The New Garden

Isaiah 61:11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
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Luke 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.  
 
WE long to return to the perfect Garden into God’s presence. Sin has cast us out: Genesis 3:23 So the Lord God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which they had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Think of that. Sin’s penalty is death, away from the tree of life. The Garden was life, the place of God’s holy presence, and mankind was cast out. Unholy man could no longer live in unity and peace with the righteous God. Thankfully, though, our LORD God graciously began to turn this defeat into his eternal victory over sin.
   We begin to see God’s victory strategy in his New Garden plan to Abraham: Genesis 17:8 “The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”  God chose to form a people who would dwell with him spiritually in a physical land he prepared for them. He then commands Israel to this land in Exodus. They arrive in Joshua. But as history tells us, Israel rejected – just as Adam and Eve – the Lord’s presence, purpose and commands. They rejected God’s blessings of a fruitful land to abundantly provide for them. Still God persisted to fulfill his Eden promise. He continued to proclaim through Isaiah and others the day of renewal. As natural and powerful as the seed coming from the ground, the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
   Jesus then came to describe the Kingdom of God with a number of Garden illustrations. The Word of God planted in faithful hearts would produce life. Then Jesus gave life to his illustration through this profound parable: John 12:24 “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.”
   As a seed dying in the ground to burst forth with life, the Christ came out of the ground into the Resurrection Garden! From that single day, the first faithful disciples began to follow God with a noble and good heart. In the rich soil of their love for Jesus, they would hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop. The planting, growing and harvesting continue to this day. Good Gardeners plant then tend the Holy Spirit’s harvest of a faithful church to know and obey God’s commands.
   By his grace, God will one day fulfill his purpose to welcome his own into his eternal Garden. Revelation 22:1 Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. 3 No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. The perfect Garden of righteousness will be your eternal home.
   You have just read a summary of God’s Love Story to declare those in Christ will one day return to the Tree of Life in the eternal Garden.
   How is your gardening? Are you planting seeds, so the Spirit will water and grow the church? Do you expect a harvest? Are you tending to it?
 
Prayer: Lord, look with compassion on all our ruins; make our hearts like Eden, like the garden of the Lord. May joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the sound of singing be found in your church. Amen (from Isaiah 51:3)