Genesis 2:8-14 Commentary
THOMAS SCOTT COMMENTARY
Verses 8-9. This garden, planned doubtless with exquisite beauty, and stored with every thing which could regale the senses, seems to have been intended as a pledge of heavenly felicity.—The word paradise, in allusion to Eden, is frequently used for heaven itself; and there are many references to it in scripture (Lu 23:43; 2Co 12:4). “The tree of life” seems also to have been a sacramental pledge of immortality; and, by eating the fruit of it, life and felicity were sealed to Adam as long as he continued obedient. “The tree of knowledge” might be thus called, because that, by the prohibition of it’s fruit, a revelation was made to Adam of his Creator’s will; of his own duty, interest, situation, and danger; of the consequences of his future conduct; and of the prescribed condition of life or death, happiness or misery; in which things his most interesting knowledge consisted. By abstaining from this fruit, the knowledge of good would be enjoyed; but by eating of it, the knowledge of evil would be fatally introduced. It might also intimate, that man should set boundaries to his thirst for knowledge, and covet rather to know and obey the commands of God, than to pry into unrevealed secrets. To these meanings Satan artfully superadded his pernicious misinterpretation; which will shortly require our attention.—This garden was situation eastward of Canaan, or of the wilderness where Moses wrote the history.—Adam and Even seem to have been created without the garden, and afterwards brought into it.
THOMAS HAWEIS COMMENTARY
Verses 8-15: Man, thus created, hath an abode provided for him suitable to his state, where every thing around him conspired innocently to delight and comfort his body, while God himself, by a sacramental pledge in the tree of life, engages to be the joy and happiness of his soul. We have a description of the place, its situation, rivers, produce, and peculiarities.
1. It was a garden. When no inclement sky had yet begun to lour, when storms and tempests had not learned to roar, when nature, ever-blooming, filled the eye with pleasures, and the air with fragrance, a palace of gold had been a confinement, and beds of ivory mean, compared with the delicious groves of Eden, and those couches of amaranthine flowers that decked this happy place. The starry canopy of heaven was extended over them, the wide earth served as the courts to grace the temple; while this secluded spot, the blessed abode provided by their bounteous Maker, like the holy place of old, shone with brighter beauties, than ever adorned that house of Solomon, though overlaid with gold, and studded with precious stones. Imagination could not conceive, nor desire wish for a greater profusion of delights. Note, The richer the mercy, the more ungrateful the ill –return. To whom much is given of them much will be required.
You who possess this world’s abundance, what effect hath it upon you? Do you remember the giver in the gift?
2. The situation; eastward in Eden. The choice of the spot was from God, and the furnishing it his work. It was no doubt the best of that which was all very good. No traces of it however now remain; as sin drove man out, the deluge swept it away. All that we know of it is, that it was eastward compared with Judea. The search after the spot hath employed the curious, and the conjectures about its situation engaged the pen of the learned; we shall be less disappointed and perplexed in our researches, if we quit the terrestrial Eden, and seek after the Paradise of God. If but an entrance be granted us there, we shall recover all that Adam lost and more.
3. Its produce: every thing pleasing to the eye, and good for food. God consulted the pleasure, as well as the profit, of his creatures. If a beautiful prospect delights the eye, or a delicious savor the palate, it is the gift of God, and to be acknowledged to his glory. Morose insensibility, and monkish austerity, is as far removed from true humility and self-denial as it is from gratitude.
4. Its peculiarities. Many were the trees that adorned the garden, but two of wonderful efficacy. The first was the tree of life; whether so called, because of some property contained in it of preserving the human body from decay, or because appointed of God as the pledge and seal of man’s immortality, while he continued in a state of obedience. Note, Many have pretended since to have invented preservatives against decay, and elixirs of life; but death hath proved shortly the vanity of the pretension. There now remains but one medicine that can make us truly immortal, and that is the bread which cometh down from heaven, of which, if a man eat, he shall never die. O may we cry with the disciples, Lord, evermore give us this bread. (2) The tree of the knowledge of good and evil; so called from its design to point out the knowledge of good and evil to man; forasmuch as it was to stand for a test of his obedience to the positive command of God, enjoining him to abstain from it: and further, as it eventually served to convince man, when, contrary to the command, he dared to eat of it, of the good he lost, and the evil, which else he had never known. Note, In many cases, to be ignorant is to be innocent.
5. The rivers. The garden was well watered with refreshing streams; the names of them are transmitted to us, and their course described. –One of these streams compassed Havilah, and an especial remark is made upon the riches of that land. Gold and precious stones are usually found in the brooks; but they descend thither from the mountains whence the river flows. Note, If the sands of gold, which are found in the rivers of grace are so precious, how much more should we prize the mine itself, in the mount of the paradise of God! –Havilah had the gold and precious stones, but Eden the tree of life. While other lands boast of mines or diamonds, and their sands of gold, it is our grater glory, that we enjoy the gospel.
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