In the sermon 'The Garden of Eden' by David Green, the speaker explores the biblical description of the Garden of Eden as outlined in Genesis chapter 2, verses 10-17. The sermon highlights the four rivers—Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, and Euphrates—that originated from a single river flowing out of Eden. Green discusses the attempts to locate the Garden of Eden in the modern world, explaining that such efforts are futile due to the changes in the world's geography caused by the great flood. He points out the possibility that familiar river names like Tigris and Euphrates were reused by Noah's descendants. The sermon also addresses the past and present tense usage in the scripture, suggesting it reflects contributions from Adam and Moses. Furthermore, Green discusses Adam's role in cultivating the garden and the implications of the command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which introduces the concept of spiritual and physical death resulting from disobedience.

Alright, you can go ahead and take your copy of God's Word, and let's go to Genesis chapter 2. Genesis chapter 2. Today we'll begin reading verse 10, go down to verse 17. Genesis chapter 2 beginning verse 10, now a river went out of Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became four rivers.

The name of the first is Pishon. It is the one that went around the whole land of Havila, where there is gold. Now the gold of that land is good. The Deleum and the Onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon.

It is the one that went around the whole land of Cush. Excuse me. The name of the third river is Tigris. It is the one that went east of Asher, and the fourth river is the Euphrates. Then Yahweh God took the man and set him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

Yahweh God commanded the man saying from any tree of the garden you may surely eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat from it for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." In this text we learn about the Garden of Eden and in fact that's the title of my message, The Garden of Eden. We get a description of it as it is recorded here in the scriptures. Of course, of course in the in the text and actually we learned last time that the all-we-god planted this garden toward the east and he placed the man whom He informed there. It's a beautiful place. Out of the ground, verse 9 told us, He caused to grow every tree that is desirable in appearance and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

This garden had everything that man could ever want or need. As we're given this description here in verse 10, we're told that there was a river that went out of the garden or out of out of Eden as it says here to water the garden. From there it divided and became four rivers. It's a very curious river. Nothing like that exists in our present world.

This river went forward and it divided out to become four rivers. Now many attempts have been made to try and make this fit into river systems we know of in the world, but such attempts are really a waste of time. They're interesting to study, but we'll never find any place like that in our present world. The slide that I have up here is from a Bible atlas. It does give some possible locations for the Garden of Eden.

This is the most common that you'll read about as you go through reading and studying about the Garden of Eden and commentaries or Bible atlases. And this is the place that a lot of Bible scholars and Bible readers try to place the Garden of Eden. Seems like a big possibility. Mesopotamia is the cradle of civilization, as it's called sometimes. And in that place, there are names of two rivers that we read about in this text, the Euphrates River and the Tigris River.

However, it's not quite the same as what it's described here being one river splitting out into four. The thing about what we read about in Genesis chapter 2 and What we see on a map or if you were to go into that part of the world Being different we have to remember that between Genesis chapter 2 and now, we have to remember that there was a great flood that happened. And while we have never seen a worldwide flood in our lifetime, praise the Lord for that, he did promise that after that one worldwide flood he would never do it again, We do know the effects of local floods and local floods even will change the landscape through erosion and the great power of just a local flood so we know that a worldwide flood would have done the same thing. In fact if you go to 2nd Peter chapter 3 2 Peter chapter 3. As Peter writes this epistle, he says in verse 1, he says, this now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets in the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles, knowing this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming?

For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continued, just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the Word of God the heavens existed long ago, the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being deluged with water. But by His word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Verse 6, the world at that time was destroyed, being deluged with water. The world that Adam knew, the world where the Garden of Eden was, was destroyed.

This world is a different world. His world was destroyed. His world was destroyed. So you say, well, why do we have the River Tigris and Euphrates in this place that all archaeologists, anthropologists, whether they're Christian or not, they all agree that this is a great place of ancient civilization. That is true.

That is absolutely true. But what probably happened there is that Noah or his descendants, having remembered or heard something about the Tigris and Euphrates River, They named these rivers after those names. This happens all the time. Let's think about this. We're all familiar with Athens, Georgia.

You can see there on this screenshot of Google Maps I started typing in Athens. There is Athens, Georgia. There's Athens, Alabama. There's Athens, Tennessee. There's Athens, Ohio, which I'm more familiar with.

But believe it or not, there's even in Athens, Greece, for those of us who don't get out of the United States much. These Place names have happened because as people traveled, they named their city after some place that they remembered. There's Paris, France, but there's also Paris, Tennessee, Paris, Kentucky. There's London, there's all kinds of places named London. There's Lexington.

