[Printable version]
[Also published in Nuggets for the Needy]
Omega Message – October 1984
Mavis M. duCille
In the story of the Garden of Eden in the Bible, one cannot but discern that there must have been a garden within as well as a garden without. God himself was the first architect of the garden. The Scripture records that He planted a garden “—eastward in Eden and there He put the man whom He had formed.” The garden within was first formed, then the garden without, and the man was given the freedom to tend and create the beauty in the outward garden which was within.
When Adam fell, the manifestation immediately began to show itself in the outward garden. Animals were killed, and their skins used to cover Mr. And Mrs. Adam; Leaves were cut off and used for clothing (which represents man’s temporary and futile measures of covering himself). Suddenly all nature was out of control. The controller had lost his status, and ugly things began to appear: poisonous plants, thorns and thistles, and if this would be any comfort to you, this is where we got our marijuana, and opium, etc.
Genesis 4:24 “So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of Eden Cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way to the tree of life.”
The garden was planted “east of Eden” and the Cherubim were placed east of the Garden. We can clearly see then, that the entrance to the garden is at the east side. If we look at this spiritually, we will then see that since east is the place of the sun rising and the sun represents Christ, that the entrance back into that place in the garden where Adam was is for us through Christ. This entrance however, is guarded by messengers with the flaming sword. Matthew 3:11 declares that Jesus Christ will baptize us with “fire”. Since the sword in scripture spiritually means the word of God, we must then understand that it is by submitting to the Word of God that we receive not only the Baptism of the Spirit, but every bounty which God offers.
All through the ages God has been showing man that he can reach up into God and reclaim that which he has lost by submitting to the right thoughts: Noah was righteous in all his ways before God; Enoch walked with God and Enoch was not because God took him; Job kept his integrity before God; Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elijah, David and all the mighty men of God, (some of whom we have never heard of). God’s chronology of these men recorded in the scriptures all through the ages shows God wooing man back into that place which he had lost through the infiltration of evil into the world.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 “He hath made everything in his time also he hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the works that God maketh from the beginning to the end.”
“He hath set the world in their hearts,” No wonder our thoughts are not like His thoughts; no wonder we are so humanistic in our spiritual thinking. Some of us think that hell is in the middle of the earth, and others that we will be flying away to some other planet, and that in heaven there are streets of gold. (The scripture speaks of a street of ‘gold’ which street is Jesus Christ).
Sonlight Devotional 