Monday, August 8, 2011

God’s Gift

God’s Gift

<< Genesis 2 >>
King James Version


10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. 14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

18And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. 19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 20And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him. 21And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 25And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Sermon

We carry on from where we left off in our last sermon on the book of Genesis. We have studied the first 9 we still have 16 left.

10And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

Eden was the land in which Adam and Eve were first placed before they so grievously sinned against the most holy God.

And in these verses we see a bit of the geography of the region.

According to my limited knowledge, I believe that the garden of Eden was situated on the Eastern side of what we now know as the Middle East perhaps bordering on India.

11The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

The river that flows through the Garden of Eden splits into 4 rivers, the first one is this Pison mentioned here. The exact location of this river is uncertain, although some people have claimed to have worked out where it is. But it also must be taken into account that the world may not have been the exact shape that it is found in now, scientists have suggested plate tectonics, which means that continents may have all been one great land mass at one time. That may or may not have been the case. Where the Bible is silent so should we, if the Bible doesn’t talk about it it just doesn’t really matter!

12And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

The Wikipedia article states that “Bdellium (dĕl'ē-əm) (Hebrew bedolach) is an aromatic gum like myrrh that is exuded from a tree” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bdellium) I didn’t have a clue what this stuff was!

And for the Onyx, I will again direct you to the Wikipedia article: “Onyx is a banded variety of chalcedony. The colors of its bands range from white to almost every color (save some shades, such as purple or blue). Commonly, specimens of onyx contain bands of colors of white, tan, and brown.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onyx)

Although in all honesty I don’t know why such details have been preserved in the word of God. But there are a lot of things that we shall never know in this life, but all will be revealed in the life to come, when we shall be with Christ in Heaven!

13And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.

I’m sure you have heard of Ethiopia. It is still in existence this very day, just check it up on a map.

But what really comes to mind is the Ethiopian Eunuch which we read about in Acts chapter 8, which is where we read about how Baptist should be done, and that it is only the believers that should be baptised, not infants who have made no profession of faith!

14And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.

We hear a lot about the Euphrates; apparently it is the longest river in the world.

It appears that the river in the Garden of Eden from which these four rivers sprang has ceased existence, which may be some proof that the geography of the time may have been quite different from what we have now.

15And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Here you notice Adams call! This is what He has been put on this Earth to do. He is a gardener and a steward.

Each one of us has a calling, a divine purpose. As each individual person is unique, so is each individual person’s calling. None of us have been out on Earth randomly, we each have a purpose that we need to complete before we are called from time into Eternity.

To discover your purpose will take a lot of Bible study and prayer. Try to look at what gifts God has given you, such as an ear for music, or ability to do hard sums. And then when you have discovered all the abilities God has given you, then look at how you can best use those abilities in the service of God, and that service will most likely be the calling to which the Lord has placed you on this earth. If God is your God, He will help you to complete your mission.

16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

I must leave the subject, because of time constraints, but think about this warning, this is God’s first ever DON’T. Would you have done the same thing as Adam and Eve did in the next chapter which God willing we will study in time?

Listen to God’s commands and try to obey them, pray to God that He will help you to obey, because you cannot do it in and of yourselves.

The Lord bless His word, and help in to be profitable to you all.

Amen

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