THERE IS A RIVER (The Four Rivers of Eden) M.F. Blume Psal 46:4 "[There is] a river, the streams whereof shall
make glad the city of God, the holy [place] of the tabernacles of the most High." HISTORY: Eastward in Eden, God put a Garden. He caused a River to flow from Eden on into this Garden that it may water the paradise prepared for man. From that point, the river would in turn separate into four other rivers. As Psalm 46:4 relates, Eden had one river that branched out into Four others - streams, as it were. Gen 2:8 "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in
Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed." These four rivers are given names and are specified from first to last in a particular manner in the Bible. This lets us know that there is a message for us to receive. The Lord simply does not provide information so as to merely satisfy man's curiosity. The Bible concerns salvation and God's plan for mankind. We must look at these rivers, the details of their descriptions and pray for illumination as to the message the Lord is trying to convey to us. The thoughts we will be discussing have resulted from prayerful research into the message of the Four Rivers of Eden, and, we believe, subsequent revelation regarding them. May the Lord further increase your study regarding these Rivers, and bless your reading of this study. The Rivers are listed in a particular order and are named in Genesis as
follows: APPLICATION: The name "Eden" means "Paradise". We can
liken Eden, then, to the Paradise of God of which we read in the New Testament. Jesus referred to what we call Heaven after the repentant thief asked the
Lord to remember him in His Kingdom. This is mentioned again later in Paul's writings as
follows: It is evident that Paul referred to himself in this passage. He experienced a catching up into the PARADISE of God. Again, we understand this to be Heaven. Not only is Eden referred to, but a Garden is also noted as being eastward in Eden. It is commonly mistaken today that the Garden WAS Eden, but the Bible specifically tells us that it was "eastward IN Eden," as though Eden were a large district. Eastward in that region of Eden did God place the Garden. This, too, is notable, as we shall see later. Gen 2:8 "And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in
Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed." THE KINGDOM OF GOD From the above verse we can notice that God made Adam from the dust of the ground and afterwards PLACED MAN in that Garden. Man was not made from the dust of the Garden. He was made OUTSIDE of the Garden, and afterwards placed within it. Looking at our present relationship with Christ, we can discern the truth that as Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden, we were placed within the Kingdom of God at the new birth. Jesus told Nicodemas that one must be born of water and spirit to enter the Kingdom. A kingdom is ruled by a King. And since Adam was to reign the world from that position in the Garden, we can tie these thoughts together. What we come out with as a result is that the Garden represents the KINGDOM OF GOD from which the believer rules. Jesus said the Kingdom is within you. Paul spoke of the world of the Holy Ghost when he said: The Church comprises God's Kingdom. Later, this Kingdom will manifest in all the world, but for now WE are already in the Kingdom! Praise God! So Adam represents those who are put within the Kingdom of God. Luke tells
us that Adam was a "son of God" since he had no earthly father. And Sons
of God rule, or are intended to rule. Notice the following verse in respect of this
thought: We were put into the Kingdom of God where Jesus rules, as Adam was put
into his kingdom in the Garden. As Adam was filled with God's breath of life, we were filled with God's
Spirit when God readied us for entrance into the Kingdom of God. God took us out from
the dust and dirt of this world and filled us with His Spirit, and then placed us in
His Kingdom. God breathed His breath into those in the upper Room on the day of Pentecost as they were filled with the Holy Ghost. EASTWARD The Garden was eastward in Eden. In order to see the thought of this eastward position we must consider the
events involving compass points later in the Eden story. After man was cast out of the
Garden, Cain and Abel were born. Cain murdered his brother, Abel, and was sent by God into
