Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #11 of Genesis, chapter 2 and we are going to read Genesis 2:10-14:

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

I will stop reading there. Here, God is telling us about four rivers and the lands that those rivers flowed into or around and you may recognize some of those names, like Ethiopia and Assyria. We know that the Euphrates is identified with Babylon. Yet, we have to keep in mind that this is at the very beginning of this earth and the rivers and lands would have been very different than the geography of the world after the flood. The entire landscape of the world changed after the flood and even after the flood there was the division of the continents, so the land of Assyria would not have been the same land of Assyria today. The Euphrates River would not be the same river that we read about later in the Bible. However, it does not mean that the names of Assyria, Ethiopia and Euphrates would not have the same spiritual meaning. God knows the end from the beginning and He already knew what He would do with Assyria and Ethiopia, and so forth, in future time, so He could have applied the same spiritual meanings to these words right from the start.

That is the case when we read of those four heads of the rivers, as we read in Genesis 2:10:

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

The first place the river watered was Eden. As we mentioned, the Garden of Eden was the first outward representation of God’s kingdom on earth. Following that, it would be national Israel and then the New Testament churches and congregations. In all these cases, the Word of God was centralized in these places and they would experience the first benefit of having the Word of God in their midst. The river that flowed forth out of Eden is picturing the Word of God, the Gospel, as it says in Psalm 46:4:

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

We also read in Isaiah 41:17-18:

When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I JEHOVAH will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

This is all spiritual language. The “poor and needy” seek water and there is none. They are the spiritually poor in spirit, as Jesus said in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” They are God’s elect people. When they have a need for the Gospel of salvation God “will open rivers in high places” to bring forth the Gospel water to satisfy their thirst as they hunger and thirst after righteousness. Jesus Christ and His righteousness is what quenches the thirst of the souls of the poor and needy. The word “river” ties in with the going forth of the Word of God, the Gospel. It says in Isaiah 66:12-13:

For thus saith JEHOVAH, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

This is pointing to the going forth of the Gospel waters and, again, the first place that it flowed was the garden. Israel was blessed when they had care of the oracles of God. The churches were blessed when they had the Bible in their midst. Historically, during the church age the pastor would preach to the congregation first. Then the people of the congregation would disperse and share the Word with their families and neighbors and the Word would go even further through missionaries that went out into the world.

The river went out of Eden to water the garden first and then it goes on to say in Genesis 2:10:

… and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

The number “four” points to universality. There are four directions to the compass: North, South, East and West. This took into account all the land masses, so it is a universal number. God is indicating with this language that the water would come out of Eden (out of the kingdom of God) and disperse out into the world. That was always God’s plan and purpose for His program of salvation as He sent forth His Word. Through that message of the Word of God, the Bible, faith came: “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” God would bless that Word to the hearts and minds of His elect, all those that were ordained to believe. They would hear and believe and be born again as God would create a new heart and new spirit within them. God would spark spiritual “life” within them and they would come to life, once again, and their souls would be restored.

Looking at it from the perspective of Adam, man once had life through Adam and then he died and the new birth is a restoration of life. That is why Psalm 23 says, “He restoreth my soul.” We are all born in trespasses and sins, so we are conceived in sin and born speaking lies and spiritually dead. But, in a sense, we were all alive in Adam at one time and now the believers are alive again in their soul existence. That was the purpose of God in sending forth His Word.

It goes on to say in Genesis 2:11:

The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah…

This is the first of the heads of water flowing forth from Eden, the Gospel water coming from the kingdom of heaven. It was coming from Eden, the representation of God’s kingdom on earth at that time. The name “Pison” is only used here in the Bible. I am not exactly sure what that name means but we are helped by the name “Havilah.” The name “Havilah” is used in the Bible a few times. It is used in Genesis 25:18:

And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren.

Now this would be a different place because Genesis, chapter 25 happened after the flood and the division of the continents, but the spiritual meaning of the word would remain the same. The word “Havilah” is used in another verse in relationship to Egypt and it has close proximity to Egypt. When we look up all the verses, that is what we can ascertain from this word and since Egypt is used to typify the world, this would fit. This river coming from Eden flows out from “four heads,” indicating universality, so it compasses the entire land of Havilah, which would relate to Egypt or to the world. In other words, the Gospel is flowing forth into the world and this idea fits the overall picture.

