You say, well, what did he do? Well, it says what he did. He, um, he “cultivated” it is probably not the best translation, because “cultivating” speaks of tilling the ground. And he hadn’t done that and he wouldn’t do it ’til after the fall. It literally means serving, serving and keeping. What did he do? He just did what a gardener would do taking care of a magnificent garden. He would care for it. Whatever we can imagine that being; I’m not sure what it would be. But then again, when we get to heaven, do you know what we’re going to do forever? We’re going to serve the Lord, aren’t we? What will that be? What will we do? There won’t be anything broken, so there won’t be anything to fix. There won’t be anything wrong, so there won’t be anything to make right. There won’t be anybody out of line, so there won’t be anybody to talk to. Preachers will be out of business; teachers will be out of business, and so will biblical counselors. But the same as in the garden — I don’t know how to define it, and I really don’t want to make any attempt. But I know that work is a wonderful thing because God does it. God created the universe; demonstrated the magnificent work of His hands. He is still working in the wonders of redemption. “He upholds the whole of creation by the word of his power.” We will someday in heaven have a vocation somewhat like Adam had; a vocation which expends no energy, a vocation which never makes us weary, a vocation which always brings us delight and blessing. Now he ate of the things in the garden, so there would be some — some selective picking and perhaps some — some pruning of plants in a protecting kind of way as they all flourished and grew, so that those that produced the food could have the necessary extra space to grow. I don’t know what he did. But I can tell you this: Even before the fall, work was a noble part of man’s life. Vocation.
Well, let’s look lastly just very briefly at probation, ’cause we already commented on it. I’ll just say it briefly. Verse 16: “The Lord God commanded.” Oops, there’s the first time we’ve ever seen that word in the Bible; never before in scripture. First command. “God commanded the man, saying, ‘From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” There in the middle of the garden was a test; the test to determine man’s love, to determine man’s loyalty; to determine man’s satisfaction. Man could enjoy the fruit of all the trees in the garden, including the fruit of the tree of life. There was just one forbidden tree. And when he ate of it, he would have the knowledge of evil, and he would die. One restriction.
It was a test for man. No reason not to be loyal to God. He had everything. No reason to disobey him; no reason to doubt His word; no reason to resent His sovereignty. Man, when he sinned, was truly inexcusable. And he already knew good; that’s all he knew. Because everything was very good. But if he disobeyed, he would know evil. Because that is what evil is: Disobedience. And it didn’t matter really what the fruit was. As I said, it wasn’t toxic. It was the act of obedience that experientially showed you what evil was and catapulted man into death. As soon as he disobeyed, he would die. He would die spiritually at that moment. He would be sentenced to eternal death at that moment, and he would begin to decay toward death physically at that moment. And we know the sad story.
We’re going to look at it in detail. But at first, it was all good and only good, except for one thing. Something was missing. What was that? A relation for man; creation, location, vocation, probation. Sorry. Next week, relation. Come next week and find out how he got his wife; incredible story.
Well, Father, what a joy to look into the word and to see the truth. So many people who will not accept what You’ve revealed in Genesis 1 and 2 that believe all kinds of lies that steal your glory as the creator. Thank you for your true word. We thank you that you’ve put us in such a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful environment. Even fallen, this earth shows your love of beauty and your desire to create a world of enjoyment for your highest creation. And You, because You’ve given us Christ, You’ve given us the privilege of enjoying all the best that this world yields, and the hope of what it will yield in the glories of the millennial kingdom which we shall enjoy, and then even beyond that, the new heavens and new earth. You are a God of goodness. You are a God of abundance. You are a God of bounty. You are a God who wants to please us with all good things. And may we, as we enjoy them, always give You thanks and not be like this world; that takes all that You have made in the creation and gives the credit to the evolution of the creature, not the creator, and never gives you thanks. And thus, experiences your wrath.
Lord, we thank you for even the abundance of what we enjoy in a fallen world. We can only imagine what it must have been like when, in that garden, when you made it the way you really wanted it to be for man. And Lord, we long for the day when Jesus comes and recreates this birth into its millennial glory, and we can enjoy what will be paradise regained. And then we long for what is ours in eternity, the joys of that eternal glory. We thank you, Father, again, for all that You’ve done in our lives through this, Your day, for which we praise you. Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
