The Anti-Eden

We are going to pull the camera back, and scan where we are.

The desert.

Let's look at it from an "anti-Eden" kind of place. One of the definitions of "anti-" is "against."  So, let's compare and contrast the two places.  Eden and the desert are obviously different: One could represent the world before sin entered the world and the other could represent the world after sin entered in.  But how different are they, really?

First up, let's consider water.  Eden had four rivers flowing through it.  In the Middle East, rivers provide life. The water gives life to the arid landscape.  Think of the Nile.  All around it you find desert, but alongside of it, it is a beautiful green. The river literally provides life for the people who depend on it to do so.

The great cities of Mesopotamia are along the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers. In fact, "Mesopotamia" means: “'between rivers,' referring to the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but the region can be broadly defined to include the area that is now eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and most of Iraq." [1]

Water is life.  So, you would expect to have water in the Garden of Eden.  First, as we approach the divine staging ground (pardon the pun) for the creation of humanity, we see water: "streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground."  In the next verse, you have this lovely contrast between water coming up from the ground and then God forming man from the "dust of the ground." (2:6-7)  Only when God breathes His breath into this "ground," molded and shaped into His image, do we see the first human. He is formed next to water. 

Then God takes this human and places him in a garden that He planted, not Adam.  The garden is replete with trees whose fruit will nourish the man, and the water makes that possible. (2:8-9)  

A river is responsible for "watering the garden," and as it flows from Eden, it splits into "four headwaters." (2:10)  So, the river provides not only abundance within Eden, but flows out to faraway places.  God's abundance is not static nor localized; He desires His creation to be abundant, reflecting His comprehensive provision.

The key word here is "provision."  The Garden of Eden is fully outfitted to provide for life.  And not just life, as in a kind of survival mode--but abundant life. 

But everything about Eden is from God's hand.  Humans did not create the garden, but they are called to tend it. Humans are placed in a rich environment where everything they need is there--but it is all from God's hand.

So, if Eden is the place where God and humanity dwell together before the Fall, the desert looks like a post-Fall-God's-judgement-has-fallen-on-us-in-a-big-way kind of place.  No water. No obvious provision.  No reaching out to grab a fruit off a tree.

Dust. Sand. Dirt. Quiet.

Yet, in the desert, are little Edens: oases. They have waterfalls, green plants, cool temperatures and are replenished by springs, with the water coming from far away mountains.

Is God reminding His children of that now distant Garden, that, despite our exile from it, how we are not exiled from God's provision? 

The desert speaks of His involvement, even where sin seems to have won. 

He still provides food:  manna.

He still provides water:  from bitter wells and rocks.

Water still flows, not in rivers, but in wadis, where the rainfall from faraway mountains rushes down to remind us how the desert and those who wander in it are not forgotten.

So, the desert and Eden are not opposites, but reminders of God's provision.  Everything that Eden and the desert have are from God, showing how He reaches out to meet and nourish His children.

No wonder Jesus called Himself the Bread of Life and the Living Water.  He chose two provisions that only could be supplied by God. The Bread of Life reminds us of the manna and the living water reminds us of the rivers flowing through Eden.  

He is from God's hand, providing us with salvation for our weary and sin-stained souls, and there is nothing we can do to provide for ourselves. 

God met His people in Eden.

God met His people in the desert. 

God met His people in their exile, their slavery, their misery, and in their longing for freedom. 

God met His people in the most excellent and beautiful provision of all:  His Son. 

There is no where His people go where He doesn't reach out, offering His provisions to strengthen us for the journey.

There is no where His people go where He doesn't reach out, offering His Son to forgive us and strengthen us for the journey. 

 

[1] "History of Mesopotamia," https://www.britannica.com/place/Mesopotamia-historical-region-Asia