Episode Details

Prayer

Dear Lord God, we thank you for the gift of life.

We thank you for your word which gives life to us and we pray as we read your word now that you would renew our minds and show us your ways. Please help us, Lord, to appreciate better the gift of life and to live life with your perspective and purposes.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Reading

Genesis 2:10-14.

“A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.”

Meditation

God made life to grow. As we’ve seen in the narrative of Genesis, God wants to fill the earth with life, and that life – by nature – is meant to grow. In our passage today we have this imagery of a river flowing out of Eden. When I used to read this passage in the chapter, I always thought that it was kind of random. Why are there five verses telling us about these four rivers and the fact that there’s some gold and gemstones lying around? How is that useful or relevant for me to know? Well, as we’ll see, this is actually incredibly significant, and in the first place it’s significance is that it shows us that God made life to grow. Let me explain what I mean here.

To start with, it’s very important that we pay attention to one central fact, that being: water is life. We saw this back in verse five: “When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land…” There’s nothing growing in the land – why? Because there’s no water. God then provides that water in verse six, but he also goes on to provide another special water source of water in the garden. “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.” Without water, the garden would have dried up and become a waste land. In other words, water is life!

Building on this first insight, a second follows on from the text: Eden is a source of life. The text shows this to us in two ways. First: the river flows out of eden, and as that river went out it divided into four rivers and watered the whole region. In other words, the surrounding land received water and life from Eden. We also see that Eden is a source of life from the fact that God planted the tree of life there. He planted trees for food (v9), and he especially planted the tree of life to sustain Adam and Eve. God is therefore showing something very clear here: Eden is a source of life.

Adam was placed in the garden, a place of specific boundaries, but God’s design was for that garden to grow. The flowing rivers show us that life was supposed to flow out, expand, and fill the earth. If you need me to clinch the argument here, we need only to call back on Genesis 1:28, where Adam and Eve had been told explicitly to “fill the earth.” Eden is a source of life.

Now, with the shape and purpose of the text clear in our minds, let me lead you a bit further – because the Bible as a whole makes very good use of the seemingly pointless river imagery of these verses. True, although God designed the earth to be filled with life, death has now come to the earth through our sin. But that doesn’t mean that God has changed the plan. He still intends to fill the earth with his life, and to see life flourish and expand, but that plan is now realised through Christ. Here’s where things get even more amazing, let me show you.

In Isaiah 51:2 the prophet says:“Lo