the land of Nod. Notice where Nod was located: Get the picture. The Garden was in Eden, but in the eastward part of that region of Eden. Nod was further east, outside of Eden altogether. The direction of the East is mentioned several times in this Garden
account. Many times in Scripture we see the compass points of east and west in
relation to God's people and error. When Lot departed from Abraham, into his backslidden
condition toward Sodom and Gomorrah, he went eastward, as did Cain. After the Exodus, the Reubenites requested to be positioned in the
wilderness side of Jordan and not in the land itself. Reuben's heritage was foretold by his father, and it was a bad one. Thus it is no wonder that the Reubenites chose to stay in the wilderness, eastward of the Land, rather than possess the land which God promised them, in type of their failing position with God. It seems the heritage of Reuben in the light of his erring ways was fulfilled in the tribe after his name. We also find that the evil city Babylon was built in an eastward location: All evil things were seemingly located eastward of God's territory and evil people journeyed away from God, as it were, to the east. WESTWARD Since Eden represents Heaven and the Garden of God's territory was Eastward in Eden we see which direction, spiritually, Cain went in relation to that which represents Heaven. Cain dwelt in the land of Nod east of Eden. Spiritually speaking, man is born outside of Eden in the land of wandering, for NOD means, "wandering; unrest." As Israel traveled over Jordan WESTWARD in order to get into Canaan, we see that westward direction represents progress towards God's will. And if we are all born in the EAST, the CHURCH is the closest thing to Heaven, and we must travel, as it were, westward, into the Kingdom within the Church. As the settlers in the days of early America used to say, we must "Go west, young man!" Scripture tells us that Jesus will travel Westward: One dear brother commented that receiving revelation from God is like this. It flashes from east to west, and Christ is revealed in our hearts. The Tabernacle and Temple had only one entrance in the EAST. In order to
enter into it one had to travel westward, and in that manner approach the presence of God
in the Holiest of Holies. This is IDENTICAL to the lay-out of the Garden of Eden. The only reason God would bar the east end of the Garden was due to the fact that the one and only entrance was located there. Otherwise He would have placed flaming swords and cherubims around the full circumference of the Garden. And if you look closely, you find there are many, many likenesses between the Temple and the Garden. We will discuss this later, also. With the Garden situated eastward in Eden, we find that the closest thing to heaven, for those on earth (eastward in sin), is the Church, the Kingdom of God. HELP IS NEEDED EASTWARD If the world in sin is represented as being eastward, we can readily see how that help is to be granted to those who are in the east that they might be saved. It is interesting to notice that on the day of Atonement, one day a year, all Israel gathered to Jerusalem. This was the day their sins would be atoned for by a sacrifice. This was the only day of each year the High Priest could actually enter the Most Holy Place in the tabernacle. After the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place with the atoning blood of the Lamb, he did something very enlightening as to our pertinent study of the Rivers of Eden. The High Priest walked into the Tabernacle, towards the West. He passed
the veil with the blood in his possession: For the above to occur, the High Priest would have to walk Westward into the Holiest of Holiest, where he then confronted the Ark of the Covenant, and then walk around and behind the Ark and turn Eastward and face the entrance from which he entered into the Most Holy Place. In other words, he faced the people who were Eastward, outside the Tabernacle, patiently waiting for the High Priest to conclude the all-important sprinkling of the blood in the Holiest Place, and accomplished the sprinkling ceremony. Blood is the life of the flesh. LIFE. And LIFE was sprinkled EASTWARD. A RIVER IF LIFE, as it were! Man is in sin, eastward, in the wandering state of NOD. Man wanders aimlessly in no direction without Christ. Only the sprinkling of His blood on the Mercy Seat of Heaven, eastward, or, typically speaking, for the *sake* of lost humanity, can redeem them back to God. Israel WANDERED through the WILDERNESS on their way to Canaan,
