Genesis 2:14, commentary and pictures

The verse names Hiddekel going toward the east of Assyria and Euphrates as the third and fourth of the four rivers that ran by and belonged to the Garden of Eden. That garden was planted in Eden for Adam and Eve by design counseled before the world was, and God placed Adam there created in His own image with mind and will and moral faculties, with every tree pleasant and good for food, pure nature, precious treasures, and everything required abundantly supplied. He gave them the pleasant work of dressing and keeping it in communion with Himself, with useful labor as their safeguard to be perpetuated through all generations and with children to be trained from infancy to useful things. They were permitted every tree but one as the smallest test of obedience and loyalty, yet Satan insinuated doubt, Eve fell and Adam accepted the forbidden fruit, so by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, Eden was lost, woe flooded the world, and the beautiful earth was afterward destroyed and buried by the Flood. That lost Eden home was ransomed back by Jesus Christ as the second Adam, who began where the first Adam began and overcame by perfect obedience, so that believers who overcome as He overcame by searching the Scriptures and obeying all God's requirements are brought back to their Eden home to be restored in grand beauty.

Eden's Rivers and Home

The third river is Hiddekel, which goes toward the east of Assyria, and the fourth is Euphrates, the third and fourth of the four rivers that ran by and were associated with the Garden of Eden. This belongs to the planting of a garden in Eden for Adam and Eve that was designed in counsel with the Father before the world was. God placed Adam there after creating him in His own image with mind and will and moral faculties after the similitude of God's mind and will.

The first Adam began there in every way more favorably situated than Christ, with wonderful provision made by a God who loved Adam and Eve, everything in nature pure and undefiled and everything they required abundantly supplied. The garden had every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, with fruits, flowers, and beautiful lofty trees flourishing, together with blooming gardens, bubbling fountains, running streams and beautiful lakes. The whole land was enriched with precious stones and gold and silver and rich treasures of minerals, given to enrich the earth for man's good and to remind him of God.

Sin Loss and Restoration

In Eden Adam and Eve were given permission to eat from every tree but one, with eating from the tree of knowledge prohibited as the smallest test to prove obedience and test loyalty. The knowledge thus withheld was sin and its results: toil, anxiety, disappointment, grief, pain, and death. Adam was furnished with a holy, sinless, pure, undefiled nature, but Satan insinuated doubts of God's wisdom and accused the heavenly Father and Sovereign of selfishness. Eve fell under temptation, and Adam accepted the forbidden fruit from his wife's hand and fell because he listened to the suggestions of the enemy, so that by one man's disobedience many were made sinners and his posterity was depraved.

By that sin they lost Eden and were excluded from the Paradise of God, opening the floodgates of woe upon the world. That sin began a steady increase of sin that led God to destroy the world by a flood, saving only Noah and his sons, and that continues to the present world. Though marred by sin the blight and curse rested lightly upon that beautiful world at first. Afterward that world with its fruitful trees, shady avenues, forests and gardens was utterly destroyed and buried under rubbish, earth and upthrown rocks when rain descended and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, leaving the earth a broken, uneven, frightful solitude.

The Eden home lost by transgressing God's law was paid the price to be ransomed back from the hands of Satan by Jesus Christ. Christ as the second Adam in purity and holiness, connected with God and beloved by God, began where the first Adam began and overcame by perfect obedience to His Father's commandments. The Hiddekel and Euphrates record one detail of man's holy and happy estate in Paradise that Adam knew by personal experience. Under God's command to instruct his posterity in the way of the Lord, he carefully treasured and faithfully repeated it to his children and children's children to the ninth generation, together with the history of his fall, the sufferings that taught the necessity of strict adherence to God's law, and the merciful provisions for salvation. In this he sought to stem the tide of evil as a witness to the results of sin for nearly a thousand years, though few gave heed and he often met bitter reproach for the sin that brought woe upon his posterity.

The Eden-home in which Adam and Eve were placed and the Garden of God cannot be expected to be found in this sin-desecrated earth, where even the most desirable place has something to mar it. The things of nature are an expression of the love of God and though marred by sin still speak of that Eden-home. They remind that this home shall be restored in grand beauty and the earth shall be filled with the praise of the Lord. Its garden-and-field life is presented as the pattern for life on the restored earth to be cultivated under the supervision of God.

Work and Instruction There

God placed Adam and Eve in the garden and gave them the pleasant employment of dressing and keeping it, caring for the fruit trees and cultivating and training the vegetation, for the garden had been planted for them in counsel with the Father before the world was. Adam was the first man that labored together with God, with nothing to interpose between them and their Maker. The beauty of the place and the abundance of its provision did not mean they were to remain idle.

Useful labor there was their safeguard. It was to be perpetuated through all generations to the close of earth's history. In Eden Adam received instruction from God through communion with Him, showing that proper education combines science with practical labor.

Children from infancy should therefore be trained to do useful things suited to their age and ability. Believers overcome as Christ overcame and are brought back to their Eden home through searching the Scriptures, being placed in right relation to God, and being obedient to all God's requirements instead of transgressing as Adam and Eve did. Entering that restored Paradise, the beautiful garden to be given back to be cultivated under the supervision of God, requires using every spiritual advantage now to become skilful workers in His vineyard, with God watching for evidence of faith and love and patience proved by sincere, faithful service, bending their own footsteps heavenward while pointing others there.