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Hide and See

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Why does God take pleasure in hiding things in plain sight? How do we make walking off with Jesus into eternity a beginning instead of a final destination? How does “tending” or “dressing” God’s garden in us find it’s fulfillment in and through His Living Word?

Proverbs 25:2 states that “It is the Glory of God to conceal a matter…” revealing God takes great pleasure in hiding things in plain sight. The examples are numerous but some of the obvious ones are Jesus, Holy Spirit, revelations from the Word of God, and prophecy. Four prophecies, have been hidden or embedded in the Garden story – hidden for you and I to unearth its treasures. As I have explained in a previous blog one of those prophecies is based on my interpretation and opinion. (I’m entitled. We all have two armpits) Those prophecies are: a) The Word of God will walk through His Garden (b) A Final Day of the Spirit is Coming Soon (c) satan will bite Jesus’ heel but Jesus will crush satan’s head, culminating in satan’s final destruction (d) and lastly, God will provide a Way to the Tree of Life through His Mercy.

In yesterdays blog we discovered that Jesus’ “Middle Earth” has emerged in sons of Adam and daughters of Eve through a new birth. This new birth has caused His garden to emerge in a land hostile to God. Paul would go so far as to say that this aspect of our nature actually hates God (Romans 8:7). As followers of the Final Adam – Jesus – it is our calling to pick up where our ancestors dropped the ball (or fruit, as in the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil). Their call was short-changed through a lie that had them sacrificing God’s Word for something that tasted good. Good, especially man’s measured good, has and always will be the enemy of God’s very best. For proof of this look no farther than the story of the Prodigal Son in which the elder brother became his father’s enemy. Why? Because of the elders goodness achieved apart from a relationship with his father. In Jesus’ parable the goodness of the elder brother is just as deprived as the evil of the younger. Again we have to ask the question, Why? Because both were centered in the “core” of the fruit of the knowledge of “doing to be.” Satan’s lie was, “If you do this – you will be.” Thus reliance upon the soul held mankind firmly in its grip as spirits withered and died. This iron, grip of death has a choke hold on those who would seek to live otherwise. Through the Final Adam we are resurrected from “doing to be.” New life has been breathed into our spirits catapulting us from our carnal graves. Yet satan doesn’t give up so easy seeking to keep the shroud of death wrapped tightly around our spiritual vision. I am convinced that this shroud or veil is removed through the Word of God. But not just the black and white words that the sons of hell, the Pharisees, were masters of. But the God-breathed words of the Spirit. These are the words that emancipate. By God’s grace, Jesus, the Voice – the Word, comes to us untangling the matted root systems of generations of religion, tradition, and ancestral rebellion and sin. He frees us to walk with the Word. To hold His hand through chapters, paragraphs, and pages discovering eternal life is relational, not a final destination. Albeit, misfortune has fallen to the impoverished masses who have made reading the word their final destination overlooking the treasure buried just beneath their proverbial feet. They fail to realize that walking off with Him into eternity isn’t a destination but a beginning. But how? Where do we begin?

Genesis 2:15 And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it. The Living Words of God are unearthed through tending, guarding and keeping. To tend or dress in the Hebrew means to “to do, or to make; to worship, or obey; to serve.” Although the term is typically applied to agriculture, it has also been used in reference to the artisans and craftsmen throughout the Bible, and of those who labor for another as in the the priests who served God in the Tabernacle and Temple. In this case their labor or service wasn’t a burdensome one but joyous, a form of worship. Webster’ Dictionary of English Words offers uncanny nuances, and Biblical parallels between God’s garden and Word when defining the word “dress:”

dress – 1a: to make or set straight b: to arrange (troops, equipment, etc.) in a straight line and at proper intervals 2: to prepare for use or service specifically: to prepare for cooking or for the table dress a salad 3: to add decorative details or accessories to : EMBELLISH 4a: to put clothes on b: to provide with clothing  5 archaic: DRESS DOWN 6a: to apply dressings or medicaments to dress a wound b (1): to arrange by combing, brushing, or curling (2): to groom and curry c: to kill and prepare for consumption d: CULTIVATE, TEND especially: to apply manure or fertilizer to dress a field e: to put through a finishing process especially: to trim and smooth the surface of (a material, such as lumber or stone).

