It all Started in a Garden: Wednesday Devotion

Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17 NLT

8 Then the LORD God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The LORD God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

15 The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

Adam the Gardener

There is so much here. First God told man to tend and keep the garden. It was man's first job to be a gardener. Oh but there is more, so much more.

God placed man in the garden before He created woman. Adam was surrounded by so much beauty but something was still missing. God brought all of the animals before Adam to see what he would name them. I am sure this took a while. Then God created woman.

I have tried to imagine what life would have been like in the Garden. Sleeping when we get tired. Waking when we were refreshed. Selecting anything we wanted to eat and then planting the seeds of what we had just eaten. The beauty would have been unspeakable.

Paradise and a Soul Mate Too

Genesis 2:21-23 NASV

21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said,

“This is now bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man.”

24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

Now imagine the most beautiful place you have ever seen and multiply that by, oh I don't know, say 1000. For us today the beauty would have been breathtaking. Now think about being in a place like that with your true soul mate. 

This was the very first family. Adam and Eve only had three commands: 1) Be fruitful and multiply 2) Take care of the garden and 3) Don't eat from one tree, the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

I want to pause here for just one moment. Man and woman's first command was to be fruitful and multiply, with this in mind where did God place them? Yup, he placed them in a garden, not in the mountains, not by the sea, He didn't even create them a village to help them get a jump start. He placed them in a garden. Why do you think He did this. I think we find at least part of the reason here.

God Loves a Garden

Genesis 3:8 NASV

8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

God created man for friendship, not servitude. God placed man in a garden because God loves a garden. This scripture occurs after man has sinned by eating of the only forbidden plant in the entire garden.

I believe God walked through the garden in the cool of the day fairly often. I don't think man and woman were surprised that God was walking in the garden. Cool of the day has also been translated "breezy time of the evening".

I must be fair at this point and state that some commentaries say that God was not out for an evening stroll, but was coming in judgment. However many of those same commentaries point out that Adam and Eve hid not because they were afraid but because they were naked.

Again I want to point out that man and woman only had three commands and they have already broken one of those. I don't know how long they were in the garden together communing with God and each other, but I hope it was a good long time. I hope it was, but I doubt it. 

The Blame Game

Genesis 3: 8 - 13 NIV

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Does this exchange really sound like God was coming in a storm of vengeful judgement? Not to me. This sounds more like a caring parent or a close friend showing concern. 

God started calling "Where are you?". To me this means that God and man probably had regular walks through the garden. God already knew what was done, He didn't have to be told, but I believe He was giving Adam and Eve an opportunity to come clean, who knows maybe the curse wouldn't have been so bad. We will never know.

vs 10 I hid because I was naked. I find this very interesting. They had always been naked, in fact before God we are still all naked. They hid because they were ashamed and we as a people have been hiding from God ever since.

Now, I am probably going to offend a few folks. I don't mean to, but this is the way I see this scripture. God went to Adam first. He asked "Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?". Oh, if he had only had a backbone and said yes. He did eat from the tree that God had forbidden. He knew the fruit was from that tree. Eve did not force feed him. He wasn't even deceived. Adam committed open rebellion. He made a conscience decision to disobey God. 

How did Adam respond? He blamed his wife. I know this isn't popular anymore. I also know that the reason this isn't popular is because so many men wouldn't take the job, but the man was supposed to be the spiritual leader of the household. Women had to take over because too many men were just too lazy or too unconcerned to do their job. 

I can hear it now there are some guys and gals that are screaming "Preach on Brother!" and there are some of both that probably just decided they would never read another word I write. The thing is man was supposed to be the leader, not the master. Guys, if you have your soul mate, you have the most priceless gift that could ever be experienced on this earth. Ladies, if you have a man that treats you like you are supposed to be treated you will never feel dominated. Adam should have taken responsibility for his own actions, instead he passed the buck on to his wife. 

Eve told the truth, kinda. The serpent did put the thought in her mind or at least give the thought words. 

Genesis 3: 2 - 3 NIV

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

I have read this story over and over and I cannot find where God said not to touch the tree of knowledge. Why did she add that to her response? 

Genesis 3: 6 

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

See, Adam was with her the whole time. Why didn't Adam step in? Why didn't he run the serpent off? Why didn't he do anything? All of the beauty, all of the perfection, all of the peace, everything was thrown away to learn that we were naked. 

Ever since the fall of man we have tried to recreate the beauty of the Garden of Eden. There have been some beautiful gardens, but nothing will ever come close. From this point on we will find that the garden can truly be a spiritual place, in fact Jesus went to a garden himself to pray. There are many lessons to be learned from the soil and from nature.

I hope you are enjoying the Wednesday Devotions.

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Man Was Created from the Soil

Genesis 1:26-30 King James Version (KJV)

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, 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.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Genesis 2:7 New King James Version (NKJV)

7 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 being.

Every other creature was spoken into existence. Man and woman were actually formed by the hand of God out of the soil of the ground. No mater what your beliefs are, you cannot deny that after our body dies and decays it becomes soil again.

Mankind was God's special creation. We were created to commune with God. God doesn't need us, but he wants us to be his friends and family. I am sure you know what I mean. There are a lot of things that we want but really do not need.

Everything that man needs to survive and to thrive physically is provided by the earth, God's creation. God gave mankind dominion over all the earth. Dominion, not to abuse or rape the earth, but to be a good steward of the bounty the earth can provide. Since the very beginning seed time and harvest were initiated and they shall remain as long as this earth continues.

