You can read the Bible 10,000 times and never notice something, and then suddenly you read something or hear something or something brand new jumps out at you and makes you appreciate it in a whole new way.
Have you ever considered the symmetry of “gardens” in your Bible? Why would you even think to, right? It’s such a random thing, but think about it…
IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN
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.
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
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 knowledge of good and evil.Genesis 2:7-9
It was here where it all began. In this garden God placed man, the crown-jewel of His creation. He gave to man instructions to tend and keep the garden and to walk and talk with Him in perfect fellowship. In the garden, and who knows how long they were there before sin entered the picture, but in the beginning in the garden man lived sinless and pure. It was called a paradise garden not because of its beautiful plants but because of the fellowship that existed between Master and man.
In addition God gave man the boundries to follow that defined the holy relationship they enjoyed with Him.
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.Genesis 2:15-17
A lot of people misunderstand the purpose behind the tree in the midst of the garden. They confuse the commands of God with temptation, thinking that God was tempting man to sin by placing the tree in the middle of the Garden. Personally, I would love it if sin was so easily identified. God put it where Adam couldn’t miss it; He personally pointed it out to Adam. He is the Master and He gives the commands. He has every right to place that tree right there and to forbid Adam from eating from it. Such a command established the parameters of their relationship: God is the law-giver, man is the law-keeper.
And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2:25
Why should Adam and Eve have been ashamed? Where there is no temptation there is no sin and thus no shame that follows sinfulness…
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.Genesis 3:1-7
Again there are misconceptions from this text. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is so-called because to eat from it (in disobedience to His commands) makes one evil, giving him the knowledge of it. God rightly wanted His children to have no such knowledge. Satan, however, used the natural curiosity that man has (given to us by God as a tool that leads us to seek Him out) against him, and tempted man to sin.
And thus the players and their roles were established: God gives the commands. Man receives the commands. Satan tempts man to break the commands.
But why, someone asks, did God put the tree in the Garden in the first place! If He had just kept it out, man would not have been tempted! God did not make a robot. He made a man, and to that human being He gave the gift of choice. Otherwise the relationship He desires for man would be incomplete. God would effectively be a liar for blessing man who never chose to seek Him and His Will. To deny man choice would therefore be against the perfect, honest, nature of God.
Satan tempted Eve with a lie, telling her that if she ate she would become like God. It is interesting to consider the Devil’s word choice here, since eating from the tree did not make Eve (and Adam) like God (Who determines what is good or evil) it made them like Satan (evil, having done what God determined was evil).
And so in a Garden where man was made, man fell into sin. Being ashamed of themselves, but unwilling to seek help from God (they are depicted as hiding from Him later), they chose to cover their shame in the only way they could: physically.
But it was not their bodies that were marred by sin; it was their soul that needed repairing. In that same Garden where man fell, the Redeemer of man was promised (Genesis 3:15)…
IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
Thousands of years later. That Redeemer arrived at another Garden; one which was familiar to Him, as He frequently prayed there. On this occasion, however, His prayer was not a peaceful talk with a loving Father, but instead was a weary request from a frightened Son…
And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.
And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.
And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.Luke 23:39-44
The word “agony” means literally “horror-struck” and it is interesting that such an adjective is applied to the Lord after the angel came to strengthen Him. We can only wonder what His state was before the angel came.
In this Garden the hour of the Redeemer’s suffering was upon Him. He was soon to be arrested wrongfully, tried illegally, convicted shamefully, and executed unjustly. But it is here where the agony began. It is here in this Garden, surrounded by no one but His own conflicted thoughts, that the Lord asked for a way, anyway, some other way, to avoid the horrors He was soon to endure.
And God’s answer was “No.”
If ever there was a moment when the whole scheme of redemption was in jeopardy it is was here. Not in the desert, tempted by Satan (Matthew 4). No, He handled Himself expertly on that occasion, demonstrating His mastery of the Word. Not any of the times the Pharisees attempted to trap Him or trick Him, or get under His sin and insult Him (Luke 15, et al). No, He always maintained His composure and swatted their attacks away with a well-turned phrase, or a well-told parable. It was not during His trial, where the charges against Him changed whenever convenient, where no witness for the defense was called, where the testimony against Him was not thrown out as it should have been (Jewish law didn’t allow you to be arrested at night, or on the word of an accomplice, or on a holy day, ad nauseam). He took what they threw at Him, as He did in the face of Pilate’s apathy and Herod’s blasphemy. It was not his hours of torture on the cross that risked the plan of Salvation, though weaker men would have given up and cried for those twelve legions of angels.
No. He took every lick from the Roman’s whip, and every bolt of pain that coursed through His body on the cross. How? Because of this Garden. Because He prayed for some other way and was told “No.”
And because He was told “No” He got up, left the garden, and faced what He had to endure…
IN THE GARDEN OF THE TOMB
…and He died.
And then His body was placed in a tomb in a Garden…
And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.John 19:38-41
And from the tomb He would eventually arise.
Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.
For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.
But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,
And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.John 20:8-14
So things come full-circle. It was in a Garden that man lost fellowship with God and the promise of a Redeemer was made. And it was in a Garden that the Redeemer conquered death, thus taking away the only weapon Satan has against us (sin and death by sin). And though the prayer in the Garden was a tense moment with salvation hanging in the balance, it was in that Garden that the Lord found the resolve to press on and endure the cross for our salvation.
Aren’t you thankful for Gardens?
Have a great day!
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