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The Garden
by Eighth Day Assembly
The Garden of Eden was the time, place and space created by God in which man was to encounter Him,
and walk with Him and each other, in Unity, on a daily basis.
The environment He created within the Garden (the place) of Eden (the space) was specifically designed
so as to promote and enhance that encounter. In essence, the Garden of Eden was, in fact, the "First Temple."
Genesis 2:15
And the Lord God took the man, and put him
into the garden of Eden to dress (Strong's
H5647) it and to keep (Strong's H8104) it.
In the Garden, man's responsibilities were to dress the garden - abad,
and keep the garden - shemar. The activities of the Priests and Levites in the Temple are also
referred to as abad and shemar (Numbers 8:26, Joshua 22:27, Isaiah 19:21, etc...).
In the Garden, the voice of God was halak
(Strong's # 1980) "moving about"
(Genesis 3:8). The same word halak is also used to describe God's presence in the Temple (Leviticus
26:11-12).
On the larger scale, the completion of the Tabernacle prepared by Moses also has a striking resemblance
to the description of the completion of the universe:
Genesis 1:31 -- And God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good.
Exodus 39:43 -- Moses saw all the skilled work and behold they had done it; as God had commanded it they had done
it.
- Genesis 2:1 -- The heavens and earth and all of their array were completed.
- Exodus 39:32 -- All the work of the Tabernacle of the Tent meeting was completed.
- Genesis 2:2 -- And God completed all the work that He had done.
- Exodus 40:33 -- And Moses completed his work.
- Genesis 2:3 -- And God blessed
- Exodus 39:43 -- And Moses blessed
- Genesis 2:3 -- And sanctified it
- Exodus 40:9 -- And you shall sanctify it and all its vessels.
Just as the Tabernacle, which was a scaled-down miniature of the Temple represented the Garden --
the Place, and Jerusalem represented Eden -- the Space, so also the Seventh Day Sabbath represents -- the Time,
thereby completing the divine order of Reality itself in Time.
Time -- Sabbath
Place -- Garden --------> REALITY
Space -- Jerusalem
The Unity (trinity) of Time -- Sabbath, Place -- Garden, and Space -- Jerusalem, constituted the
environment of Covenant with man whereby both God and man encounter each other in perfect Unity. The Place In Time
where man becomes a partner with God in the continuing process of creation.
Likewise, the Temple located on Mt. Moriah had that selfsame purpose.
Isaiah 51:3
Truly the Lord hath comforted Zion, Comforted
all her ruins; He has made her wilderness like Eden, Her desert like the Garden of the Lord. Gladness and joy shall
abide there, Thanksgiving and the sound of music.
In the Garden, the tree of life stood at its very heart. In the Temple, the Ark of the Covenant
in which resided the tablets of the testimony (Torah) rested in the Holy of Holies which was also at the very heart
of the Temple. The Ark or Tree represented the Authority of the preserving power of God unto man. In essence, it
represented the Throne of Grace from which flows the rivers of living water bringing food, health, and healing
unto the nations -- The Word of God -- Christ.
It was a perfect environment -- a Temple not made with hands, but created and fashioned by God Himself
that He might experience in a genuine reality of time, place and space, the intimacy (Unity) of Covenant with mankind,
the first Adam. The Garden was and still is the First and Only Temple!
But, man sinned and was driven into the wilderness from the midst of the Temple of God. The intimate
Covenant relationship (Unity) with the Father being broken. And God stationed two cherubim with flaming swords
at the entrance of the Garden to guard the tree of life. Those two cherubim we see again as the two cherubim atop
the Ark of the Covenant that formerly stood in the Holy of Holies. Mankind through sin was then cursed to experience
the Covenant relationship (Unity) only through the type and shadow of the Law and a physical Temple in Jerusalem.
After the fall, in an alien environment, the plan of redemption began. If we look at this plan closely
we will see the creation story being re-created that mankind might, in one man -- Jesus, again to enter into the
Temple, the Garden of Eden, to fellowship with Him in the Covenant relationship of Unity.
The parallels between the structure and activities of the Temple and the Garden are phenomenal!
However, there is also a very dramatic difference between the two as well. That difference being that one was the
Temple before the fall of man, and the other the Temple after the fall. In the Temple before the fall, man had
direct access to the Holy of Holies, the tree of life, in absolute Covenant or Unity. In the Temple after the fall,
mankind was left to experience God in an imperfect environment only in the form of the types and shadows of this
physical world. Whereas Eden and the Garden was the perfect and the genuine reality, Jerusalem and the Temple was
the imperfect mirrored illusion of what is truly perfect.
