Adam and Eve with God in the Garden
>>>>>Read Genesis 1-2 <<<<<

God created the world, and then He ‘rested’ (Gen. 1:31). To say that He rested means that He was satisfied and enjoyed all that He had made. In Eden, God was pleased to spend time with Adam and Eve. This is where our Bible begins – describing a place where God loved to be, sharing fellowship and communion with the creatures designed exactly for that purpose.

We often think of the garden as a place for Adam and Eve, but it really was a place for God. The Scriptures, from cover to cover, document the fact that God’s desire is to have a presence with mankind. The Bible begins and ends with a place for God.

Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and He will be their God. Rev. 21:3

In Genesis, we see Adam and Eve in a state of innocence. They were like intelligent children who had a great capacity to learn, placed into an environment rich with opportunities to use their intellect. They would spend their days busy in the garden learning from their Creator-mentor while maturing in their knowledge of Him. They were fashioned in the ‘image of God’ for that very purpose.

God is an intelligent being and mankind needed to be intelligent in order to know Him, so God gave Adam and Eve the ability to reason and communicate. In this way, they could acquire knowledge: knowledge about the physical world, moral knowledge . . . . and the knowledge of God.

As mature human creatures, Adam and Eve would share God’s own heart and thoughts – they would desire what God desires. Throughout Scripture God says, in so many different ways: I desire man’s affection, his allegiance, his time, his energy – I want to fill his heart with Myself. God provided for their every need in the garden, but He wanted them to know Him as more than creator and provider of physical needs. He wanted them to grow into maturity, to gain knowledge of Him, to demonstrate confidence in Him.

Man was designed to commune with God – not only to converse with Him – but also to receive His kindness and love. God’s desire was that Adam would feel the pleasure of discovering His depths and would understand His intentions. By his very design, Adam was made to return God’s love – to respond to Him with adoration and gratitude.

The ability to reason, to feel, to communicate and to understand were not sufficient for Adam in order to know God, or to commune with Him. Therefore, God gave him a spirit that was alive to His own Spirit. In that garden, with a spirit in tune with his creator, the person of man had the ability to know and enjoy the Person of God. This was a person God could delight in!

In Genesis 2:4, we begin to see the name Lord God which is Jehovah Elohim. Jehovah is a most wonderful name – it conveys the idea that He is ‘One who reveals Himself’ and is used throughout Scripture where relationships between God and man are involved. This name identifies God as the One who establishes covenants with man. It is the name that says to us “all that I AM I will be to my people.”

Jehovah Elohim walked with the first man and woman in the garden. He wanted intimacy with this special creature. He did not provide for Adam then leave him in the garden to manage on his own – that is not intimate love. Instead, Jehovah equipped Adam with the capacity to interact with Him as a partner and to cooperate with Him in ruling over the earth. Partnership and cooperation require mutual experience and bring about the development in a relationship. Everything God has planned for mankind is for one purpose: that He would have a people in relationship with Him; sharing His glory. In this way, God would have a presence on the earth; Adam was meant to be the first of many who would share God’s glory.

When God created Adam and Eve, He did not make them independent of Himself, but made them to be receptacles for His own holiness, wisdom and love; that they might enjoy Him and show forth, gladly and freely, the excellencies of their blessed God. (see 1Pet. 2:9) Wm. R Newell

LJ 5/09