Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #13 of Genesis, chapter 2 and we are going to read Genesis 2:15:

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

We have been studying the Garden of Eden and we have already spent some time discussing how the Garden of Eden is a representation of the kingdom of God. Adam was formed from the dust of the ground and he was declared to be the son of God. Remember, we looked at the genealogy that went all the way back to the first man Adam and then it said of Adam, “who was the son of God.”

It also said in Genesis 5:2:

Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

The term “called their name” is the Hebrew words “kaw-raw” and “shem” and it is an indicator of an immediate father/son relationship. God called their name “Adam” in the day they were created and Adam was the immediate son of God. He became the son of God when he was formed from the dust of the ground. When we die, we go to “dust,” so it was a picture of Christ rising from death to be declared the Son of God. It tells us in Romans, chapter 1 that Jesus was declared the Son through the resurrection from the dead. Other verses also confirm that he was the first born from the dead. He was the first begotten Son of God from the dead and God counted it as a sort of beginning for Christ and He became the Son of God, just as Adam was formed from the dust of the ground and called the son of God. Adam is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ and that is why Romans tells us that Adam was the figure of Him that was to come, the Lord Jesus.

Here, God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden. Sometimes in the Bible God does not specifically address the Messiah by name but refers to Him as a “man.” For instance, it says in 1Corinthians 15:20-22:

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Here, God calls Christ “man.” He said that by man (Adam) came death and by man (Christ) came the resurrection of the dead. There are other Scriptures where God speaks of Christ and identifies Him only as a “man.”

So, JEHOVAH God took the “man” and, spiritually, this was pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, it was the man Adam, the earthly creature, but spiritually it points to Christ. God put the man in the Garden of Eden “to dress it and to keep it.” Historically, we know that God selected the area of the garden and He wanted the man to till the ground, as it had said back in Genesis 2:5: “and there was not a man to till the ground.” The Hebrew word translated as “dress” in our verse is the same word translated as “till” in verse 5. It is Strong’s #5647, so it means the same thing. God placed the man to dress and keep and maintain the garden, which typified the kingdom of God. Spiritually, the picture is the kingdom of God and the man is the Lord Jesus Christ (in the first instance), but it can also have application to the body of believers that are also involved in the keeping of the kingdom of God. As far as the outward representations of the kingdom of God, Israel and the churches and individuals had roles. Each individual is a living stone in the house of God and a part of the kingdom of heaven.

Let us take a closer look at the word “dress.” I mentioned it is the same word translated as “till,” but it is also translated as “labour” in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:9:

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

The word “labour” is a translation of the same word translated as “dress” or “till.” Tilling the ground or dressing the garden would be labour or work. This same word, Strong’s #5647, is found Genesis 20:5:

Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them…

The word “serve” is the same Hebrew word. This word is often translated as “serve,” whether serving God or serving Baal or false gods. It carries that idea and that is because Christ is the Son of God that is involved in “serving” or keeping the kingdom of heaven by doing the will of the Father.

We have the same word in Ezekiel 36:8-11:

But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded: And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better <unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am JEHOVAH.

The word “tilled” is our word. I wanted to read this passage because God is speaking here of tilling the mountains of Israel. Of course, this is an obvious spiritual picture. The fruit would come forth of the spiritual Israel of God. Being fruitful identifies with salvation and the elect coming in, so God is telling the mountains of Israel that they will be “tilled” and the mountains of Israel represent the kingdom of God. It is a direct parallel to the Garden of Eden which spiritually identifies with the kingdom of God and the man was put into the Garden of Eden to till it. When God speaks of the mountains of Israel He says, “Ye shall be tilled and sown.” Fruit will come forth and that is the idea behind dressing the garden – it will be fruitful. The fruit will come forth because it is being dressed and kept.

This word is also found in Zechariah 13:5:

But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.

The word “husbandman” is the same Hebrew word as was translated as “tilled” or “dressed.” So we could read this, “I am no prophet, I am a dresser or tiller.” That would be the same occupation as Cain. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. Here in Zechariah, it is Jesus speaking and He says that He is a tiller or a husbandman. We know it is speaking of Jesus because it says in Zechariah 13:6:

And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

This refers to the nails that went into Jesus’ hands when He was nailed to the cross. So, Jesus is a “tilled” and that agrees with our spiritual understanding that the “man” is a picture of Christ and He was put into the Garden of Eden (the kingdom of God) to till it. He is a tiller and He is going to do all the necessary work. Of course, that work was already completed at the foundation of the world. In performing that work, Christ has “tilled” the Garden of Eden. He is the “man” to dress the garden.

