Choose Well

Three very important events happened in three different gardens. And each event has had a lasting impact on mankind. So, let us begin our tour. 

Genesis opens with God stating that everything He made was good. Good is defined as all things pleasurable, enjoyable, satisfying, pleasing, and desirable. It was a perfect world. 

God had planted the first garden in the east, in Eden (The Garden of Eden) and there He put the “First Adam” whom He had formed. He then instructed him, “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 2:8-16 NIV). 

You might question why God would place the forbidden tree in the garden. Wouldn’t it guarantee temptation? God does not want programmed androids. He desires daily fellowship; therefore, He has given us the choice between surrendering our hearts to Him or pursuing worldly things that hold the heart captive. 

Satan appeared in the Garden of Eden to tempt Eve into believing that God was a withholder of good things. So, “when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it” (Genesis 3:6 NIV). 

The Apostle John repackaged the warning given to Adam and Eve: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17 NIV)

Adam and Eve’s disobedience and desire to be like God, plunged the world into death and darkness. However, God’s great mercy and love for His creation, sent Jesus Christ, the life and light of the world, to redeem mankind from eternal separation from God. Jesus would take our place and carry the weight of our sin upon Himself. We have the same challenge that Adam and Eve faced—whether to accept or reject a surrendered life to God. 

The second garden was The Garden of Gethsemane. It was there that Jesus, as “the last Adam,” chose obedience, unlike the first Adam who chose disobedience. Jesus would then be tested as He battled good and evil and the flesh and the devil (1 Corinthians 15:45). In sorrow and great distress, He knew what His Father was requiring of Him, as He sweat great drops of blood, which fell to the ground (Luke 22:44).

After Adam and Eve sinned, God had said to them, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." (Genesis 3:19 NIV). The blood that fell and soaked the dusty earth would reclaim man who had come from dust. Jesus accepted the cross, hewn from a tree different from the forbidden one in Eden. Then, as the propitiation for our sins, He restored mankind to God and declared from the cross, “It is finished.”

God has given us all power and authority through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to walk by the Spirit, so we do not gratify the desires of the flesh. Rather, we shut down every lie spoken by the enemy. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent us from doing what we should (Galatians 5:16-18).

This world’s offerings are enticing and numerous. As in the Garden of Eden, the Tempter has not stopped luring people into sin. He goes out of his way to disguise sin as being normal, acceptable, appealing, natural, and good.  However, we are warned of what happens to those who buy into the enemy’s lies. They become lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasures, rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

The third garden is The Garden Tomb, located just outside the city walls of Jerusalem. Next to The Garden Tomb, is Golgotha, which in the Aramaic, means “place of the skull,” also referred to as Scull Hill. The Latin word for skull is calvaria, which in the English vernacular translates to Calvary, the place of Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus was laid to rest in the tomb, but on the third day, He rose from the dead, forever conquering death and the grave. 

While writing this blog, I was reminded of the 1989 movie, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Archaeologist, Indiana Jones joined his father, who was preoccupied with ancient lore, which claimed the existence of a Holy Grail that housed the chalice used by Jesus at the Last Supper. Eventually, Indy and his father located the Holy Grail, but faced a dilemma. There was not just one chalice; there were multiple golden chalices inlayed with precious gems—and one simple wooden chalice. 

The caretaker of the Holy Grail told them that to choose poorly would cost them their lives, so he cautioned them to “choose well.” Indiana Jones reasoned that Christ, having lived an unpretentious life, would have used a simple chalice. He chose the wooden chalice, and the priest said, “You have chosen well.”

Never judge a book by its cover. The Israelites rejected their long-awaited Messiah, because He did not look and act like the warrior king they had expected. However, 700 years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah prophesied that “…when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him” (Isaiah 53:2). 

Today, many are looking for a leader to solve the world’s problems. Unfortunately, like the Jews, they fail to see Jesus as the answer they seek. They embrace false doctrines, false gods, unhealthy lifestyles, warped beliefs, and pleasures that oppose the tenets of Christ’s teachings. 

In the first Garden, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and chose poorly, resulting in death to themselves and all living things. The second garden was a place of obedience, necessary to redeem what had been lost in Eden. And in the third Garden all was restored from what had been lost in the first garden. Today, God is calling us not to be moved by outward appearances but to “choose well.” 

PRAYER: FATHER, help me to be sensitive to Your Spirit that leads, guides, and teaches. Correct me if what I am doing, thinking or saying is not aligning with Your Word, so that I may choose well. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Picture, courtesy of andrew-ridley--fdLwPMi7iQ-unsplash.jpg