The Creation of Man - Part Two

The creation of man according to Genesis presented in three parts

THE CREATION OF MAN - Section 4 GOD MAKES THE GARDEN OF EDEN FOR MAN (Genesis 2:8-9)

God made man and immediately gave him a home. God called it the Garden of Eden. God personally "planted" the garden. This does not seem to be referring to an act of Creation but of designing a special garden where man would live.
 The word "Eden" means "delight." This garden was beautiful to look upon and there was good food for man. God made beauty. He gave man within his makeup the ability to appreciate things that are pleasant to look at. This gives some small incite into God Himself in that God appreciates beauty and made us to regard beauty also.
 The reference to Eden being "eastward", coupled with the information found in verses 10-14 concerning the rivers of the garden has lead some to believe the location of Eden was in the area of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). More will be said later. 
The reference to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, indicates it was at the center of the garden. God placed this object of testing where man would be living. In time, man failed the test by exercising his will in disobeying God's clear instruction not to eat of he fruit of this one tree.

THE CREATION OF MAN - Section 5 THE RIVERS OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN (Genesis 2:10-14)

The garden was watered by a river which had its source within Eden itself probably from an artisan spring supplied from some subterranean source. From the main stream the river divided into four separate rivers called the Pison, the Gihon, the Hidekel and the Euphrates. The area of the garden appears to have been quite large as each of these rivers watered "lands" named Havilah, (where there was gold, and precious stones) Ethiopia, the land east of Assyria and though not stated directly the area around the Euphrates.
 The name Hiddekel appears on Assyrian monuments and refers to the River Tigris. Some suggest that the Gihon is the Nile and the Pishon the Ganges or Indus, but these are only guesses. The land of Havilah is undefined in Scripture. Ethiopia, is later in the Bible referred to both as Arabia and the present Ethiopia. The Hiddekel (Tigris) is said to have flowed on the eastward side of Assyria whereas the present Tigris flows on the westward side of Assyria.
 The lack of present day reference should indicate to us that the Garden of Eden can not be placed geographically in the world today. It was surely destroyed in the Great Flood, and the geography of the post-flood earth is much different than what earlier existed.
 The significance of the reference to Havilah, as a land of much gold is a mystery as well as the identity of "Bdellium and onyx stone."


THE CREATION OF MAN - Section 6 MAN'S TASK AND PROHIBITION (Genesis 2:15-17)

What God gave to man, he required man to be responsible for. The garden needed dressing and keeping. This was to be the occupation of man, to cultivate the garden and be sustained by it. Man was not to be waited on hand and foot but was given a purpose. That purpose was to be productive in providing the management of the Garden.
 Also with the gift of life and the Garden came the responsibility to the Provider, that being God. Man's only prohibition was not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There was no reason or need that God had not met that would have prompted man to feel the necessity to disobey and eat the forbidden fruit. Man's every need was met. 
That the result of eating from the forbidden tree would be death was clearly instructed of God. Man already knew what was "good", but innocently had no knowledge of evil. Adam was an intelligent man. His mind was clear of the destructive effects of sin. He must have understood.