As you can see all of these serve to connect God’s Garden to His Word. Why wouldn’t it? His Garden exist’s because of His Word. When we “dress” or “tend” to God’s garden applying His Word we begin to set things straight; we arrange our selves for battle; we prepare ourselves for service; we add details to our lives; we clothe ourselves; we apply the medications to our wounds, sicknesses and infinities; we arrange, combing and brushing, through our knotted lives; we prepare spiritual food for our nourishment (even our death); we apply the manure and fertilizer needed for God’s Spirit and His fruits to grow in us; and lastly we trim and smooth the surface of stoney hearts causing even these to cry out in worship and praise to Him.

In next weeks blog we will seek to see how we can apply the other directives given Adam regarding God’s garden.

Golem

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In Jewish folklore a “Golem” is a clay creature that has been magically brought to life through the use of Jewish witchcraft, or kabbalism. The name comes from the Hebrew word “golem,” which means something incomplete or unfinished, like an embryo. The Talmud relates a tale of rabbis who grew hungry while on a journey–so they created a calf out of earth and ate it for dinner. The  rabbis did this by utilizing a formula set forth in the Sefer Yetzirah, or Book of Creation. Just as God speaks and creates, in the Genesis story, it is believed that certain rabbis can do the same. (The word Abracadabra, incidentally, derives from avra k’davra, Aramaic for “I create as I speak.”) Thus, under the rarest of circumstances, a human being may imbue lifeless matter with that intangible, but essential spark of life: the soul. This idea inspired such tales as Frankenstein and “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.”  Sometimes the golem saves the Jewish community from persecution or death, enacting the kind of heroism or revenge unavailable to powerless Jews. Often, however, Jewish folktales about the golem tell what happens when things go awry — when the power of life-force goes astray, often with tragic results.

It’s interesting to imagine speaking certain words in order to see a clay figure come to life. But in one sense that’s what Jesus, the Word become flesh, did for us. Hearkening back to the creation account, God formed man from the dust of the earth. But God didn’t just speak a word to have us come to life. He breathed into us His Life. In other words, He “kissed” us to life. When God brought us to life He placed us in the Garden of Eden which existed within earths’ bounds. We became sons and daughter of earth, dirt, or soil. In essence you could make a case that God’s Kingdom had come to earth. What’s really intriguing is that when you read Scripture you can make the deduction that the rest of the earth wasn’t like the Garden: Gen. 1:28 And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man]; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth.  Thus you see 4 Commands regarding the earth: Be fruitful, multiply, subdue, and have dominion. But then in Gen. 2:7-8,15 it states something different in reference to the Garden: Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden [delight]; and there He put the man whom He had formed (framed, constituted)….And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it. (If you ever want to do an interesting word study check out the Hebrew meanings for the individual commands) Thus you can draw the conclusion that Adam and Eve’s call and commission from God was to make the rest of the earth like the Garden.

Yet after the fall, and rebellion of man, we became “golems” with the condition of our earth, and its soil coming under a curse. Three dominions vied for control:

satan’s dominion = Jn. 14:30 I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming. And he has no claim on Me. [He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.]

Man’s dominion = Rom. 8:5 For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh,… 

God’s Dominion = Rom. 8:5 …but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit…

Jesus, the Son of Man (Adam = dust, soil, or earth), comes to our cursed and contaminated soil now dominated by satan, his golems, and He speaks. When He speaks He addresses the condition of the soils in His Parable of the Sower or Soils. In His parable He describes 4 conditions: rocky, thorny, fertile, and crow infested. Each soil condition competes with the Word of God. We know from Scripture that Jesus is the Word of God and that the conclusion could be drawn that these soil conditions are actually competing with Jesus, the Word of God, being manifested in us. In fact we could say that what exists outside of us also exists inside of us.

Eternal life then is seeking to grow God’s Garden to overcome the crows, rocks, and thorns inside of each of us. Jesus, the Master Farmer and Gardener, has established His mission of seeing God’s Kingdom – His Eternal Life Existence – Grow, displacing the works of darkness. The question is are we going to continue to be “golems,” under the bidding of a manipulative sorcerer or are we going to receive the Word of Life in the Garden of God? It’s really about obedience and conformity to the Words of God.