Then it says at the end of Genesis 2:11:

… where there is gold;

We have talked about the word “gold” many times before. God likens true believers to precious stones. He does this in 1Corinthians, chapter 3 and in other places. He likens them to “gold, silver, precious stones.” This is the point, spiritually. In Havilah (in the world) are the elect that God had predestinated to save. They are the people whose sins were placed upon Christ when He died from the foundation of the world. He rose from the dead to justify them and God was obligated to complete their salvation by resurrecting their souls (the first resurrection) and by resurrecting their bodies at the end of the world (the second resurrection). It is all part of the glorious and magnificent salvation that God has granted by grace to these people that are found in the world, just as gold was found in Havilah. The water went forth and compassed the “whole land of Havilah” and it does not miss any part of it. There is not an area the water would not impact. The idea is that the Gospel flowed forth into the world and it will accomplish its purpose of salvation of the elect. They will be like “gold,” that enduring and valuable substance that was taken out of the lands of the world.

Then it says in Genesis 2:12:

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

God had just finished creating all things. He created this world and the sun, moon and stars. He created the mountains and streams and oceans and rivers. He created all the plants and creatures and then He created mankind. Back in Genesis 1, after God created everything, He said in Genesis 1:31:

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good…

All was “good.” Since all was good, we wonder why God would emphasize that the gold of that land is good. Of course it was and so was everything else before the fall. We would have to say that God is looking ahead and He is forecasting His plan of salvation as the Gospel would go out into a world full of sinners, of which there are none good. The Bible tells us: “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Then what would the Word of God do in the lives of certain ones? The Word would create a new heart and a new spirit within them and it would bring a righteous and perfect soul to those it saved and they would be “good,” once again, in the eyes of God. All their sins would be washed away by the Gospel waters. God would see no sin of any kind upon these people, once the Word of God had operated upon them to make them “good.” So, the gold of that land was good.

Then it goes on to say in Genesis 2:12:

… there is bdellium and the onyx stone.

The word Hebrew “bdellium” is found only one other place and that is in Numbers 11:7:

And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium.

The manna sent by God from heaven above was a miraculous food that fed and sustained the people of Israel for forty years in their wilderness sojourn. It is described as having the color of “bdellium.” It is the only other place this word is used. This is the way we come to spiritual understanding of various words. We see how they are used elsewhere. When a word is used only a couple times, in some ways it can make it a little bit easier to make the identification. Of course, if a word is used only in the verse we are looking at it is more difficult or if a word is used 100 times in different places because we have to search 100 places; if it is translated as 10 different words, it can be more time consuming to search it out and determine the definition. However, when a word is used only two or three times, it can be helpful and, in this case, it is helpful because “bdellium” is tied to the “manna” that fell from heaven. We know that manna relates to Christ and Christ is the Word made flesh. Jesus likened Himself to the “bread of heaven.” The manna of that miraculous bread in the wilderness only sustained the people physically, but Christ is that spiritual bread and if we eat of that bread, we will never die. It brings eternal life. It brings salvation and a cleansing from sin.

So, the gold of that land was good and there was “bdellium.” There is the Gospel that brings forth the “bread from heaven” and salvation. It brings eternal life to the people of God. The Lord Jesus Christ came to save His people from their sins, we are told in Matthew 1, verse 21.

Finally, it says in Genesis 2:12:

… and the onyx stone.

The “onyx stone” is used several times. One place it is used is in Exodus, chapter 28 where God gives instructions concerning the garments that the high priest of Israel would wear. It says in Exodus 28:9-12:

And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: Six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold. And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before JEHOVAH upon his two shoulders for a memorial.

Aaron, the high priest, would go in to make sacrifice and he bore their names on his two shoulders for a memorial. He wore the names of the children of Israel and we can see the spiritual dimension as the children of Israel from the twelve tribes represented spiritual Israel. Aaron, the first earthly high priest, was a representation of the great High Priest who was the Lord Jesus Christ. As Aaron bore their engraved names in the onyx stones on his shoulders, so, too, the great High Priest bore the sins of all the names of God’s elect, perhaps as many as 200 million people. Our names were known to Christ from the foundation of the world and our names really represent all that we “are” and we are all sinners. Our names or our sins were laid upon Him and Christ bore those sins in our stead and died for our sins. He made satisfactory payment for all our sins, freeing us from the Law’s demand for our death as He died in our place.

The gold points to the believers. The bdellium points to those that received eternal life from the bread of heaven and the onyx stone points to the Gospel that declared that the sins of the Israel of God (the elect) were laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. With each of these words, God is indicating that the river head Pison has gone into Havilah and will accomplish His purpose in saving His people. They will experience the great blessing of salvation.