representing the return to the GARDEN. Recall that Abraham was also in that land, and his descendants, Jacob and the eleven patriarchs left Canaan and traveled into Egypt, where Joseph dwelt in rulership during the famine. They LEFT THE LAND. And Israel had to return, just as man left the Garden of fellowship with God due to sin, and must return in salvation today! DRY PLACES Humanity is eastward. Eastward direction in the Bible often indicates the
idea of being lost and of wandering. In the wandering *desert* we find that Israel dwelt
in a *dry place*. The enemy is said to lurk in the dry places. Even Jesus had to go
through the dry wilderness for forty days and then be tempted of the devil in that dry
wilderness. Moses' struck the rock, and waters of life flowed in the desert dry
places! And we know that CHRIST is that ROCK. Jesus said we would receive eternal life if we would eat His flesh and
drink His blood. He explained that He did not speak literally, but referred to His WORDS. Recall that the Word of God is "quick" (He. 4:12), or alive. Jesus said His words and Spirit "quickeneth" - or makes alive. This is not any ordinary life, though. It is ETERNAL life. His blood is LIFE that flows from Himself, the Rock, into the dry places like a river (Psalm 105:41). The RIVER OF LIFE. And we drink of it. When Jesus explained what He actually meant regarding eating His flesh and
drinking His blood, He said: After hearing about the WORDS of Jesus being life-giving, Jesus asked the
disciples if they would leave as did the multitude who only came to see miracles and cared
less for His teaching. Notice their response: Thank God for the RIVER of LIFE in His blood. His blood contained the New
Testament. Or, in other words, HIS WORD. Can you see the link between the blood of Jesus,
the Word of God and the RIVER OF LIFE? His literal flesh was not what He was talking about. It was His words! His Spirit quickeneth or makes alive! His words are Spirit and life. (More about Jesus' blood later in this study.) THE END OF WANDERING IN DRY PLACES - JORDAN Jordan marks the end of wandering and the beginning of life in the Garden. The day Jesus was baptised was the day He entered that wilderness to be tempted. The Devil roamed in the realm of the dry place of the Wilderness, which typically speaks of the dry places where the living water of the Spirit is absent. Literally the devil is not in dry places, however. And notice that Jesus was baptized IN JORDAN. As Israel had to cross Westward over Jordan to enter the Land, Jesus, as it were, left the land of Heaven after His baptism, typically, and entered lost humanity's domain. Jesus typically left the Garden to where we were, in the wilderness and dry places. There He experienced all the temptations we face and overcame them all as He began His ministry! Understand that Adam was thrust out of the Garden, Eastward. All man is born in sin, as it were, Eastward of the Garden. God came down from Heaven as a man and walked Eastward over Jordan to where we were. Since Adam failed, and thrust all of us Eastward into sin, Jesus, the Last Adam, walked Eastward to retrieve us and overcame that which bound us. (No man can lead anybody through a victory over which He has not already proven Himself victorious). When Jesus crossed Jordan into the wilderness, we see a picture of God coming to rescue us from wandering. Note that Israel followed a pillar of fire and cloud towards Canaan. We
will not wander in Nod if we only FOLLOW CHRIST. Moses tried fighting Egypt to free Israel, after killing an Egyptian who beat a Hebrew slave. He discovered that fighting is not God's plan. God's plan is DELIVERANCE. When Moses met God at the burning bush, God corrected the prophet and showed him that it was not that Moses would fight Egypt, but that GOD WOULD DELIVER ISRAEL FROM EGYPT. Today, too many believers FIGHT their flesh and try to coerce it to do good. Like Moses, they are mistaken, though sincere they may be. Paul tried fighting flesh with human efforts as follows: He explained that a believer will fail and be made captive to a worse
degree than was already experienced if that believer tries to fight the tendencies of the
flesh in his/her own power! It is not that WE should FIGHT, but that GOD must DELIVER.