In the physical Temple, reconciliation
for sin had to be made first, and that by one person only, the High Priest, on a specific day, Yom Kippur (Day
of Atonement - Tishri 10), the holiest day of the Hebrew year. Although the individual, through the High Priest,
could receive reconciliation for sin on Yom Kippur, he still was not able to experience for himself the personal
and intimate Covenant of Unity in a direct relationship with the Father. In Judaism, this is still true today.
In Christianity, it was Jesus Christ,
the last Adam, who made what was imperfect, perfect. He restored all things by becoming the embodiment of all the
types, shadows, and symbols relating to the imperfect physical Temple. In essence, He became the Garden of Eden,
the Temple, thus replacing what was imperfect with what was perfect.
Jesus says in John 14:2 & 3 -- {2) In
my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
{3} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself: that where I am, there
ye may be also.
To be in the same place as Jesus speaks of the restoration of the Covenant of Unity that
fell in the first Garden. The place He spoke of is the New Garden, in the New Eden, the New Jerusalem. The perfect
description of the New Garden, we find in Revelation 21:22 -- And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. The fact that there is no temple because the Lord God Almighty
and the Lamb are the temple of it is a picture of the realization that the Lamb, Jesus Christ, became the embodiment
of all the types, shadows, and symbols of the imperfect, thereby restoring them to that Perfect Covenant of Unity.
He is the last Adam, the Tree of Life, the High Priest, and also the sacrificial Lamb, thereby taking upon and
fulfilling in Himself all the functions and purposes of the earthly Temple. And being that all these purposes,
functions, and offices are within Himself, there is no need for a Temple for He "is" the Temple.
There is one last aspect of the reality of the Garden I would like to address. And that is the time,
the Sabbath. It says in Genesis 2:2 (see note at end of this text for more info on Genesis 2:2), that God rested
on the 7th day, the Sabbath. This creates the "time" or framework in which the encountering of both God,
man, and each other was to take place in Unity. When man fell, the Garden lost its Unity thereby also causing the
"fall of time, the Sabbath." God, in recreating the environment of the Garden in the Temple, also recreated
the time, the 7th day Sabbath. And as the physical Temple and the physical Sabbath under law was only a type and
a shadow of a more perfect Garden, Jesus Christ, it was Jesus Christ who actually replaced in Himself, what was
imperfect with what was perfect. As the Temple (the Garden) and all of its offices were replaced in Himself, so
too was the time, the Sabbath! What was once the 7th day Sabbath is now the 8th day Sabbath, in Christ!
It says in Galatians 4:4 -- "But
when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of woman, made under the law,..." This scripture reference states that Jesus Christ was sent forth
from God when the "fulness of the time
was come," meaning that time, under
the law, was fulfilled at the First Advent of Jesus Christ! Time (Sabbath) had delivered forth its gift under the
law. In fact, time (Sabbath), under the law, at the First Advent of Jesus Christ, had ended! A new age had been
born -- a new day, new place, and new space, in Christ. Time (Sabbath) is no longer under the law -- it is fulfilled
In Christ as the 8th Day!
We see more evidence of a New Day in Matthew 28:1, (speaking of the time of the resurrection of
Jesus) -- "In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher." A deeper look at this scripture reveals that the Sabbath, under the law, had ended. Jesus Christ
resurrected initiating a new day, new place, new space, i.e. -- new reality in Himself! And that day is the 8th
Day Sabbath.
There is additional evidence that the early first century Christians were also aware of this fact.
It can be found quite clearly in the Epistle of Barnabus 15:25 - 16:1 . This clear understanding in first century Christians concerning the 8th Day Sabbath is the real
reason why the Sabbath was celebrated on Sunday instead of Saturday! However, the knowledge of the 8th Day Sabbath
of Christ does not negate celebrating the Sabbath on a Saturday instead of Sunday, because the 8th Day Sabbath
is a day that is every day! So, it really does not matter what day you choose to celebrate
the Sabbath, for the every day of the 8th Day is Shemini Atzeres, the solemn assembly of the intimate relationship.
Therefore, as it says in
Colossians 2:16
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or
in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days:
To abide in Christ is to abide in a new reality, the New Garden. And as the Hebrew Feast, Shemini
Atzeres is the 8th day Sabbath, it is the time in which we are able, again, to experience that intimate relationship
with the Father, in Christ Jesus, our own Yom Kippur. No longer in the types and shadows of the law, and no longer
in the coats of skins provided in the fall...
II Corinthians 5:17 - 20:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us:
we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
Amen!
Eighth Day Assembly
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