Going back to Ezekiel, chapter 36, let us look at Ezekiel 36:33-34:

Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.

Here, God ties together being cleansed from iniquity to dwelling in the cities and the waste places being built. Then He adds, “And the desolate land shall be tilled,” and that is because you now have a man to till the ground and to dress it. That leads to growth and fruitfulness. Notice it goes on to say in Ezekiel 36:35:

And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.

The Lord is further relating it to the Garden of Eden. God tells us in other places that He opens rivers of waters in the wilderness or desolate waste land and vegetation comes forth. That is a picture of the Gospel. We also saw that the four heads of the river went out into the world (Babylon, Egypt and Assyria) and the land becomes the Garden of Eden. The Gospel waters brings forth life wherever it flows, as it said in Ezekiel 37. The Gospel brings life through salvation when God saved His elect and, spiritually, the land that was desolate becomes like the Garden of Eden. Physically, the entire world was like the Garden of Eden and everything was good and perfect until sin destroyed the garden and the curse came upon the entire earth. We then had briars and thorns. We had diseases and hurricanes and earthquakes and all the things sin has wrought in the world, but God’s salvation plan reverses that and restores the souls of the elect of God and it spiritually restores the Garden of Eden or the kingdom of heaven as the people of God enter that kingdom at the moment of salvation.

The outward representations of the Garden of Eden, like national Israel and the corporate New Testament churches, can identify with that picture of the garden until they are no longer able to “keep” it. This is where the next word “keep” comes in, if we go back to Genesis 2:15:

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

We see how Christ tilled the garden and He turned the desolate land into a fruitful place, but He also “keeps” it. The Lord Jesus did that perfectly, as He was perfectly obedient to everything commanded Him of the Father. He fulfilled the Word of God and He did not let anything fail as He fulfilled all righteousness. He was without sin on any point of the Law of God. God’s people are also able to keep the Law inwardly with the new heart and spirit God has given them.

But there is a problem with the outward representation of the kingdom of God: God instructs them to keep His Law and maintain obedience to the Law of God. This would keep the garden outwardly; Israel would continue to be used of God as long as they remain faithful and keep the Word of God.

If you look up the word “keep,” it is often identified with keeping God’s commandment, as it says in Deuteronomy 4:2:

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of JEHOVAH your God which I command you.

There are many verses like this, but let us look at just one more in Deuteronomy 6:2:

That thou mightest fear JEHOVAH thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.

God commanded Israel to keep His commandments. He said there would be blessings if they kept His Law and curses if they did not keep His Law. Again, and again, God graciously and kindly gave Israel opportunity to return to keeping His commandments. Of course, it all had to fit into God’s overall timetable for Israel and, finally, at the suitable time God rent the veil of the temple and Israel ceased to be the people of God.

Then God established the New Testament representation of His kingdom, the corporate churches. And, again, He also gave them time and space (1,950 years) to repent and to turn to their “first love” and keep the commandments of God. They were required to do so. They were the professed body of Christ. Remember that the “man” put into the Garden of Eden was Christ, spiritually, but it can also apply to the body of Christ. The churches were the professed body of Christ. They said they were His, so God required them to “keep” the garden or “keep” God’s commandments. This would have kept that outward kingdom of God on earth continuing on and God’s Spirit would have remained. God would not have driven the “man” from the garden. But they failed to obey and hearken to the Word of God and, therefore, God came to visit in judgment and He found that they had not kept the garden. They were not fulfilling their role of keeping the garden and maintaining their faithfulness to the Word of God in order that they would be an accurate reflection of God and the kingdom of heaven. God found sin in them, just as he found sin in Adam and Eve and it was time to destroy the garden. He brought a curse upon it and He drove out the man. Therefore, there was no longer an ambassador in the sense of a corporate body to represent God or His kingdom to the people of the earth. That is the picture we have here. But, for a time as long as it fit in God’s overall timetable before He came to visit, the man within the churches was obligated to “keep” it, but they failed at that task.