IT BEGGARS THE MIND to think of a world without weeds, a world in which every square inch around the globe fits into all the others in a garden-like setting. By extension, we imagine no blight on crops, no need to store up foods, as every crop and every tree offers its food in season. We see ourselves free of much of the toil of work dedicated to subsistence, and released to explore higher realms of existence. We imagine ourselves as liberated from all bondage. Free in our minds and thinking—free of obsessions. Free in our emotions and relationships—free to love and be loved. Free in our physical bodies—free of pain and disease. Free in our souls—free to live in wonder and significance. These musings are obviously referencing the shrouded mysteries of the Garden of Eden, and a life we imagine as idyllic. The great malady in this paradisal vision is first diagnosed, then keenly exposed to light with the precision of a surgeon’s hand, as God responds to Adam’s violation of the very first command: “You ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it.’” (Gen. 3:17) Sin slithered into the souls of women and men, and the consequences of this were and are enormous; the title of Milton’s epic poem says it all—**“Paradise Lost.”
To the woman, because of her deception, God says, “with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” (Gen. 1:16) The first part of this curse is well-known to all mothers. The second aspect becomes clearer from a more precise translation. “Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” (Gen. 1:16, ESV) Even as the first family begins, so too is implemented the pattern of household tensions that will rumble through the history of mankind. Families, tribes, and nations will ultimately bear these tensions and their outcomes. This is true of each in their own generation; it is true of us.
To the man, because of his willful violation, God says, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground.” (Gen. 1:17-19) The work of man, and mankind, no matter how much is accomplished, no matter how lofty, is most often tedious and repetitious. From the Tower of Babel (cf. Gen. 11:1-9), past the Pyramid at Giza of Ramses II, beyond the mighty works of Solomon, to the stalled-out 2020 Jeddah Tower of Saudi Arabia—designed to be the tallest building in the world at over one kilometer high—man has worked to reach back to the heavens. Solomon, who finished many great works including the building of the first temple, ultimately says, “the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” (Ecc. 2:17) At the end of life, history rolls on, and the greatest of works are ruined or transcended.
There is a driving force inhabiting the souls of men and women. Solomon muses, “I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecc. 3:10-11) This driving force of eternity takes on many forms of expression in its quest for significance. Some of these forms aspire to the depths of hell, and find the dark pathway that ends there. Some of them reach deep down into the human heart in the search for the heights of existence, seeking freedom from the gravity of the human condition. And some few turn to the servitude of faith and obedience to break the curse of Adam and Eve, and therein finally find freedom.
In our quest for true freedom, we have turned, you and I, to the promises and the wisdom of the master teacher. There are three basic principles that he taught us in this respect. The first principle is to seek the ancient path to God: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matt.7:13-14) The next is to love and honor God as our primary goal in life. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.” (Luke 10:27) And though there are others similar, finally this, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness.” (Matt. 6:33) Freedom, not in an idyllic or paradisaical sense, is only found along this pathway, which Milton describes poetically: **“Long is the way and hard, that out of Hell leads up to Light.”
So it seems to us, this toilsome pathway of life, until we break out in the glorious freedom found only in our lives in Christ Jesus. In him do we find the only Garden of Eden, the cultivation place of the heart by God (cf. John 15:1-2). “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matt. 11:28-29)
Q. Do I fully fathom the meaning of the flaming sword? (Gen. 3:22)
*CSN, Fillmore East Album, 1970 (Listen also to Joni Mitchell’s Woodstock version).
**John Milton, “Paradise Lost” – 1667.
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