The Garden Made For Man

During the creation God made a special home for the man created in His image. He planted a garden with every tree pleasing to sight and good for food (Genesis 2:8-9). God sought to make the garden beautiful in the statement, "pleasing to sight" and nourishing by having every tree that was good for food.

The garden was placed on a river that would divide into four rivers as it came out of the garden. This clearly shows an abundance of water most likely flowing from a great spring that could feed four rivers. The rivers are named. The Tigris and the Euphrates are well known and still flow in modern day Iraq and Turkey. The Pishon and Gihon are unknown to us for certain. These rivers cause many to surmise that the garden of Eden was located somewhere either in Turkey or the Persian Gulf area. We must remember that the geography of the time was drastically altered by the worldwide flood of Noah 1656 years after the creation. Therefore, it is difficult to locate the garden to any great degree of accuracy.

One of the most interesting facts concerning this beautiful and bountiful garden is the existence of two unique trees. In the midst of the garden God placed the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:9). Adam and Eve could eat of the Tree of Life which had an immutable power to cause one to live forever (Genesis 3:22). However, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the ONLY tree that Adam and Eve were forbidden to eat or touch (Genesis 2:17; 3:2). They were told that in the day that they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they would surely die (Genesis 2:17).

This great garden provided everything for man. It had food, water, beauty, and a choice. Man had been given free moral choice (unlike the animals). Choice means nothing unless there is something to choose. The choice in the garden was whether to obey the command concerning the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or not. The two unique trees present the ultimate choice in this world . One choice brings life eternal, the other brings death. On the first day of mankind, this choice was presented to mankind in the garden of Eden and continues for us today.