Lexington is a very famous city that is very common in different places as well. And so these things can happen. Just because Tigris and Euphrates is on the map and you read it in Genesis chapter 2, what I'm saying is it doesn't mean it's the same places. These I believe are attributed to the fact that as people traveled, their memory, the old world and the new world. Not to mention as we think about the description given here, It was one river that went to four Different rivers and again, there's no place Exactly like that.

There are places close but even as we think about Even as we think about that knowing that there was a worldwide flood and that the Garden of Eden was buried under Lots of sediment, that sort of thing. People have tried to think about, well, where was the Garden of Eden? Some imagined that the Garden of Eden was in Ohio, believe it or not. And while Ohio is a beautiful place, right there's where a lot of people thought that it might be. Ohio is a beautiful place and has a lot of neat things.

The Great Serpent Mound is not where the Garden of Eden was. But when the settlers came across this, they said, wow, There's a mound with a snake in the image of a snake getting ready to eat, maybe a piece of fruit they thought or something like that. They said, that might be a marker where the Garden of Eden was. No, no, that's not what that is. That was actually made by mound building Indians, probably the ancestors of the Shawnee Indians, and a very magnificent place, a neat place to visit if you ever go up to Ohio, but not where the Garden of Eden is at.

There was a place in Florida, I don't know if I don't know if anyone here has ever been to it. I don't even know if it's still open, but it was a big tourist attraction in Florida and it was marketed as the Garden of Eden. The real Garden of Eden was what they called it and it was close to Bristol, Bristol, Florida. I think it was around Tallahassee. Again, Florida is a beautiful place, but no that's not the Garden of Eden.

Not quite. Garden of Eden was a real spot. There have been places that people have tried to mark it as being where it was. Some have said Jerusalem. And that's understandable.

Jerusalem is a key spot throughout the Bible. And they said, well, it must have been Jerusalem. Other people have thought that it was in England somewhere. And I mean, down through the ages, different church groups and Christian groups and cults they've tried to pinpoint where the Garden of Eden was. But as we'll see, man was expelled from the Garden of Eden, and as I mentioned, there was a worldwide flood which destroyed it.

Even if, even if it was still preserved somewhere, the location I mean, because of the fall of man, which we'll get to in chapter 3, the garden would not be as beautiful as wonderful as what we read about in Genesis chapter 2. And so in vain, in vain do men search for this sort of thing. We rejoice that it was there and by the way, even though we live on this side of the fall, there is coming a day when the curse will be lifted during the millennial reign of Christ. But right now there is there is certainly no need to be looking for the Garden of Eden. Let's look at some of the description here as he names these four rivers and tells us about some of the things that we can find or that we won't find there but that we can find in the Scriptures the truth of the true history here and what Adam would have known to be true about the Garden of Eden.

Verse 11 and 12, the name of the first, talking about these rivers, is Pashon, the one that went around the whole land of Havala where there is gold. Now the gold of that land is good. The delium and the Onyx stone are there. So the land of Havillot was a land that was rich in gold. As well.

We we were pretty familiar with gold I mean not Most of us have heard of it. We don't have much gold. But gold is something that we can relate to. The delium. Delium is, this is a picture of Delem from what I could find.

I wasn't too familiar with this, however, the children of Israel would have known something about it. If you go with me to Numbers chapter 11, Numbers chapter 11, When they were wandering through the desert and God provided manna, Look at what it says here. Now the the manna was like coriander seed, numbers 11 verse 7, and its appearance like that of delium. So that's the way that the Bible describes it. That Yahweh God provided for them this manna from heaven, and that its appearance was like that of Deliam.

If that's what they were eating, it doesn't look very appetizing to me. However, it's a reminder that God provides not necessarily the things that would fill our greeds, but he provides our needs. Alright, and so that's Delium, and then the Onyx stone. This is a picture that I got of Onyx stone. I don't know if it's just one picture of it that I was able to find.

But what we find is that this place was full of not only food but also rich in resources. Havala must have made an impression on the sons of Noah. And so if you go to Genesis chapter 10 In verse 7. Genesis chapter 10 and verse 7. As the geology is given here, it says the sons of Cush were Siba and Havala.

Now, the Kush was the son of Ham, and so We see here that Ham named one of his sons Havillah. And that happens sometimes. You know, I've met girls that are named Savannah. I know a boy whose name is Lexington. These sort of things happen.

