LIFE IN HEAVEN – PART EIGHT
Saturday – June 16, 2018, Tamuz 3, 5778
Praise the Lord that you are back for this wonderful study about life in Heaven. As I have stated before some of what is written in this series is not directly supported by Scripture. We do have scenes of Heaven in the Scripture but not of every time-period and not in detail. However, having said that we do know that God does not change, and we know that the earth at least in the beginning was a mirror image of Heaven. Which is to say that Heaven is the earth in perfection. This study is divided into eight time periods and we are transitioned from the second (Genesis 1:1-2) to the third (Genesis 1:3-6) last Saturday. We are now looking at the first day of this creation to the Day of Sin and Death.
So, let me reiterate that from the placing of man in the Garden of Eden until the Day of Sin (Genesis 3:6) there was no appreciable difference between Heaven and the Garden of Eden. Everything that we read in the ‘creation story’ is like the abode of God referred to by the Apostle Paul as the third Heaven. Heaven was then and remains a place of unrivaled beauty whether you look to the mountains, the valleys, the plains, the streams and rivers, the plant life, or the animal life. Everything was and is beautiful, and magnificent beyond current human language to describe. The Garden of Eden was an extension of Heaven. In this natural realm it would be like a person adding a room or a wing onto their home. The original (Heaven) was not magnificent beyond words and the Garden of Eden a trash bin by comparison. A person with a mansion would not add an outhouse to that magnificent structure. No, whatever was added would be equally magnificent and accent, even augment the beauty of the whole.
This extension of Heaven called the Garden of Eden in the earth included the tree of life. It is my belief that the tree of life was likely located at the site of mount Moriah. It is likely that the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil were and are spiritual trees (not physical or natural). Mount Moriah is where the Jews believe Adam was made, where Jacob saw the angels ascending and descending, where Solomon built the first Temple, where Jesus was sacrificed making all things right, and where the third Temple will soon stand. Adam and Eve choose the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil and not the tree of life. Have you chosen the Tree of Life, Christ Jesus? On the Day of Sin and Death the Tree of Life along with the Garden was folded up into Heaven awaiting the Redemption. The Tree of the Knowledge of both good and evil remained in the earth. We now have access to the Tree of Life in Christ Jesus albeit in a limited fashion, but soon we will have the fullness with our glorified bodies. Consider prayerfully the following Scriptures.
Genesis 2:9 (KJV)
9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 3:23-24 (KJV)
23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Revelation 2:7 (KJV)
7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Notice in Genesis 2:9 and Revelation 2:7 that the tree of life is “in the midst of the garden”. As you examine the Genesis verses you will see that God sent forth all mankind that was in the Garden at the time of sin. The man Adam and the woman Adam (named Eve in Genesis 3:20) were not the only people in the Garden. However, they were all in the Garden which was contrary to the commands of God. This is a recurring sin of man. God gives instructions to go and we stay. Just think of His instructions to man in the Garden, to Noah after the flood, and to the Church on the Mount of Olives.
Now let me get back to Eden and the Garden. Eden stretched from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates River, from Turkey to the Nile with the Garden of Eden eastward in Eden, the area of Ur of the Chaldees (sounds familiar don’t you think?). When Adam’s thinking, his beliefs, became corrupted it brought forth sin (they partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil) which brought corruption into the earth. At that point God drove man from the Garden and folded it with the tree of life back into Heaven guarding the way with cherubim’s and a flaming sword. The cherubim are created creatures that are a part of the angelic hosts of Heaven.
The flaming sword is the anointed Word of God guarding the entrance to Heaven. Only the Godly after the Cross can come by the cherubim’s and the Anointed Word of God into Heaven. During this third time frame before sin, Adam and any other persons upon the earth could walk about Heaven as freely as the earth. So, in this time-frame this is how things changed in Heaven. God could not only freely commune with the people in the earth, but the people of the earth could commune with Him, face to face. The following is the command of God to Adam (referring to Adam and his wife and all progeny). By the way this command is still in effect.
Genesis 1:26-28 (KJV)
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Genesis 2:15-17 (KJV)
15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Man was made in the image and likeness of God, but he was not God. God worked through Adam just as He works through us (not independent of us) today. When Adam exercised authority according to the will of God, the Power of God flowed without limit to accomplish the will of God in the earth. It was the will of God for the man to exercise dominion over all the earth concerning the other living and nonliving creations God had placed in the earth, making the whole earth a reflection of Heaven. This man was empowered (blessed) by the Holy Spirit to be fruitful, to multiply, to replenish or fill the earth, and to subdue the earth. In addition, they were to take care of the Garden and guard it being careful not to partake of the knowledge of both good and evil. Adam, his wife, and their descendants were to extend Heaven throughout the whole earth and they were to inhabit the whole earth. Instead they holed up in the Garden of Eden and did not get about the business of the Kingdom. This initial start of rebellion to the will and command of God was the fertile ground for sin. Then here comes the Serpent, however, they had already set themselves up for failure. Until our next publication, I speak this Scriptural prayer for your life right now, receive it in the name of Jesus, confess it, and walk it out with thanksgiving.
2 Peter 1:2-4 (KJV)
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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