The following is an edited version of the lecture given on May 28th, 2006 in the series entitled "In the Beginning."     And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him."     (Genesis 2:18)   The Garden of Eden in Heaven and the Garden of Eden on EarthNow a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." And the LORD God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.  (Genesis 2:10-25)   In a way, this passage shows us the reason why we must study the Bible. We can see it as providing us with answers to the questions, "Why has the Bible been given to us?" "Why did God plan out the course of history as He did?" and "Why did God create man?" First we examined in Genesis chapter 1 how God created man on the sixth day. It says that God created man in His own image and that He created them male and female. When God created the animals and the other living creatures, He commanded, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures," and, "Let birds fly ... across ... the firmament" (See Genesis 1:20), but when He created man, He said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). We also found that it was through deep fellowship between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, who speaks to us, that a creation came into being that was in the image of God.Let's turn to Genesis chapter 2 verse 10.   Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.  (Verses 10-14)   Amongst the points that we have already studied, is the verse that says, "A mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground" (Genesis 2:6). It is necessary now to consider this verse in connection with the verse that says, "Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads" (Genesis 2:10). Of course, these words express precisely what was occurring on the earth at that time. That is definite. However, when we consider the order in which God conducted the events that occurred here in Genesis, we can know for sure that everything created had a starting point at some time. The Bible tells us that God made the earth on which we walk and live, the water that we can see, and everything else, and we know this fact. One fact that we can also know for certain through the Bible, however, is that there was also a time when God established the original place that was called Eden.In Ezekiel chapter 28, we find the king of Troy used to present an image of Satan, and there it says that he was in Eden. It says, "You were in Eden, the garden of God" (Ezekiel 28:13). Is this Eden the garden that it talks about here, the garden that was eastward in Eden? We talk a lot about Eden. There is even a movie called "East of Eden," and Eden has been described as "Paradise Lost." Before the Garden of Eden existed on this earth, however, there existed the true Eden in heaven. The Bible tells us this very clearly. One amazing verse that expresses this fact is the one that says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). It was there that everything began. The Bible says that the earth on which we walk and live, and the tremendous number of planets and stars that we see twinkling in the sky at night, broke forth from somewhere. In the letter to the Hebrews, it says that the tabernacle in which the Israelites worshiped God was a shadow of the true tabernacle (See 8:5). Also, in Ecclesiastes chapter 6 it talks of man's "vain life, which he passes like a shadow" (See verse 12). The Bible says that the lives that we live and the life itself that is inside our bodies are nothing more than a shadow of the real thing. As Satan was driven out of the Eden that was established through the perfect hand of God, the heavens and the earth we refer to as the universe came into being.When the earth was without form and void, God established Eden on this earth. He set this up on earth as a shadow of the true Eden that was in heaven. Then, in order to present to us the incident in heaven in which there was a clash between the armies of God and the armies of the Morning Star who wanted to be like God, God had no choice but to put the two trees-the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil-in the Garden of Eden on this earth. This law is hidden away in the Bible. And then God gave Adam the freedom of choice.   A River Went out of Eden to Water the Garden and from There It Became Four RiverheadsThus, the Garden of Eden was established on this earth and the Bible says that a river went out of Eden. We cannot live without water. If a person's body is not supplied with water, which  prolongs our lives and constitutes about 70% of our bodies, it will be a threat to his or her life. In this connection, as we examine what it says about water throughout the Bible, we can see clearly that water is directly related to life. The Bible says, "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being" (Genesis 2:7). Before this it says, "a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground" (Genesis 2:6). After God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being, we see the things that were needed by this person who had become a living being: the trees whose fruit man was free to eat as he pleased, and the water, which maintained the life of the trees and which man would drink to maintain his own life. This water did not enter Eden from somewhere else; it says that the river went out of Eden. It originated in Eden, it watered the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. Just as God's plan started in the paradise that He created originally and then became connected to this earth so very far away and connected to Israel, the plan that God had in connection with Israel was passed on to the history of mankind through the blood of Jesus Christ to give life to mankind. This order of events is expressed very simply within the image of the creation that we find in the Bible. There is no need to force an interpretation on this, but when we consider the thread that runs through the Bible as a whole, we can see that when it says here that this river originated in Eden, it is saying that it originated in God. The original form of this world, our lives, our physical bodies, and all things created were all up on high like some kind of blueprint, as it says in Romans chapter 11, in the very last verse: "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things." It all began up there and then came down. Some of the waters of the river of life that flows from the throne of God came to flow on this earth. At the very end of the book of Revelation, we are presented with an image of the time when there will be the new heaven and new earth. At that time, the image of the earth on which we now walk will be changed along with everything else to a new and different image. The Bible says that at that time the New Jerusalem will come down from heaven. Also, the river of the water of life will flow from the throne of God in the New Jerusalem, and on each side of this river there will be the tree of life, which bears twelve fruits. (See Revelation chapter 21, 22) So here, in this short passage, we can see once more this teaching from the Bible that tells us that all life has its beginning sin God.This river, however, did not just flow to one place; it parted and became four river heads. Just as the cross of Jesus stretched up, down, and out to both sides, and just as the work of the gospel that Jesus anticipated spread out from Israel to the four corners of the earth, the Bible tells us that the river of water that is able to maintain life also divided into four riverheads in the Garden of Eden. Sometimes I try to imagine this river. I do not think it would have been dull and uninteresting like some of the rivers in this world. At that time a mist went up and watered the whole face of the ground, there was a barrier of water up in the skies, and there were the clear waters of the river that burst forth from the Garden of Eden, waters that could sustain people's lives so that they were able to live for almost a thousand years. When we consider matters like this, we are reminded once more of the power of God who gives life to all, who breathed into Adam's nostrils the breathe of life, and who is the origin of all life and breathes life into our spirits when we are born again. When we see such things we may think simply that they are very beautiful and pleasing to the eyes, but as we are reading the Bible we should always bear in mind that the hand of God is always hidden away there behind all that beauty.   In the Day that You Eat of it You Shall Surely DieThen the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."(Genesis 2:15-17)   God took this man He had created and put him in the Garden of Eden. The man was not created in the Garden of Eden. God took the man that He had created outside of the Garden of Eden and put him in the Garden. This first man, Adam, was a shadow of God the Son, who was not part of the creation but was above all of creation and would some day come to this earth in the body of a man. This is why Adam could not have been created inside the Garden of Eden, and so God created him outside of the garden and then placed him in the garden. As Satan cast a furtive glance at the position of God the Father, who created all things, he was observing everything very carefully with his own eyes, and so God embarked on His work of recreation in order to be able to battle properly against this power that opposed Him. As a result, the incidents occurred in which the earth was formed, and then God was born in the image of a man in order to save mankind. Little by little God came further and further down from on high. So even when God was creating Adam, He was revealing to us that it was in His heart to appear some day in the body of a man. So God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. Why did Adam have to keep the garden? It was because Satan was there.   And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."   God told man that he was to eat any of the fruit of the garden. He gave man the freedom to choose. There was one fruit, however, that God told him not to eat. Jesus, who came as the second Adam, also had the freedom to choose. As the Son of God, He was all-powerful. He had the power to be able to summon twelve legions of angels to wipe out the Jews who were persecuting Him (See Matthew 26:53), but He chose to accomplish the will of God the Father. Jesus obeyed. God told Adam that there was just one fruit that he was not to eat, but He requires exactly the opposite from each one of us. He is telling us that we need not do anything except for just one thing. We cannot keep the law; we cannot love God; we may not even have the desire in our hearts to live for God, but even though we are not capable of any

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