The Gracious Provision of God

Genesis 2:8-9 ESV

8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

What we have been seeing throughout our series of sermons from Genesis, chapters two and three thus far, is that God has ever been a gracious God. What this means is that God ultimately does whatever He does not based on any kind of outward condition.

In other words, God does not look down the corridors of time and see that object A will choose object B, and because of this, God’s plan must now be object C. No, God’s plan is always object C regardless of what object A chooses. In other words, the plan of God ever remains His plan simply because that is what He desires His plan to be.

Thus, creation is what creation is, we are who and what we are because that is what God wanted. There was and is nothing influencing His decisions, His acts, His determinations. God does what He wants to do because He wants to do it.

We have seen this as we have explored the aseity or, self-existence of God. God is self-existent and is thus dependent on nothing. God needs nothing and thus had no need to create, but rather, He created because it was His desire to create. He willed to make something out of nothing and so He did.

We have also seen that God had chosen to create man as the pinnacle of His creation. Furthermore, we saw that it was God’s will to form man, to carefully sculpt him, and to breathe the breath of life into him.

Once again, God was not obligated to do this. If God had wanted to, He could have made all of His creation alike. Or, He could have taken a different part of His creation and made it the special object of His peculiar favor like He did with man.

But God done what He had done because that is what He wanted to do in accordance with His own good pleasure.

Now, in our reading for today, we see God continue to act in a gracious manner, in accordance with His own good pleasure as we read of how He made for man, the pinnacle of His creation, a proper abode for him to dwell in.

We see this in the very beginning of our reading, in the first part of verse 8, which reads:

Genesis 2:8a ESV

8a And the Lord God planted a garden

Thus, we see here that there was a time, presumably before God had formed man when He had made for man a proper abode.

This abode which man was to dwell in, our reading says, was a garden. It was a garden that was planted, was designed and established by God. Specially prepared by God for man, the pinnacle of His creation.

Now, as has already been said, this reveals yet another layer of God’s gracious character in that God, moved by nothing but His good pleasure, wills to and effectively accomplishes this decision of His to create a special habitation, made specifically for man’s enjoyment.

We then see in the next part of this eighth verse the location of this garden that God had planted for man when our reading simply tells us that God planted this garden,

Genesis 2:8b ESV

8b in Eden, in the east,

Now, I don’t know if you are like me, but I had always envisioned this garden encompassing the entirety of earth. But as we see here, that obviously was not the case. For it would appear as though this garden was separated from the rest of the earth and placed in Eden.

Now once again, in this we see the gracious character of God. It was God’s will and determination to place this garden that He had made for man in Eden. This tells us that Eden was not just a made-up fantasy place, but that it was a real geographic place on earth.

Now, where Eden could be found on earth today is a mystery. I am certainly no geologist, but I believe that it can be safely assumed that the Great Flood which took place in the days of Noah greatly altered the geographical formation of the earth.

The only clue that I think we may have of the general location of Eden is found here in our reading when Moses tells us that Eden was in the east. This tells us that Eden was likely to be found to the geographic east of those ones who Moses was generally writing this to. Those whom he was writing to of course, were the people of Israel. Therefore, I believe that it is likely that Eden was found somewhere to the east of the geographic region of modern-day Israel.

But there again, we see the gracious character of God in that in accordance with nothing but His good pleasure, He placed Eden in this particular area.

Thus, God blessed this area abundantly in determining to place such a beautiful garden here. For there again, God chose this place not because of anything naturally great about it, but simply because it was His good pleasure to do so.

And after God had planted the garden in Eden, He placed the pinnacle of His creation there. The very last part of this eighth verse tells us this where it says:

Genesis 2:8c ESV

8c there he put the man whom he had formed.

Here, in this garden, the Garden of Eden, God was pleased to place man, the man whom He had formed, carefully sculpted from the dust of the earth. Herein was God pleased to make a paradise, and herein was God pleased to place man and make it his home.

Then, as we go on to the beginning of the ninth verse, we are informed of the beauty and the abundance of this garden which God had planted, where we read:

Genesis 2:9a ESV

9a And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.

Thus, we see that out of the ground, God caused to come forth first, those things of beauty as we read that out of the ground, God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight.

You know, we today may look at a picture, and admire its beauty. For example, when I turn my computer on back there in my office, it automatically will place a gorgeous picture as the wallpaper on my computer. Maybe it will be a waterfall, or a mountain, or a meadow, and I will look at it and I will say to myself, “Wow! That is beautiful!” and look at it for a minute or two before I get to work.

Or we may look at some classic work of art, perhaps an amazing painting, painted by a famous artist. We may observe a particular painting of DaVinci, or Picasso, or Claude Monet, and we may be overwhelmed at its beauty.

Or we may even see firsthand, be personally present to take in some marvelous aspect of God’s creation. Maybe instead of looking at a picture of that beautiful island or that peaceful meadow, we find ourselves there. And we soak it in, and we think, “That picture does not do this place justice! Not one bit!”.

