Lesson 2: Garden of Eden

Today, let’s look at even more blessings that God gave Adam and Eve.  Genesis 2:8,9 says:

Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made.  The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit… (NIV)

This Garden was an incredibly beautiful place to live, and it gets better!  Genesis 3:8 tells us that God actually came into the Garden and walked and talked with Adam and Eve! 

When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. (NIV)

Isaiah tells us that this Garden was a place filled with “joy, gladness” and “thanksgiving.” (Isaiah 51:3 KJV).

In the Hebrew language, the word Garden means “to protect, defend, and to hedge about,” and Eden means “delicate, delight, pleasure.”  (Strong 1983)

Questions:

1. What does “Garden” mean?

2. What does “Eden” mean?

3. In the Garden, what would God do in the cool of the evening?

4. How would you describe the Garden of Eden?

5. How do we know that Adam and Eve’s blessings are also ours?

6. What Garden blessings have we discovered that we have “in Christ?”

7. What does it mean to be “in Christ?”

8. Are you “in Christ?”

Answers:

1. “To protect, defend, hedge about”

2. “delicate, delight, pleasure”

3. He would walk and talk with Adam and Eve

4. This Garden was to be a safe, joyful place where Adam and Eve had a delightful, wonderful friendship with God.  There was a lot of singing, and laughter, thankfulness, and love.

5. “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “yes” in Christ.”  (2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV) We can have any of God’s promises and blessings once we make the choice to follow Jesus.

6. God says we are good, God loves us, God is our friend, God is with us, God protects us, God delights in us, God gives us power to “rule” over the devil, God gives us fruits like love, joy, patience, self-control…, and God gives us power to increase (add souls to the Kingdom of God!)

7. We believe that Jesus died to wash away our sins, we ask Him to forgive us and live in us, and we make the daily choice to follow Him.

8.

References:

Strong, James.  Strongs Exhaustive Concordance:  Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of the Original, with References to the English Words.  Baker Book House, 1983.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV  Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.  Used by permission of Zondervan.  All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com.  The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.

Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.