“Genesis 2:10-17”

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

“Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The Lord 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 will surely die.’”

---End of Scripture verses---

From yesterday’s text we read, “the tree of life” was “also in the midst of the garden” (verse 9). Nahum Sarna opined the following: “It is clear from 3:22 that the fruit of this tree was understood to bestow immortality upon the eater. What is uncertain is whether a single bite was thought to suffice or whether steady ingestion was needed to sustain a process of continuous rejuvenation. Either way, the text presupposes a belief that man, created from perishable matter, was mortal from the outset but that he had within his grasp the possibility of immortality.”

Also quoting Nahum Sarna on the “four rivers” – “A single river ‘issues from Eden.’ Its source appears to be outside the garden, which it irrigates as it passes through. Here, as in Genesis 13:10…the garden is made independent of the vagaries of seasonal rainfall. Somewhere beyond the confines of the garden the single river separates into four branches that probably represent the four quarters of the inhabited world. In other words, the river of Eden also nourishes the rest of the world with its life-giving waters."

Two of the four rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, are well known. They both originate in modern day Turkey and converge in Iraq before terminating at the Persian Gulf. That’s why some scholars place Eden in eastern Turkey, and others in southern Iraq, but no one can be certain of its original location. The area between the two rivers formed the heart of the Fertile Crescent, so named for its lush farmland, and it served as the hub for ancient civilizations. The capitals of both the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires were located on these rivers—Nineveh on the Tigris and Babylon on the Euphrates. Not much is known about the Pishon and the Gihon but there are two locations cited in the Bible with the name “Havilah” (“sandy land”). One was near Egypt (Genesis 25:18) and the other in Arabia (1 Samuel 25:7). “Cush” is another name for Ethiopia but there was probably more than one location with that same name.

“Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it” (verse 15). Man’s first occupation was cultivator of the land and he lived on a vegetarian diet. He was not to live a life of idleness or slothfulness but of productivity and responsibility. From the beginning God also required man to practice a healthy degree of self-control and self-denial. Adam could “eat freely” of the fruit of every tree in the garden but one. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil God told Him “you shall not eat.” The Lord informed Him upfront what the consequences were for transgressing that commandment: “In the day you eat from it you will surely die.”

But what was the nature of this death sentence? Immediate physical death? The certainty of future physical death? Spiritual death? Some combination? It appears to me that physical death was a future consequence and spiritual death was the immediate consequence. When a person sins he is “dead” in his “trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 6:1), and he stays that way until he takes the necessary steps of reconciliation. This is true for all people now and it was also true for the very first people. Spiritual death is sin-induced separation from God (Isaiah 59:1-2). More on this as the story unfolds.

Please read Genesis 2:18-25 for tomorrow.

Have a wonderful day!

- Louie Taylor

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