Paul discovered the very thing Moses learned at the burning bush: Rom 7:24-25 "O wretched man that I am! *WHO SHALL DELIVER ME* from the body of this death? I thank *GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST* our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. " Who will deliver? God will. And Paul thanked God that He would do it. And the manner in which God would deliver him was THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. "THROUGH JESUS CHRIST" means BY THE BLOOD - by the river of
Life! It means, Not by human might, nor human power, as Paul taught, but BY GOD'S SPIRIT! Jesus DELIVERS us as did the pillar of fire deliver Israel from Egypt by
leading them. With this idea of following the Shepherd, Jesus, in mind, notice: He is the Light! He is clothed with a cloud! He is the pillar of cloud and fire that led Israel through the dry wilderness! He leads us out of the wilderness into the Garden! The picture, then, of the High Priest sprinkling blood Eastward gives us the beautiful truth that Christ, who is the great HIGH PRIEST, died *for lost humanity*, who is Eastward in the dry places of wandering. He shed His blood for those in the dry places. His river of Life flowed eastward! Notice in Revelation that the RIVER flows from the throne. Talk about the
fountain of eternal youth - Jesus' blood flows for our eternal life! "...the throne of God and the Lamb!" Why? Because God delivered us THROUGH CHRIST. Praise God! Ministry must be accomplished Eastward. All of lost Humanity is Eastward. It seems the RIVER that flowed eastward from Eden into the Garden, and, in turn, branched out into four rivers that left the East entrance of the Garden to all the world, speaks of the Spirit of God reaching outward in ministry to lost humanity. We read of four rivers leaving the EAST region of Eden, and THEN, from there, to all the world. This tells us that the WHOLE world is typically EASTWARD, compared to Heaven, and wandering in sin. THE RIVER OF THE SPIRIT As the River of Eden came forth into the Garden FROM Eden/Paradise, The
Spirit of God descended from heaven, or from paradise. This is a wonderful parallel! The Spirit descended from Heaven (EDEN) above. Another point to notice is that Jesus likened the Spirit of God to LIVING
WATER. The River of Eden was the RIVER OF LIFE. One day, in a vision, God pointed Ezekiel to the River of God's Spirit
which flowed EASTWARD, exactly as the River of Eden flowed into the Garden! Praise God! What a beautiful picture of God's Spirit. It travels eastward into the dry places of the world, where God's Spirit is not known. Multitudes of fish, souls of men, are found and freed from the wandering in the seas of life, wherever the Spirit flows. Jesus told us to be fishers of men. We DEPEND UPON THE SPIRIT in our efforts to win souls, as the fishermen STOOD UPON THE RIVER. Without the strengthening and anointing of the Spirit of God upon us, we cannot minister to lost humanity. Ezekiel saw another vision depicting dryness and spiritual saturation of
LIFE: The dry bones came together by the word of God: It took something more than WORD. SPIRIT was required also, just as Adam was made from the dust of the earth and required the BREATH OF the LIFE OF GOD'S SPIRIT to then enter him. Ezek 37:9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. FOUR WINDS! Like the FOUR RIVERS of EDEN! Recall the day of Pentecost when
a mighty rushing wind filled the house as the 120 were filled with the Holy Ghost!! The Jews were to return to their land as mankind must return to the GARDEN
OF EDEN!! The HOLY GHOST BRINGS US INTO THE GARDEN! INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. We must be
born of the water and of the Spirit to enter the KINGDOM or into the GARDEN, and rule! Since BLOOD is LIFE of the flesh (Lev. 17:11) we can also see this picture of the RIVER OF LIFE in the blood which the High Priest sprinkled Eastward in the Tabernacle. It is noteworthy that the evil spirits, that are cast out of people, go
into dry places. Spirits of Satan hate God's Spirit and Presence. The Spirit of God is like a River. And if anything typically represents the abode of evil spirits it would be a desert and dry place, void of the wetness of the Spirit. Creatures of darkness and desert life are used to describe evil spirits in
