Genesis 2:7-8

THE GARDEN OF EDEN

‘And the Lord God formed man of the dust … and the Lord God planted a garden.’

Genesis 2:7

We generally speak of our parents, Adam and Eve, when they ate the forbidden fruit, as having ‘fallen from their first estate’; and, unquestionably, there is a sense in which that is true. But Adam does not appear, in the first instance, to have been created in paradise.

I. Observe the exact order in which the events occur. ‘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.’ So ‘the dust’ of our formation was not ‘the dust of Eden’—it was ‘common dust.’ Had it been ‘Eden’s dust,’ perhaps it could not have fallen. And the text speaks the same language: ‘Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.’

The parody, now, is perfect. We are born out of covenant. The fabric of our nature is of the earth, earthy. We are, afterwards, put into grace. Only here is the difference: we sin in a state of grace, just as much as our first parents sinned in paradise. Only to us ‘the tree of life,’ in the gospel, is still open, after we have sinned. Therefore we are not cast out of grace, because we eat both trees. We do not go back to our original distance. We sin, and yet we live!

II. It is significant to us of very great things, that God did not put Adam and Eve out of Eden until He had provided and revealed to them the way of redemption.

It would have been contrary to the analogy of all God’s dealings if He had done otherwise.

I suppose there is never a sorrow, which has not its pre-ordained comfort; and never a rough wind that blows for which there was not already made ready the covert.

For, what is last in development, is not always the last in design. God’s chronology is not ours. His firsts are, generally, our seconds.

III. It is a wonderful process by which God overrules curses to blessings, changes sins to graces, and turns everything, at last, to good.

A very happy thing it is for you and me that Adam fell; and a blessed thing that the gate of paradise was closed: for had our first parents never fallen, and had we been born, then we should have lived, indeed, always in an earthly garden—but now, with Christ, we hope to walk the paradise of God. Then, we had enjoyed sweet fruits—but now, heavenly glories. Then, the beautiful light of nature—but now, the lustre of the Lamb. Then, God’s visits ‘in the cool of the day’—but now, His eternal and unbroken presence. Then, the holiness of a man—but now, the perfections of Christ. Then, ‘the tree of life’—but now, not life’s shadow, but life’s beautiful reality for ever.

And we bow, with grateful awe, before the stupendousness of the mind of the Almighty; and as we see the permitted ruin of man’s earthly happiness, rising in more than its first magnificence, our whole being hushes itself in the thought, ‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!’

Rev. Jas. Vaughan.