Therefore the LORD GOD sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
To till…outside the garden gates…the very ground from where he was formed. God had created man, to till the grounds of Eden. And while doing so, to partake freely of the tree of life …and so live forever. It is perhaps in this simplicity, that we unlock the mystery of man’s eternal purpose.
In summarizing the generations of the heaven and the earth, the Spirit turns our focus to botany.
And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew.
Thousands of flora varieties…made by God in their entirety…but not yet growing in the soil. Why the hovering plants? Why their creation, but not their christening? Simply this:
There was not a man to till the ground.
The Spirit stays with botany, as the nameless, male, living soul is placed in the garden. But here, we narrow our scope to trees. Though trees were created on the third day, the garden story opens with these newer, different trees:
And out of the ground made the LORD GOD to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
These new trees, are God’s first order of business, after placing the man in the Garden. In fact, the Garden story itself, revolves around these curious trees. In Ezekiel’s Eden, mankind isn’t even given honorable mention. It’s all about these trees. And as the prophets vision unfolds, we are introduced…3,000 years afterward…to the Garden of Eden’s chiefest resident.
. He was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and a shadowing shroud.
. Of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
. Under his shadow dwelt all great nations.
. The cedars in the Garden of God could not hide him.
. The fir trees were not like his boughs.
. The chestnut trees were not like his branches.
. Nor any tree in the Garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.
. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the Garden of God, envied him.
It is this amazing tree dynamic, that God first places, before the man. Not Eve…or beasts…or birds…but trees. And now, he is to dress this garden…and keep its gates. Now, there was a man to till the ground. Put the hovering plants in the soil. Let the herbs, now grow on the earth.
So the Garden is planted…the man is put into the Garden…and the trees are made of the Garden soil. Now begins the Garden story. One man…alone in the Garden…with only these trees. Next, God makes the beasts of the field. These are different, from the beasts of the earth created on the Sixth Day. These beasts of the field are formed of Garden soil. It is, in fact, of this very ilk…that the serpent was most subtle. Finally, God makes the fowls of the air. Again, these birds are different, than those created on the Fifth Day. Recall that on Day Five, God brought birds forth from the waters. But these birds…in the Garden…are brought forth from the ground.
There are times in scripture, when the Spirit compels us, to face spiritual realities. A star falling to the Earth, is a good example. Our Sun, is a medium sized star. If it falls to the Earth, we’re all gone. So in that story, we face spiritual reality. And while we could never spiritualize away the factual, idyllic Garden; it may be that the Spirit is nudging us past the Assyrian here…and beyond botany.
Ezekiel tells of a tree in Eden, so great that:
Under his shadow dwelt all great nations.
Trying to cram all great nations…from all time…under the shadow of a single tree in Eden, just doesn’t work. We are…in Ezekiel…made to face the spiritual reality of Eden.
Thou hast been in Eden, the Garden of God.
The Spirit is speaking to this great tree…who, though now present to hear him…dates back some 3,000 years, to Eden. Ezekiel’s Eden, and the Eden of Genesis, are one and the same. But we must see them both, to grasp what’s going on in the Garden.
Such a portrait by the Spirit, is breath-taking enough. Like cresting the stairs of a packed national stadium. God uses the trees of Eden…their relative size…their beauty…the reach of their branches…the height and thickness of their boughs…to show us, that which we wrestle against. The principalities and powers that we cannot see. And He places them in Eden…in the Garden of God. The same Garden, where a nameless living soul…with a full set of ribs…was warned of death.
The firmament which divides these two realms…the heavenly and the earthly…seems to have been much thinner back then. We see the man, talking with his God. Talking with serpents seems to be normal. And if we consider both Eden’s, then the son of the morning…chiefest of the trees in Eden…is in the same Garden as the living soul.
Our first commission from God, was global in its reach.
Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
This commission came with God’s very next breath…after He blessed us. But on the Eighth Day, our commission was modest…and concerned only His Garden:
To dress it, and to keep it.
To keep it. To guard it. Perhaps not so much from trespassers, as the flaming sword of the East. But from the enemy within. From the liar from the beginning. From Eden’s chief resident…in Ezekiel’s Eden. And it would appear that Adam kept his charge. Guarded its holy grounds, with the two-edged sword of the Spirit. Oversaw its structure…its lattice…its pruning. Obeyed his God. And so, the enemy targets the woman.
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Eve was deceived by Satan. Adam partook for love…over obedience.