the words which God gave concerning Idumea, typically the enemies of the Church. We need to saturate this world with God's LIVING WATER OF SPIRIT and drive out all evil spirits everywhere! The woman at the well who met Jesus thirsted in a spiritual manner, for she lived in sin and in a dry place spiritually for many years. JUNCTION POINT OF THE SPIRIT If the Spirit is pictured as flowing from Eden as a River towards and into
the Garden of the Church, and branching into four more rivers at this Garden, we see that
the Garden is like a JUNCTION POINT. The four rivers leave the Garden and go into four
more regions. The number 4 biblically indicates something about THE WORLD. Four Gospels
are written, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, for the world to hear and be saved. Often we
read of the "four corners" of the earth. The inhabitants of the world are
described in four consecutive terms: Judgments against man are pictured as four: So we can see that the four rivers leaving the Garden speak of the Spirit of God reaching out to all the four corners of the world from the Church in ministry! Praise God! We must understand why the Spirit is within us. The Upper Room was a sort of GARDEN depicting Heaven from which God's
Spirit descended as a mighty river of wind. From that point of the world, in the Garden of
the Upper Room in Jerusalem, Jesus foretold that the believers would MINISTER TO FOUR
POINTS. And the same passage tells us why the RIVER of Spirit is given to us: The Sprit IS POWER TO WITNESS. This speaks of ministry to the world. We must WITNESS of Christ's resurrection and salvation to the world in sin. From the Upper Room, where the saints first received the SPIRIT OF POWER, they were to go out into all the world (indicated by the four regions mentioned). Jesus Christ, before the day of His crucifixion, PRAYED IN A GARDEN (Gethsemene), and HIS BLOOD, HIS VERY LIFE, sweat out through His flesh. He prayed in this manner for lost humanity and the death He must experience on the cross for mankind. A RIVER OF LIFE FLOWED IN A GARDEN FOR ALL THE WORLD OF LOST HUMANITY!! And he SWEAT forth His blood! Sweat depicts WORK. Jesus had a job to do! Adam's JOB was to dress and keep the Garden. Jesus had to watch and pray! Praise His name! WORK AT THE JUNCTION POINT Gen 2:15 "And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. " Since the River junction point between God and the world was situated in the Garden, these two efforts of *dressing* and *keeping*, reserved for Adam's work, were most important! The River flowed purely into the Garden and it must remain pure that it may reach its destination in its purity. Wherever the River would flow, fruitfulness and life would flourish. I believe God desired the Garden to spread, as it were, across the face of the world. It would increase its boundaries due to the fruitfulness that the Rivers would provide to the outside regions. Should the River be cut off, the fruitfulness would cease spreading outward to the world, and dryness of sin and evil would remain. The Kingdom of God must be preached to all the world. It is spreading at this very moment. And when all nations have heard, and a believer stands in every one of those nations, the work has been accomplished, and Christ will reign one thousand years! But we cannot allow ourselves to be contaminated with fleshliness and thus corrupt the unadulterated ministry of the Spirit through us to the world! We must maintain our purity in Christ, that we, in turn, may dress and keep the Garden that the River remain pure that it may reach the world in purity. Satan had to find a way into the Garden to stop this work of God. He subtly entered the serpent, a beast of the field (not "of the Garden") in order to gain entrance. If Satan could stop man from dressing the Garden (building it up and outward) and Keeping the Garden (protecting its sanctity for the River's sake), the devil could rule earth instead of this "son of God" (Luke 3:38). And the earth would be a huge desert rather than a fruitful garden! So, the picture of four rivers leaving the Garden tell us of the Spirit of God transformed into ACTIVE MINISTRY in the Garden/Church from which it will leave and minister to the whole world. Ministry of the Spirit, whether it be in preaching, healing, a word of encouragement at the right time, is that which was formerly incorporeal and intangible and "unrelatable" to the world, being "translated" into activity that humanity CAN relate to. The world cannot see nor hear God. But WE CAN! Therefore, we as the Church are a JUNCTION POINT. Praise God! The Church is a vital place in the plan of God. It is strategically located