Rivers of the Garden of Eden

[jneely]

The Garden of Eden has five rivers connected with it. The number five
represents grace. We studied this as the 'fifth' part in Leviticus.
Grace is the policy of God toward man and all of creation. Thus the
Garden of Eden begins with grace. The provision of the rivers in
nourishing all of the land is representative of grace in action which
we call mercy. Mercy is the actual provision of Gods grace policy.

The first river has no name. Interesting enough God of the Old
Testament (God the Father) has no name. God the Son has a reference
to a name - Joshua which when translated into the Greek becomes Jesus.
God is the great 'I Am' of the Old Testament, or generally thought of
as the eternally existing one. The river that flows out of the Garden
is just like that name. Always existing and always flowing. God is an
endless source of provision. God is the origin of all things provided
to each of us personally and to the universe.

This first river flows out of the Garden so its source is from within
the Garden. It waters not only the Garden of Eden, but it waters
everything else outside of the Garden. And that is the subject of this
study.

The river which flows out of the Garden breaks up into four rivers as
spelled out in Gen. 2:10-11. They are described as the Pishon. Gihon,
Hiddekel or Tigris, and the Euphrates rivers. Interesting too is the
number four. God begins with a policy of grace, but that grace has
boundaries. God has a government which is represented by four areas -
authority, power, freedom, and vision. Later in the scriptures in
various visions (after Genesis) these four areas are represented by the
- lion, bull, man and eagle.

The first area is representative of Gods dominion over all of heaven
and creation, combined with His perfect righteousness, then there is a
lack of arrogance or pride. In contrast is mans dominion which is
limited and short lived as man quickly loses his authority over planet
earth as arrogance and pride enter into mans essence.

The second represents Gods omnipotent ability to do anything He wills,
as well as to 'not' do that which He does not will. In contrast man
cannot accomplish anything he wills, nor can man prevent that which he
does not wish to happen. So man redoubles his efforts and ends up in
more self work or burden due to greater arrogance and stubbornness and
the rejection of Gods divine provision.

The third area represents Gods ability to choose, to decide for that
which is right as well as to decide against that which is wrong. Man,
in contrast again, is given free will volition in which man has the
opportunity to make the right choices in life, however man inevitably
makes wrong choices. The feminine reaction in making wrong choices
results is frustration and even more effort placed in doing that which
man cannot do in life. Yes, we are studying the rivers of Eden, and
we'll tie this all together in a moment.

Meanwhile, the fourth area represents Gods omniscience or
foreknowledge, or far seeing vision - the eagle. God knows all there
is to know both the possible and the probable as well as the reality of
what is and what is to be. Man again, cannot know even what will
happen in the future in a few minutes let alone in a few years. Man
lacks the ability to sort out truth from lies therefore mans vision is
limited

Thus we have the four rivers flowing out from the Garden of Eden which
take on these representations just mentioned.

Throughout the ages people have sought to find the Garden of Eden.
They have sought to identify these four rivers and somehow trace them
back to some point that would identify the original Garden. But
remember that the Garden existed in a 'single' land that was on earth
prior to the flood. We would have to assume that the land masses prior
to the flood of Noah were exactly the same or very similar to the land
masses we have today. Maybe. Of course you would have to make changes
in the land masses due to erosion, weather pattern changes,
earthquakes, and so forth. But we have seven continents now and they
must have existed in some form prior to the flood.

There is also the possibility that God brought the flood on the earth
to do more than just wipe out life, saving only Noah and his family and
a few animals. If this is the case, and if God rearranged the land
masses, perhaps breaking the continents off and into the seven current
continents and then floating them in to their present positions, such
that following the flood, there would be nothing left of those lands
described in Gen. 2:10-11 - then Havilah, Cush or Ethiopia, Assyria,
and the fourth river, the Euphrates, would not be associated with any
geographical area current in today's world. In fact there are only
four geographical areas that are described in Genesis. The Garden
being the first and the others above mentioned being the second, third,
and fourth. Well there is a reference to the land of Nod, where Cain
was driven off to, which is east of Eden. Nod comes from the Hebrew
word, 'Nowd', meaning vagrancy, waver, exile, taunt, flee. This
described Cain's attitude. He was a vagrant at heart, lazy, shiftless,
spineless. He ran away into an exile where he would refuse to return
from by his own decision. From a distance he would taunt or ridicule
those whom he left behind, thinking that his safety was wrapped up in
the distance he had between himself and the rest of those who remained
with Adam. Man can find no safety in putting distance between himself
and God, only further misery.

God could well have eliminated all life without the flood, but He chose
to flood the entire planet to accomplish that end. Perhaps this huge
mass of hydro power was utilized in breaking up the single continent
into the seven current continents. Doesn't it seem odd that this
number seven seems to pop up continually in the scriptures and in life?

Anyway we know that there is continental drift. We know that all the
continents were combined in the past forming a single huge continent.
We know that there is evidence of plant and animal life throughout the
world - even in Antarctica. This would be a good explanation as to how
everything managed to get to all the continents. The real question is
whether this all took place over millions of years or during that
single year of Noah's flood. God clearly has the ability to accomplish
that. This would also explain why the original Garden cannot be found.
Perhaps it is buried under the miles of ice which covers Antarctica.
Only speculation of course. You can play with your own imagination on
this subject. Oh, and was Atlantis the civilization that existed in
the pre-flood era? More fun imagination games.