But none of that even pales in comparison to the beauty that Adam, the first man saw and experienced on a daily basis. The most beautiful, those things which were most pleasing to the eye were found in man’s abode.

In addition to God causing to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight was also every tree that was good for food.

Now, once again, God had placed man in a perfect creation, and in a particularly blessed portion of creation as He placed him in the Garden of Eden. Therefore, just as with the beautiful trees that were pleasant to the sight so are the wonderful foods that we eat here on earth today; the New York strip, the filet mignon, the stuffed lobster tail, even mom’s good old fashioned home cooking does not pale in comparison with the food which God had provided for man.

Indeed, God not only graciously provided man with everything that he needed in the garden, but He gave to him much more.

There again, we ask why God had done this? Why had He given to man not only everything that was needful but everything that he could possibly enjoy? And the answer, as it has been throughout this message, is because it was God’s good pleasure to do so.

But what we also see was in the garden were two peculiar trees. We read about these trees at the very end of our reading for today, where it says:

Genesis 2:9b ESV

9b The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

So, as many will say, in addition to, but as I like to say, among those trees which were pleasant to the sight and good for food were two very distinct trees. Thus, both of these trees, I believe, were stunningly beautiful trees, and one of these trees was likely good for food.

These trees each had their own name. The first tree mentioned was named, the “Tree of Life”. Now, there have been many who have speculated throughout the years as to why this tree was called the Tree of Life, and while I usually don’t like to entertain speculations, I think that there are two that may actually be plausible.

First, this tree may have derived its name from the fruit that was found on the tree; it could have been that when the fruit was eaten it resulted in prolongation of life.

But the second, and what I believe is the even more plausible argument is that this tree was named the Tree of Life because its peculiar presence served as a reminder that obedience to the prohibition of God would result in sustenance of spiritual life. In other words, every time man would see this tree, he would be reminded of the fact that his life would be everlastingly sustained so long as he obeyed the command of God.

But of course, we know that there was yet another peculiar tree in the midst of the garden. The name of this tree was the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”.

Now, just as the Tree of Life, so has this tree been the object of much speculation. I mean, just look at its name, the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”. That is certainly an odd name. And what could that name possibly mean?

Now, I have searched the great theological minds from our day and from days gone by, and I believe that Matthew Henry, one of the greatest Bible commentators ever and a faithful Presbyterian minister who lived in the 16 and 1700’s gives the best insight on what exactly this knowledge of good and evil consisted of.

He says that concerning the partaking of the fruit of this tree, that “man, by use of it would know, to his cost, how great and good things did he enjoy, and might have kept by his obedience, and how evil and bitter the fruits of his disobedience were to himself and all his posterity. So, it seems to be an ironical denomination, ‘You thirsted after more knowledge, which also the devil promised you; and you have got what you desired, more knowledge, even dear-bought experience.’”

There is no worse feeling than to know that things are not what they could be, that something has failed because of me. That is indeed an awful feeling. Well, imagine knowing that death, disease, pain, all kinds of evil, that sin is here because of what you have done!

That is the kind of knowledge of good and evil that is spoken of. You see, in this state, in the Garden of Eden, with everything that man could ever want or need being at his fingertips, he knew nothing but good.

But if he were to partake of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the tree, which we will see next week is the tree which God commanded the man to not eat of, then he will know evil. He will know evil because he will become evil.

But to make it even worse, he will remember what it was like before he knew evil, he will remember what it was like when he knew nothing but good. And his existence will pine for the days when he was ignorant of evil.

So, then again, we are confronted with the question, “Why?” “Why would God do this?” “Why would God put such a tree in the midst of the garden, knowing what would happen if man ate of the tree?”.

And the answer to that question is the same answer to every other question in this message. God placed that tree there because He wanted to. God placed that tree there because it was His good pleasure to do so.

You see, I think that a lot of times we think that we have to defend God because of what He does. We say, “Well, He wanted to put that tree there so that He could see that man really loved Him. That if man chose to obey Him with the opportunity to not obey Him, then it would prove that he loves God!”

But we don’t know that. I think that we say things like that because it bothers us that God would put this tree here, knowing what would happen if man ate of the tree. And because it bothers us, we almost think that we have to make an excuse for God. But we don’t need to defend God, He has big shoulders.

The fact of the matter is that God placed the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden because it pleased Him to do so.

Now, if we know, which hopefully we do, that God is good, that He can be nothing but good, that He is incapable of being anything but good, then we know that He placed this tree in the garden for a good reason, and that’s a good enough explanation for me.

You see, contrary to our counterparts, we as Calvinists, Reformed Christians, do not try to place God in a box. We don’t try to explain God away. The fact of the matter is that God is good, and God is sovereign. In other words, God controls everything, and everything that God does is good.

Thus, may we who trust in God ever rest in His gracious provision!

Amen?