What About the Garden of Eden???

Eden Restored
22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Today we have the last chapter of the bible. The bible starts with Creation and ends with the restoration of a new creation. In the Garden, man had everything he needed. Companionship, beauty, and food to eat. Everything God had made in the first week of Creation pointed to His glory and were given as a testimony to himself. And God made us in His image and told Adam and Eve to take care of the land, subdue it, and be fruitful and multiply. Everything was given for us to flourish and populate the earth. The only restriction was that Adam and Eve could not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Enter Satan, temptation and the Fall. Instead of being content with what God provided. Adam and Eve wanted more. They wanted control. They wanted to know beyond what was theirs to know. In short, they wanted to be God. God had warned them saying, "if you eat of this tree you will die!" They ate and paradise was lost. All of Adam and Eve's offspring would be born of this basic sinful nature, to trust self over God.

Listen to Genesis 2,

8 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Guess what? As we read Revelation 22 today, there are many similarities to that first garden. There is a river that flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. On each side of the river there is a tree of life as well. It produces crops representing the full 12 tribes of Israel, now brought to full restoration as Paul describes in the book of Romans. And it's leaves bear fruit for healing of the nations, or non Jewish people. Importantly it says there is no curse anymore. And his servants will serve him night and day. And they will see Him who is the light. There is no more darkness, sickness or pain. And then it says something most powerful. It says, "we will reign with him forever".

The question/challenge for today is, "are you living your life influenced by the Old Eden or the New Eden?" The battle in the garden will continue to go today. Satan will tempt us with, "Did God really say?" But as we look to our future home in the New Eden, we can be God's servants today knowing we will reign with him forever! Amen.

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