People name their children after a place name, and so that's kind of neat to make that connection there. Verse 29 of Genesis chapter 10 And Ophir and Havala and Jobab, all these were the sons of Jokhtin. These would have been names that were given in the children, grandchildren, down the line of Noah. Now as we'll see, as we get through some of the things in Genesis, these men lived hundreds of years. And so the overlap is pretty phenomenal.

But as these stories were passed down, preserved, and told. It would have been nothing for a man to know not only his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-great-great-grandchildren. I mean, it's pretty amazing the overlap that happened there. If we go back to Genesis chapter 2, Genesis chapter 2 and verses 13 and 14, Genesis chapter 2 verses 13 and 14. The name of the second river is Gaion and it is the one that went around the whole land of Kush.

The name of the third river is Tigris. It is the one that went east of Asher and the fourth river is the Euphrates. Again, these are some familiar names that we see in our present world. One thing that I do want to point out here as you read this text, and some of you grammatarians may have noticed this, This text goes back and forth from present tense to past tense. So for instance verse 10, Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided and became four rivers, past tense.

Okay? Verses 11 through 14 are more in the present tense. The name of the first is Pishon. It is the one that went past out of the whole land of Havilla where there is gold present. Now the gold of that land is good, present.

The delium and the onyx stone are there, present. The name of the second river is Gaihan. It is the one that went past around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris. It is the one that went east of Asher.

So you got present, past. The fourth river is the Euphrates, present. What's going on here? Kind of curious way of putting things. It's like it's all mushed up isn't it?

So we read this. It's not that the English translators were drinking when they put this together. In fact, it's very similar in the King James and other Bible translations. It's the way that it is in the Hebrew. What's going on here according to most scholars who read this and they trying to figure out what took place, this information was probably written down by Adam, recorded by Adam as an eyewitness of the garden and what he saw he wrote down.

Maybe shortly after he was expelled from Eden. And Moses as the editor, as the compiler of Genesis, he took it and put it all together. Adam would have written in the present tense, Moses would have written in the past. You see, and that's why there's this jumbled up sort of thing going on in this text. There really was an eyewitness.

Obviously, God is the eyewitness. Genesis 1, Yahweh God created everything. Day 1, day 2, day 3, day 4, day 5, day six. Now Adam's on the scene. Adam writes some stuff down.

Moses goes back inspired of God. Put it all together, you see. Moses would have had no idea how all this was before. God gave it to him. Some of it by direct revelation, some of it by record was given by Adam.

And so I believe that's probably why past tense as well as present tense here in the text. Verse 15, then Yahweh God took the man and set him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. Man was put in the garden, but not to just pull up a chair and relax for all of his days. He had a job to do. Now, some people believe that work is part of the curse, but that's not true.

That's not true at all. In fact, even in the perfect world, there was work. The nature of our work has changed, as we'll see, but it was still work. Adam didn't know about thorns, He didn't know about some of the things that we go through, but there was work for him to do. The garden was in every sense perfect.

Eden had no flaws. There was nothing in that garden to destroy. There was no problems there, but care was necessary in order to keep it from going into disorder. Work was necessary for the garden, but also work was necessary for man's good. Idleness and laziness are great sins.

And that's why there is much in the scriptures about these things, even going all the way back to the very beginning. Man was made for work. And so we see that here. We see that even in the beginning. In the garden.

That man was set in the garden. He was placed there in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to keep it. That word keep is a word that sometimes means to guard. Don't think that meant that he was to guard it for from enemies. There were none at this time, But rather the meaning here is that he was to exercise a careful and loving stewardship over the garden to keep it beautiful and orderly.

Verses 16 and 17 and we get to the last part of this portion of the text. It says, In Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, From any tree of the garden you may surely eat, or from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, shall not eat from it. For in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." God bountifully provided for Adam. He had plenty of food. Remember he was vegetarian at this point.

He had plenty to eat. Great variety. He was just told that he could eat of any tree in the garden except From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, shall I eat from it. God made the planets. God made the planets.

He fixed them on an orbit and told them to go in that specific manner. He said the sea and the land and he told the sea here's where your boundaries are don't go any further Put the stars in the sky Hold them where to where to be the moon and the star, the stars, the sun. To man, give him this perfect garden. Tony McAdie, anything you want but this one thing. None of us here would be surprised to know that Adam disobeyed.

The sea, the planets, the sun, the moon, they stayed in line. The speck of dust with one rule defied God. We can sit here and read the text, try to determine what the fruit was and all of that. We don't know. A lot of artists have made it out to be an apple or something like that.

I believe it it's a fruit that we don't have anymore. But ultimately the death that's being spoken of here is spiritual death and also physical death. Literally that verse could be translated as that in the day that you eat from it...