Genesis 2:15-16

(The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.)

 

『And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:  』(Genesis 2:15-16)

That man is Adam. God made Adam in God's image. In 1 Corinthians 15:45『And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.』Adam is the symbol of Christ. In Romans 5:14『Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. 』

It is Jesus who has "the image of God" in the flesh. In John 1:51, 『And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. This is what Jesus said in a conversation with Nathaniel. There is the same word. In Genesis 28:12『 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. 』 It means that the spirits who have sinned in the kingdom of God descend to the earth through the first man, Adam, and go up through the last Adam. Adam also came in the image of God, but because he was trapped in the earth, his relationship with God was cut off, and the spirit became the state of the dead soul.

『The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it 』 God led Adam outside the Garden of Eden into the Garden of Eden. The outside is the world and the inside is the kingdom of God. This means that God will lead a person born in Adam to the Garden of Eden through the last Adam. It is Eve who was born in Adam. And God leads people born through them to the kingdom of God.

So, God had Adam cultivate and keep the garden. The garden is the kingdom of God on earth. The reason God created the Garden of Eden was to allow those who left the kingdom of God to return to the kingdom of God. Those who can return are the covenant people that began in Genesis 3:15『 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 』 And accordingly, they will be those who follow the genealogy of Genesis 5. The New Testament includes descendants of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ.
However, the incident took place in the Garden of Eden. In other words, it is an event in the garden, the land of God and in the land. In the kingdom of God, Satan sinned, and according to his deception, the spirits did not keep their position, so God put them in prison.

In this land, according to the serpent's delusion that Eve could become like God, she ate the fruit of the tree that knew good and evil, gave it to Adam, and also Adam ate it, so that they were driven out of the Garden of Eden. This event shows the homogeneity of the event on earth and the event in the kingdom of God, but it also happened sequentially. It was that God made the human who sinned in the kingdom of God a human, led him to the Garden of Eden, and drove it out of the Garden of Eden again.

『The LORD God took the man』 Here, the word “take” means “have”. In Genesis 5:24 『And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. The word “taken” is the same as “taken in 2 Kings 2:10-11.『 And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.  And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 』 It's a story in conversation with Elijah and his disciple Elisha. In verse 10, "take" has the same meaning as "take it." When Jesus spoke of the signs of the Second Coming at the end, he said in Matthew 24:40-41 that he would take the believer.

『Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. 』

『The LORD God took the man 』 This means that those who have left God in Adam will return to the kingdom of God. It is to be born into the world in the first man Adam and return to the kingdom of God in the last Adam. This is something that was already decided before the creation. When God sent spirits to the world who did not keep their position in the kingdom of God, God spoke of the plan. However, spirits that entered the soil were forgotten as soon as they were born as humans. That is why God requires humans to cultivate the ground, sow seeds, and reap the fruits.

The garden of Eden means the land as well as the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God, they do not rule and cultivate. Looking at this land, the garden becomes Canaan for Israel. So, Adam, born in the image of God, becomes the first and the last Adam, and in Canaan, becomes the Lamb as the last Adam. In the land of Canaan, God told the people to cultivate and keep (getting eternal life) through the law. So, when they try to keep the law, they realize that they can't keep it perfectly, and find and seek the seed (the eternal life) of God's hidden promise.

Almost two million people were exodus, but two said, "If we enter Canaan, we can take possession of the land." The rest of them died in the wilderness, children and new people born in the wilderness, and Joshua and Caleb entered Canaan. These are the people who are participating in the new covenant. So they had to go into Canaan to cultivate and defend.

However, the Israelites were cultivated, but they did not find the seed of promise, and they were destroyed. Israel, chosen as the representative of the world, was wrathed and destroyed by God, and salvation was passed on to the Gentiles. Of course, in the last days of Jesus' Second Coming (the Millennium Kingdom), He will restore Israel. The restoration of Israel does not refer only to Israel, but to all nations. In other words, through the Millennial Kingdom, the Second Coming Jesus restores everything. In the Millennium Kingdom, Satan and his followers will enter the abyss.

What God wants to say to humans by God's creation of the Garden of Eden is that God will make to return those who have left God in Adam to the kingdom of God. The garden at this time means the kingdom of God on earth. It was Canaan for Israel, but in Christ in the New Testament age. Those who enter into Christ return to the kingdom of God. That is why we return to God, who was originally the Father of the Spirit.

As in the parable of the prodigal son, the father allowed the son to leave his father's house at the request of the son and gave him money to do whatever he wanted. The story is that the prodigal son lives in the world in desolation, becomes a beggar, repents and becomes like a dead man, and returns to his father's house. This is our story. When we realize that we are the prodigal son in the parable of the prodigal son, we have to repent of leaving Heavenly Father and return to God as the dead with Jesus. You cannot return to God without dying with Jesus. Because God covers the sins of the dead. In Romans 6:7 『For he that is dead is freed from sin. 』