between heaven and the world of lost souls as a transformation centre where the Spirit of God flows into the Church to be transformed into ministry in the physical. The Church is the temple of the Holy Ghost where man meets God. The Church is the Body of Christ. With our regenerated spirits, we are a contact point between lost humanity and God. We can hear God, whereas the world is deaf to His voice. And unless God can use us to minister in this world, the message for them will never reach them. We are like a HYDRO PLANT where water flow is transformed into POWER to lighten the dark world! Jonah was told to go to Ninevah and preach judgment of God to the people there. Why did not God speak directly to Ninevah, Himself? It was due to the fact that Ninevah could not have heard God's voice. No wonder God took Jonah through such awful lessons in order for him to obey God and go to Ninevah! Without us, Church, the world will be lost without hope. God placed Adam in a very important location in the world! The most important place in the world! Since the River of Life was to flow into all the world, the junction point determined its purity being preserved. You see, evil was in the world. A corruptive element was already at work when God placed Adam in the world. Satan was out there. If this were not so, why did God put Adam in the Garden to dress and to KEEP it? KEEPING the Garden means "PROTECTING" it. Protecting it from what? Obviously something outside the Garden was the element which God wanted to remain OUTSIDE the Garden. And Adam's job was to do just that. Keep it outside. By dressing and Keeping the Garden, Adam would maintain his position of
rulership under God. The work of dressing and keeping is a work in which we as believers must all labour. Jesus likewise told the disciples in the GARDEN of Gethsemene to do TWO THINGS that night in the Garden. WATCH AND PRAY. Watching is KEEPING or PROTECTING. Praying is DRESSING. We must dress this Garden and maintain its beauty and build it up and increase its borders. Prayer maintains our relationship with God and enhances our spirituality so that our effectiveness in ministering to this lost world may be at maximum potential. Watching is keeping a look-out while we work for God that we do not become invaded by lies from the Devil. We must keep the world out of our lives and our Garden. If the corruption from the world enters our lives, and we are adulterated from purity of union with God alone, the work of the Spirit in us will be tainted with fleshliness and worldliness. This will cause us to exude an impure work of God to the world. Flesh will be mingled with our ministries, and a distortion of God's will will then be manifest to humanity. When Nehemiah restored the walls of Jerusalem, his men watched and prayed
in type. They worked to build up the walls with one hand and held a weapon in the other -
watching. DENY SELF Since the blood represents the LIFE of the flesh (Lev. 17:10-11) we can
see that Jesus taught us a lesson in shedding His blood by sweat as He prayed in the
Garden. By SWEATING BLOOD, Jesus showed how we must DENY OURSELVES. Self-denial is the
WORK we must accomplish that the Spirit might ever flow like a river from the church! OUR
LIVES must be lost in exchange for HIS LIFE. It is NOT OUR WILLS but HIS WILL that we must
do. We must LABOUR in the Garden, as did Adam, and deny ourselves to let the
Spirit flow outward. The above verses in John speak first about a corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying. Look at the corn of wheat as life encased in a shell. Unless that shell is broken by falling into the ground and thereby deteriorating, the life cannot come forth and multiply itself. So must we deny our lives, or the shell of the natural and the carnal, in order for God's Spirit within to flow out of us and out to the dry world as a River of LIFE! Hallelujah! Perhaps the River was cut off when Adam fell from the Garden. At any rate, God will cut off the flow of the Spirit into our lives if we do not remain pure. He does not want His Spirit corrupted by fleshliness in His desires to minister that Spirit outward to lost humanity through us. Since He has chosen to flow through us by way of His Spirit, we must accept our responsibility of remaining sensitive to His voice through prayer, and pure for His use through watching. But Satan entered the Garden and LIED to Eve. A LIE felled Eve, and she succumbed to the temptation and sinned. In turn, she urged Adam to sin, and he, too, fell. Both were cast outward to the east away from the Garden. The junction point was corrupted. In the Garden of Gethsemene the devil possessed JUDAS as he formerly possessed the serpent, and in that manner entered the Garden to attempt to fall the Son of God, the LAST ADAM, as he did the first Adam. When Jesus spoke of the LIFE in His BLOOD, He immediately thought about
