God Plants a Garden
The previous blog post to this discussed the recurring metaphor in the Bible of the vineyard. The related metaphor of a garden planted by God expands on the relationship God desires with man.
The first time the word garden appears in the Bible occurs in Genesis 2:8. Vegetation had already been brought forth in creation as reported in Genesis 1:11-12. Genesis 2:8 introduces a different thought and imagery by stating that, “God planted a garden.” Again the impression is given that God personally was involved in “planting” this garden.
I was once pondering this verse and asked myself the question, “Did God wear gloves when He planted a garden?” I know that when I work in the yard or in the garden, I always wear gloves. I do not want to get my hands dirty and especially do not want to get dirt under my fingernails. I have always been this way since I was a boy. During medical school, this hand cleanliness was further ingrained when we were taught how to scrub our hands and arms, up to the elbow, before entering the OR suite. We had to clean under our nails, use a stiff bristled brush and scrub our hands and arms for a minimal of five minutes. We were preparing to enter a hopefully sterile environment in which to operate or assist in surgery.
The answer to the question of whether God wore gloves when he planted the garden is really a mute point because it is hypothetical and we really do not know. However, when God entered this world through His Son, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, (John 1:14a) He took off the gloves. He got “down and dirty” with my sin, your sin and the sins of the whole world.
On one occasion, when a woman was brought to Him, who had been caught in adultery, the penalty of which was death by stoning according to the law of God, Jesus stooped down and began to write in the dirt with His finger. We do not know what He wrote the first time, but then He stood and said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (John 8:7). He again stooped down and wrote on the ground and we are told that her accusers, one by one, dropped their stones and went away.
On another occasion in John chapter nine, Jesus was passing by and saw a blind man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked Him who had sinned, this man or his parents that he had been born blind. Jesus explained that neither had sinned but this man’s blindness would be for a demonstration of the glory of God. The Lord then proceeded to take some dirt from the ground, spit in it to make mud and then he anointed the man’s eyes with the clay and told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam.
The man did as he was instructed and his blindness was healed. The man later was cast out of the synagogue because the rulers did not want to believe his story or that Jesus had healed him. After he was cast out, Jesus found him and asked him if he believed in the Son of God. The man asked, “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus identified Himself as that Man, the Son of God, and the man then worshiped the Lord.
These two accounts convey that when God entered their world, He entered a world that was corrupt and polluted with the sins of mankind. But that was exactly why He came. The world needed a Savior who would forgive them and cleanse them of all unrighteousness. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). The Word also promises that, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
A wonderful thing happens in our lives when we accept the forgiveness and grace offered to each of us in Christ and in His atoning work in us. We become implanted into His Garden of Grace. It is a work that only God can do, but He promises to do it. It is God’s will that He is not willing that any should parish but that all should come to repentance (1Peter 3:9b).