Paradise Reversed

“To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot up their top among the thick boughs, neither their trees stand up in their height, all that drink water:

for they are all delivered unto death,

to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men with them that go down to the pit.”

Ezekiel 31:14

Eden Revisited

The Garden of Eden was the paradise of God for many reasons, not the least of which was that the only way to fall was to eat from ONE of the myriad of trees of the garden. Moses wrote of that one fruit that the LORD God said, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:” (Genesis 2:16b-17a)

Every other option was a good one. Ninety-nine percent of the choices that man could make were good, acceptable, even perfect. The risk of things going wrong was miniscule. There was no danger of accident or of a random choice ricocheting- the bad tree wasn’t hidden, it was identified and marked: “the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:9) Eve herself knew exactly where the tree was located. “And the woman said unto the serpent , We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” (Genesis 3:2-3) Safety was engineered into the design of that first habitat; where the only danger lay in a lone, obvious, avoidable threat.

How different is our circumstance today.

In a defiant exercise of free will, man chose to leave God and the Garden behind. Adam feared ‘not knowing’ more than he feared judgment. “Ye shall be as gods,” the Serpent promised. “knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5) God’s paradise fell into a state far worse than ruin. Eden became cursed– and reversed.

Eden Reversed

With all the information available to mankind today, few stop to ask whether what they see is right or wrong, true or false. All that matters is we have more options at our command than our parents did. Ambition to be, to do, and to have drives us from option to option.

A garden… no, a forest full of trees. Trees overloaded with fruit. Trees all descended from that first tree that damned us six thousand years ago. That is the picture Ezekiel is describing in this verse. A world where there are many options, but no choice. Odds are, no matter what you do with your life, it will be a cursed affront to the God who gave it to you. Ezekiel prophesied of the trees of this garden: “for they are all delivered unto death.”

A young man recently was forced to make a life choice that he should not have had to make at his age. But forced he was, and the only options presented to him were garbage. One wasn’t better than the other… they were both rotten. He was told by his peers, “At least YOU get to choose.” Yeah, like picking whether you want to be hung with a new rope or an old one. All of Eden’s trees are cursed.

Eden Repaired

Though the devil’s fruit has gone to seed and overgrown this planet, there is still a ‘tree of life’ for any man who will seek God. The Lord Jesus Christ submitted to the dead weight of two pieces of wood to atone for people’s sins. It is not the tree where knowledge was plucked, rather it is the cross on which God’s love bloomed.

“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”

1 Peter 2:24

Our ‘Eden’ today is infested with endless options by which a man may go to Hell. There is still only one way to God: through the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

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