JUDAS. Perhaps Jesus had the River of life in mind, and how the serpent corrupted the
purity of the Garden. The very Devil that possessed the serpent in Eden entered also into Judas! Satan recognized Jesus as the LAST ADAM, and tried to repeat his efforts which succeeded in Eden so long ago. As the serpent used its mouth to SPEAK FORTH A LIE to Eve, JUDAS BETRAYED JESUS WITH A KISS of his mouth (perhaps intended to deceive the SECOND EVE, the disciples who stood nearby and were the then-future church). Praise the Lord that He did not fall as Adam did, but went all the way to the cross despite the shame and agony. THE END AND A RETURN TO THE GARDEN The picture of the Tree of Life and the RIVER OF EDEN is seen again in the
end of the Bible in Revelation. The Tree and the RIVER are there IN THE NEW CITY,
JERUSALEM, as they were in the Garden of Eden. The River is clear as crystal. Pure. Note the preceding verse to this passage as follows: Speaking of the New City, we are told that nothing unclean can enter the City should they defile the City. And it specifically points to the very thing that caused the River of Eden to be contaminated in Genesis, as it lists all that which is barred from the City. "Whatsoever...maketh a LIE." A LIE felled mankind and corrupted the River, in a sense, and a LIE is specifically noted as being one of the elements which are barred from ever entering that New City. All will be restored as it was in Genesis, only, the Garden will be replaced by the progressive phase of a CITY. This hints that God's original intent was for Adam to dress the Garden and build it up into a City with all his descendants living in that great paradise of the Garden. How else would Adam and his children dwell in the Garden together? This, of course, though, was thwarted by Adam's sin. Recall that Abraham LOOKED FOR A CITY as he journeyed into the land of Canaan, which land typifies the Garden. In fact, the spies called the Land a land flowing with milk and honey. A Garden, as it were! THE FOUR RIVERS The SINGLE River of Life entered the Garden and became FOUR RIVERS. The text at the beginning of our study notes a single river from which STREAMS (plural) go forth and make glad the CITY of God. What a wonderful parallel!! The four rivers are the streams that leave the Garden, or the counterpart to the NEW CITY, and reach all the world. When the church of God, His people, are doing their part in labouring for
His cause by watching and praying, keeping and dressing, the flow of the Spirit outward is
maintained. And when we fulfill our part for Him, oh!, how we, the CITY of God, are glad!! Notice that the passage above also speaks of the TABERNACLES of the Most High. The Tabernacle, Garden and NEW CITY are all speaking forth the same thought of God's junction place in this world - The Church! Nothing can make a believer as glad as working for God's Kingdom! Jesus worked, as the Last Adam, in the Garden. That is why HE *SWEAT* BLOOD. Sweat indicates work. And the type of work He did was INTERCESSORY work, for the behalf of lost humanity, and self-denial. The workers in a HYDRO PLANT must maintain their efforts of efficiency so that the "CURRENT" of electricity continues to FLOW to the world and ENLIGHTEN the darkness. We, too, must maintain our dressing and keeping of this Garden, that the POWER of the Spirit continues to work in us that we might WITNESS of Jesus Christ, the LIGHT OF THE WORLD, to lost humanity. The rivers are given names for a special reason. We can glean a wonderful
truth from these names. And they are not only given names, but these rivers are given a
specific priority in relation to one another by being referred to as the FIRST RIVER,