The four rivers have similar meanings attached to them. I'll describe
the meanings and then get to the point of this entire exercise.
Remember that all of these rivers are flowing out and away from the
Garden representing mans leaving God in search for mans own self
meaning and self destiny.

The first river is the Pishon, 'Piyshown', to disperse, grow up fat,
scatter, proud. This is the first river - first, 'echad', alone,
first, only, to go one way or the other. It flows through the land of
Havilah. Flows through or compasseth, 'cabab', to wind through, to
surround, to border, to separate on every side.

Note thus far, that the original river of provision comes from God,
from His Garden. It also provided support for that region outside of
the Garden. The Garden represents life inside the Will of God while
life outside the Garden represents life by the will of man. Flowing
out of the Garden, man leaves the divine protections and blessings of
God and pursues his own blessings in arrogance. That is the purpose of
this first river. It saturates itself and seals off itself from the
Garden, being divided from the Garden by its own fat of self importance
and its own self determination, or independence as perceived by
arrogance. The river goes this way and that in reference to mans
aimless trek through life.

In the land of Havilah is gold and bdellium and onyx stones. But the
gold is the word, 'zaheb', or the shimmer of gold, not the real thing.
Bdellium is a stone or something in need of repair, 'aben', something
in a constant need of rebuilding. The last item the onyx, is noted for
its pale green color, 'shoham', thought to be beryl.

So in this land where man is trekking to, there is the imagination of
wealth and building but it is in fact an illusion, a state in constant
need of repair. Thus there is far less there than in the Garden. Man
seeks more and comes up with less or nothing. Real gold does not
exist, only the illusion of gold in that man gets color only. The real
gold is found in the Word of God, in Gods wisdom and application
thereof. Man has color only, something that one cannot even count in
ones wealth nor even spend.

Now the second river is double that of the first. Second, 'sheniy',
double, again, other. This is even more of the same as in the first
land. More promises of illusion, things sought but not really there.
The river is the Gihon, 'Giychown', stream, pool, going forth with
labor. This is the river that requires labor in life to exist or to
get ahead. It requires effort and places burdens on those who pursue
it. It flows throughout the land of Cush, 'Kuwsh', no meaning is
attached to Cush, but that is the name of Ham's son, and sin or a curse
is associated with Ham and his offspring, namely Canaan. So by
doubling ones efforts, a person still comes up with nothing but curses,
and emptiness.

The third river, third, 'sheliyshiy', meaning third in rank, it is a
feminine form of the word meaning extension, third time, occasionally.
This is a continuation of the first two rivers. More of the same, with
the feminine reaction to the results of the first two. You work hard
for nothing and you react to getting nothing. This river goes away,
'halak', to walk away, carry, spread, take away. It is a 'walking'
away even further from the Garden where the blessings you pursue really
exist but you cannot find them outside the Garden. The river flows
east, 'qidmah', in a relative direction, in front of, before, general
direction. Its flow is general and wandering. It is not precise in
its path. It flows generally in the direction and in front of the land
of Assyria, 'Ashshuwr', Assher (also the name of the second son of
Shem, not the first born), it means straight, level, right, happy,
honest, proper, guide. So this river falls short of attaining these
qualities. Though man pursues some semblance of his own self defined
morality and integrity and happiness, he does and cannot reach these
true goals, by following this third river. Man in effect gets further
and further away from God.

Fourth, 'rebiyiy', indicates a fraction, a fourth, as in sprawling on
all four extremities, laying flat on the ground as in the position for
sex, arms and legs spread, vulnerable and undefended but by choice.
The fourth river is the Euphrates, 'Perath', break forth, rushing, east
increase. Following the goals of this river gets you more and more of
nothing. It has no land defined for it, no destination. There is
nothing gained as a result of pursuing this river. So departure from
Gods will, the Garden, means that man pursues everything with greater
and greater energy, but will always end up with nothing.

By following these rivers a person in seeking the blessings of life,
ends up with less than a whole. He ends up with a fraction of what he
started out with and is not only laden with the burdens of the lands
outside of the Garden, but is vulnerable to the dangers and of being
taken advantage by everything else outside the Garden.

And, oh yes, Eden, 'Eden', means delicate, delight, pleasure. The
river flowing out of the Garden, is in verse 8, 'nahor', stream, sea or
ocean, prosperity, flood, sparkle, running. The river in the Garden is
by far the greatest, yielding all manner of blessings for those who
pursue it.

So the rivers of the Garden and those that flow throughout the lands
round about the Garden of Eden, represent the life of mankind. The
Garden is there for the taking, Bible study, but man prefers to pursue
his own course and to redefine life in accordance with whatever
philosophy his imagination comes up with. Man even does this within
sight of the Garden. Bible doctrine is always nearby and free for the
taking.

These points of doctrine were available to all who lived in the
centuries prior to the flood. Those folks saw the Garden as well as
the angels guarding its entrance. The Garden was an actual physical
place. But rather than turning to God and inquiring about its meaning
and purpose, rather than desiring to grow up spiritually even when all
these places were right in front of them, to actually see, most people
chose against God.

Better to sail up the crystal clear ocean of God knowledge than to
pursue the muddy and wandering rivers of man.