(Genesis) Genesis 2:8-14

Now, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And I can't tell you where the Garden of Eden is. I'm sure it's somewhere in the Tigris, Euphrates Valley.

In fact, it may be the entire valley. That valley originally was a very fertile place, still is for that matter. It's part of that green crescent, that fertile crescent, and at one time they didn't even plant grain there, they just harvested it.

It grew itself. Probably that area will become the very center of the earth again. Now, verse 9, And out of the ground made the Lord God grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Now, these are unusual trees that are mentioned specifically. You have the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I can't tell you much about them because, frankly, they are not around today.

They've been removed from the scene. But there was every tree, and the trees, you'll notice, were pleasant to look at, and they were also good for food. That was the beauty of them, and then the practical side of it, both of these that were combined.

In other words, it's like going into a furniture store today and having a salesman there say, well, this article of furniture is very beautiful, but it's also very functional. Well, that was the important thing in the Garden of Eden. They had some beautiful trees, but they were functional.

The fact of the matter is, very practical, they were good for food. This earth on which we live, you still see something of the beauty. In spite of the curse of the fall upon the earth, the fall of man, there is still the fact that it brings forth today the thorn and the thistle.

There's still a beauty here. In a recent trip out to the Hawaiian Islands, we were on the island of Maui, and I'd never been to the place called Hana. I'd heard so much about it, and it's difficult to get to.

We drove down that road. I have never been in such a fabulous, fantastic, and wonderful foliage in my life. It is beyond description.

And we made a certain turn, and there were many turns to make, but we came up on a very scenic spot, and you could look down that coast, and the little peninsula was stuck out there. There were the coconut trees, the papaya trees, the hibiscus, and the bananas, and the bamboo, and a little church among those coconut trees, a church the missionaries started. And you just couldn't help but be startled as you stood there, in fact, so much so that I asked that the group pause and bow their heads in prayer, and we asked a member of our party to lead us in prayer that we were just privileged to see that spot.

My, the Garden of Eden must have been a beautiful place. Now I read on, verse 10, and a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pisan.

The same is it that compassed the whole land of Havalah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. There's bedelium and the onyx stone. The name of the second river is Gihon.

The same is it that compassed the whole land of Ethiopia, and the name of the third river is Hittikal. That is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria, and the fourth river is Euphrates. And I think the one in Ethiopia would be the Nile, and the Hittikal would be the Tigris.