SECOND RIVER, THIRD RIVER and FOURTH RIVER. 1) PISON - Pison is translated as the following: Above, PISON is seen to be derived from the following: Pison implies the idea of spreading and increasing. DISPERSIVE is the word. Since DISPERSIVE is the thought behind the meaning of the name of the First River, we can see a wonderful thought. God's first and foremost priority in the thought of having His Spirit flow through us to the world is the idea that it MUST BE DISPERSED. As much of the dry world as possible must be saturated with the Spirit of God! This must be our first priority after receiving God's Spirit. Jesus said it was given to us as Power TO WITNESS! 2) GIHON BURSTING FORTH! Hallelujah! Can you see the second priority of the Spirit? It is derived from the following word: Our second priority in understanding our part in maintaining the flow of the Spirit is that it must ALWAYS FLOW BOUNTIFULLY, BURSTING FORTH from us. We are not meant to merely trickle forth the Spirit of God. We must be FILLED with the Spirit so that it OVERFLOWS forth everywhere! 3) HIDDEKEL RAPID!! (And another source informs us that the thought of "Sharp Voice" in meant to be taken from the name.) Our third priority in working with the Spirit is the thought of a QUICK WORK that God desires to accomplish through us. We must clearly sound the truth as we let the Spirit flow through us. 4) Euphrates Fruitfulness! Is not this the end result of the flowing of God's Spirit in proper ministry as it is meant to flow through us? The land will be fruitful, if maintain the above three priorities. The Junction point for the River must be protected from corruption of fleshliness and worldliness. If Satan manages to invade the Garden, he will be able to stop the flow of the pure Spirit of Life to all the lost world. The Garden had to remain HOLY! And from our text, we find that the streams from the river make glad the City, the holy place of God. Immediately after speaking of the four rivers we read that God put man in
that junction point. THE TREE OF LIFE The River in the New City is clear as crystal. It is pure! This water
FEEDS the tree of Life, since it WATERS the Garden, according to Genesis: As the River watered the Garden, it watered the tree of Life. The eternal Life from the Tree's fruit was meant to be partaken of by man, but without the River of Life watering that tree, we see that the fruit would not manifest for man's benefit. Jesus is the fruit of Life on the Tree. Although the Cross was a tree of
death for Him, it became a TREE OF LIFE for you and me! Thank God! Since He is the Word made flesh, we can readily apply John 6:53-54 to
believing HIS WORDS. Its not the literal Body of Jesus He is referring to, but the WORDS
He spoke. Leaves are for shelter and comfort. We read of the leaves of the tree of
life as being for the purpose of healing the nations. With the troubles of sin and
iniquity having been around since Adam's fall, there is much healing required for all the
nations. Jesus is like the fruit on the Tree of Life and also the LEAVES. The Tree
of life was anointed by the River of Life, the Spirit, for the distinct purpose, among
others, of healing: Jesus is the SUN of righteousness, for healing: (Wings, like leaves, are used to indicate the thought of protection and shelter - Luke 13:34). The Spirit of God anointed Jesus to heal, as the River of Life watered the tree of life that it's leaves might heal the nations. No more curse exists in the City, as opposed to the curse that was first
introduced in the Garden. THE CHURCH TODAY Had Adam not fallen, what would have occurred with mankind in relation to the Garden. It was a holy place, where God's very presence walked with Adam. Perhaps Adam would have remained as High Priest, in a sense, while He ruled the world under God. We do know that Jesus, the Last Adam, was High Priest. Of course, Adam would not have offered a blood sacrifice, for blood was only for the remission of sins. There would be no sin had Adam not fallen. But it may be that all Adam's descendants would gather to the Garden and regularly partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life. Well, this did not occur, but, in a sense, it is occurring through another means. The Church. The Church is the Garden. It is a paradise with God to be born again and in the Church. What a life! The preaching of the cross, the Tree of Life, offers, in the form of words, fruit of life. Jesus' words are fruit of eternal life to those who come to the Body of the Church to hear and believe them. Could the River of the Spirit branching out and reaching all the world be attracting people to the source of that River - the Garden? We have been given Jesus' holiness. All that we can do in the form of works, is to keep it. We cannot attain it, nor work to get it. But we can work to keep it. Adam could not create the Garden, but simply KEEP it, or protect it. |