Abel’s Offering of Meat

Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I have given everything to you, as I gave the green plant.
Genesis 9:3 (NASB)

Prior to Genesis 9, humanity wasn’t given meat to eat. The rabbis debate the reasoning and implications, but what stands out in my own reading is that Abel sacrificed a lamb to God in Genesis 4. I can only assume this was a burnt offering. A cooked offering.

But he didn’t eat it.

Have you ever roasted lamb before? Have you smelled it?

It’s hard to fathom the depth of self-control and restraint required to present something wholly to God like this, and not reach my hand out and take some for myself. But perhaps that’s part of the story of Abel. Maybe there’s a lesson in there about not reaching out your hand and taking what belongs to God. And this points us right back to a certain Tree in the Garden of Eden.

After the flood, all food is permissible, although the rabbis note that God prohibits some food later, so the permission granted here may not mean all animals. Regardless, what was previously withheld by God can now be enjoyed within the context of the Genesis 9 Covenant.

The Mount of Olives

When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
Genesis 8:11 (NIV)

The rabbis wondered about this olive leaf the dove found, because in the already unlikely story of a global flood, it is unlikely that an olive tree should produce leaves so quickly.

They point to Ezekiel and suggest that perhaps the Mount of Olives and Israel (Eden) were never flooded.

Again the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, say to the land, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed or rained on in the day of wrath.’
Ezekiel 22:23-24 (NIV)

You’re on the Boat

If you read the Bible and you don’t know God loves you with the greatest love, the words will sound like hell.

You’re going to see yourself cast out of the garden.
Marked for death.
A random name in a list of names.
Left off the boat as the flood rises.

But that’s not the story.

He left the garden with you.
He shielded you from vengeance.
He knows your name.
He carries you in the boat.

It is your story. It is the story of His great love for you.

Who was Kicked out of the Garden?

The text says that Adam was kicked out. “The man.” It doesn’t say the woman was kicked out.

Isn’t that interesting?

After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 3:24 (NIV)

Rivers of Eden

There’s speculation about why Genesis 2 includes an out-of-place mention of the four rivers that flow from Eden.

I think the clue is that it occurs immediately after the mention of the Two Trees.

The rivers seem to be Empires, flowing into the sea.

Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground–trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 2:8-17 (NIV)

We wrestle with a good God who would make a tree that points to misery and death, or a God who creates a serpent who tempts. He did.

Israel must have wondered about Assyria, Babylon, their enemies, and wondered about injustice & wickedness. But God made all of the nations.

And they all are sourced through one Adam. Sourced by one river that feeds all the land.

Israel, too, is a river. It’s the Jordan river, and long after Eden, when God steps into new covenant with man, we read this about the river:

Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
Genesis 13:10 (NIV)

The Jordan is not like the rivers that branched off in Eden. It isn’t connected to them. This is the first mention of the Jordan, and it’s almost like God is showing us the NEW way after Abram allows Lot to choose first. To humble himself. To love. And to trust God’s way.

Jonah didn’t want to preach to Nineveh, capital of Assyria, but maybe God wanted him to see that this nation was sourced in that same garden. That He cared for them, too, desiring that none would perish but that all would be in relationship with Him. In peace. Flourishing.

I can’t help but think we are being reminded to love our enemies, not just because we are told to, but because all nations flow from the river that watered the garden.

And one day, those rivers will stream back to Eden in reverse, up to the high place of God.

In the last days
the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established
as the highest of the mountains;
it will be exalted above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.
Isaiah 2:2 (NIV)