I believe one of our biggest problems in society today is we are living in a fabricated world. The world we live in would have been a wild fantasy a hundred years ago. There have been barbaric times throughout history, but in all honesty we live in barbaric times now, oh we think we have culture because of all of the stuff we have around us. Think about it the reasons a person is murdered today are the same reasons a person was murdered a thousand years ago, possessions, emotions, and power. 

When a person first truly looks at the soil they are truly amazed. In a single handful of healthy soil there are millions of tiny living creatures. Some of these creatures you can see many you can't. Most of the life in that handful of dirt is so small that only a microscope can bring them into focus. 

The farther we get away from the soil the more difficult it is for us to connect with God. The soil, the garden, in fact all of nature proclaims to me there is a God and he loves us. I know there are scientific reasons for a lot of things that I think are glorious, but a rose does not have to be beautiful to get insects to pollinate them, they do not have to smell so good. I believe the earth was created for our pleasure and for us to experience God.

I have had people ask me why I want to know about all of the edible and medicinal plants that grow wild. To many people that is so strange when there is a grocery store only a few miles away. Verse 29 holds the answer.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

I firmly believe that in plants there is a cure for every disease that we will ever come in contact with. I do not believe that God created this earth just for existence and for beauty. I believe he created this place because he knew we would fall, he knew all of the things we would face and he built in the answers to every challenge. I find the fingerprint of God in nature quite often, if you look close you might too.

Man was created from the soil, sustained by the soil, and our body will return to the soil, all for the glory of God.

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Faith on the Homestead

Faith is a necessary part of our lives. I have found that most people are searching for meaning. I believe that the scriptures are a guide for our lives. Many times people and even congregations will let us down, but the Word of God will never let us down. 

I have decided that we are going to add a devotion to our blog. I have no idea how often these posts will be made.  Most if not all of the posts will fall under a category I will call "Spiritual Lessons From The Garden". I will be as diligent as possible and promise to do my research well. 

As I have studied the scriptures I have always found it interesting that most of Jesus's parables had to do with the farm life. I have heard several preachers and theologians say that he used farm and garden stories because that is what the people understood. While I agree there is some truth to that evaluation, I believe it goes much deeper. I believe that lessons from the garden are directly related to spiritual lessons.

Looking at history I can see that during this period of time there were several trades that were active. There were blacksmiths, carpenters, traders, physicians, and even scholars. There were plenty of trades that could have  been offered as examples, but Jesus chose rural life as his way of explaining heavenly principles.

The Parable of the Sower

Matthew 13: 3-9

3  Then he began to tell them many things in parables. He said, “Listen! A farmer went out to sow. 4  As he was sowing, some seeds fell along the path, and birds came and ate them up.

5  Other seeds fell on stony ground, where they did not have a lot of soil. They sprouted at once because the soil wasn’t deep.

6  But when the sun came up, they were scorched. Since they did not have any roots, they dried up.

7  Other seeds fell among thorn bushes, and the thorn bushes grew higher and choked them out. 8  But other seeds fell on good soil and produced a crop, some 100, some 60, and some 30 times what was sown.

9  Let the person who has ears listen!”

Here is Jesus's explanation of this parable to the disciples.

Matthew 13: 18-23

18  “Listen, then, to the parable about the farmer.

19  When anyone hears the word about the kingdom yet doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.

20  As for what was sown on the stony ground, this is the person who hears the word and accepts it joyfully at once,

21  but since he doesn’t have any root in himself, he lasts for only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes along because of the word, he immediately falls away.

22  As for what was sown among the thorn bushes, this is the person who hears the word, but the worries of life and the deceitful pleasures of wealth choke the word so that it can’t produce a crop.

23  But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word, understands it, and produces a crop that yields 100, 60, or 30 times what was sown.”

Let us bring this to today. I am not foolish or arrogant enough to think that I know better than Christ, but I believe that a bit of elaboration will help.

Every action we take and every word we say are seeds. Every person we come in contact with is our field. On a daily basis we have the opportunity to sow seeds of faith or seeds of contention.

We are the ambassadors of Jesus. Even when we are not so lovely. Every seed we sow lands somewhere and a seed is going to do what a seed does.

If you have ever sown a seed, you will know that not every seed falls in the rows. This seed is left exposed. This seed is easily lost. It never really even had a chance to grow. As long as we are sowing good quality words and actions, we shouldn't be concerned about where the seed falls.

Some words and deeds we do in our lives will be received by those who are shallow. By shallow I mean there are people who honestly don't want to believe in anything. They fight against all belief systems. Anything that takes away their ability to feel blameless. These people may listen and some will even accept your faith, but as soon conviction comes they may leave the faith.

Yet others will see what you do and listen to what you say. But some people trust too much in money or are even too bound by poverty. There are so many things that when we focus on them take away from the power of the scriptures. 

The good ground mentioned in the scriptures represents people who have not been hardened by circumstances and who are at a point in their lives where they know there must be something more. These are the ones that produce fruit. What is the fruit of a Christian? The most obvious answer is another Christian, but there is more to it than that.

The fruit of a  Christian's life is a peace even in the middle of crisis. A faith that no matter what happens it will all be for the best. A desire to keep on going when others have given up. 

Another point I would like to make is that we as Christians are a kind of paradox. We are farmers of God's love, but we are also fields. Words and actions of others can and will have an effect on our joy and by extension our fruit. Every time we allow hurtful words to injure us a seed is planted, a seed of insecurity maybe. We have to work hard at removing these hurtful seeds. 

We can also sow bad seed into our own heart and mind. Focusing on negative thoughts only erodes faith. A weakened faith is a weakened Christian.

I hope you enjoyed this devotion. I would love to hear your feedback.

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