Gardens: April 2024
Table of Contents
Gardens
Gardens in the Word of God are presented to us as a place for fruit and fellowship, especially fellowship with God. Notice these two things as we consider in this issue some different garden scenes. What breaks the joy of fellowship? Sin. See what happens to joy in the garden when sin enters. The result in the Garden of Eden was man losing his visits from God for fellowship and being put out of the fruitful garden to face a life of thorns and thistles. The place of joy became the place of death. At the end of His life, our Lord Jesus went into a garden to have fellowship with God about His impending suffering and death. He takes three disciples with Him, for they too were being given the privilege of having fellowship with Him and with God about what was ahead and to be fortified by prayer. They were not up to it; He was. Death brings separation from fruitfulness and fellowship. In death our Lord Jesus is taken into a garden with a grave and a sealed rock to separate all from Him. But by the mighty work of Calvary, victory over all that hinders fruit for God and fellowship with God is won. The garden of death becomes the garden of life – “He is not here; He is risen.” May we each have our daily times of fellowship and fruitfulness in our gardens with our Lord. Have you had yours today? Have I had mine?
Adam and Eve - The Garden of Eden
Adam and Eve – The Garden of Eden
The full act of creation under God’s hand is detailed in Genesis 1. The work of creation is again given us in chapter 2, but much more succinctly. The narrative then confines itself to Eden, or to the Garden of Eden, because it was the scene of the great action about to be tried. All here is under the hand of the Lord God in a character of covenant relationship to man and the creation. The garden is particularly shown to us; it is described as the place of every desirable production and as the source of those fruitful rivers which were to go over the whole earth. Adam himself is put there “to dress it and to keep it.”
Adam’s Place in the Garden
Now all these provisions were for man’s happiness. He had all desirable things; he saw in his habitation a spring of blessing to the earth, and he himself was made the main one in that garden from which he derived his enjoyments. He was made to give as well as to receive, and all these were but different features of a happy condition to a well-ordered mind such as Adam’s. All this was surely so, but with advantages of so high an order, he needed to be reminded that he was only a creature still and that the divine planter of the garden alone was supreme. Accordingly the voice of a Sovereign was heard in the garden; a commandment went forth: “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat” (Gen. 2:17). But this voice was not a discord. It was all unison in the ear of an upright creature, for, act in what way or sphere He may, God must be, and will be, God — filling the chief place and not giving His glory to another. A creature who makes right choices (in this case, man) must therefore rejoice in any witness of God’s supremacy, trusting Him for his own blessing. All this is harmonious and consistent happiness, for in the command there is nothing beyond what is necessary. There is no laying upon Adam any other burden. One command is needed, and only one is given. And this is therefore only another item in the great account of his happiness. There the Lord God, to fill out the scene of this happiness, celebrates for Adam a coronation day and a day of espousals. The order of the passage is this (Gen. 2:18-22):
1. The Lord God first took counsel with Himself about Adam’s espousals.
2. He then introduced him to his dominions and sovereignty.
3. At last He celebrated his espousals and presented Eve to him.
Coronation and Marriage
This is the order of his coronation and of his marriage, and it is an order which has its meaning. I believe the richest purpose of joy is the first in God’s counsel, but the latest in His manifestation. The church was in the election and predestination of God before the world began, but other ages and dispensations took their course before that mystery “hid in God” was made known (see Eph. 3).
There is something of peculiar beauty and meaning in the order of this passage. It is not the mere progress of a narrative of independent facts; it is the design of a great Master who knew the end from the beginning. But not only so, it is not only the design of a perfect mind, but the well-known way of love also. The Lord God’s first thought was about Adam’s best blessing. The helpmeet at his side was to be more to him than the subject creatures under him. The day of his espousals was to be dearer to him than the day of his coronation. Accordingly, the Lord crowned him; that was done at once and put out of hand. But that which was to be chief in his enjoyments was the fondest image in the mind of his Lord. His Lord pondered it. He made it familiar to His thoughts — spoke of it to Himself, because it was to be the dearest to Adam. This was the way of love. We understand it to be so. We like to think of the materials of a loved one’s happiness; we turn it over in our thoughts, and thus is the Lord God represented here as engaged for Adam. The manner of forming the plan or taking the counsel was thus beautiful, and the plan itself was wonderful. It took the highest aim: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.”
Joy for Jesus
Jesus the Son of God has found this to be so. His joy is provided for in the very way in which the Lord God here provided for Adam’s joy. As we read, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son” (Matt. 22:2). How excellent a purpose therefore was this! It was making nothing less than the divine enjoyments the standard and the measure; it was saying to the creature, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” And not only in the plan, but in the execution of the plan, the divine original is copied. Adam slept a deep sleep, and out of his riven side a rib was taken, of which the helpmeet was made — as the Lord’s helpmeet came forth from His toil, His sorrow, and His death — and He felt and valued all this.
Adam saw of the travail of his soul, as it were, and was satisfied. “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,” said his satisfied heart, surveying the fruit of his weariness and of his mystic death, and this again is divine joy. There is Another, we know, who will thus see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. It is the rest of the laboring man that is sweet. It is the bread eaten through sweat of brow that is pleasant. Adam had not helped in the forming of any beast of the field. They had not been quickened through any sleep of his. But Eve was taken from his riven side. She had been the fruit of his death-like slumber, and he therefore prized her. “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23). Not only as his helpmeet, his companion, but because he had been so necessary to her did he prize her; she was out of his side as well as for his side. The execution of the plan bound his heart to her as well as the result.
And this was divine joy; this is the joy of Jesus. The joy in His church is His chief joy; she is both for His side and out of His side. Angels are not of the travail of His soul. But that which His toil and sorrow have won for Him and which is prepared for the fellowship of His thoughts and His affections — this will be the dearest. Every redeemed thing in heaven and in earth will surely be to Him the rest of the laboring man and the bread that is eaten through sweat of brow, but it is the church which is destined for His side, like Eve, as well as taken out of it.
J. G. Bellett (adapted)
How Man Fell - The Garden of Eden
“The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed” (Gen. 2:8).
What a wonderful garden this must have been! Four rivers converging, every kind of tree and plant, “pleasant to the sight, and good for food,” all planted by God himself, the Master Gardener. There was only one stipulation. “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17).
Fallen human nature too plainly speaks on every hand that the moment a prohibition comes home to us from the earliest childhood to our latest breath, at once is kindled within us the desire for the very thing which it forbade. A thousand instances and examples might be presented to prove this.
The Prohibition Test
But there was “law” in paradise before man fell, and man was a responsible creature before he broke away from God; he was responsible to obey the law prohibiting his eating the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil before he became a “transgressor.” God had revealed His ways to him, as a Giver, in the largest and widest generosity. Nothing was withheld from man. The 10,000 tributary streams which contributed to his happiness in Eden spoke of a God who would withhold no good thing. “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,” proclaimed the freeness and fullness of a hand of widest blessing. The man was to enjoy it all freely. One small interdict prohibited the eating of the fruit of one tree — a tree which marked a responsibility which, when accepted, would only entail evil: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” In observing this prohibition, he expressed that his will was subject to God who had placed him there and surrounded him with every creature blessing.
This is the principle of law. An interdict will always prove a will in the person addressed, either subject or not subject to another. The smallest interdict is sufficient for this. It is the way to discover whether another is subject to you or not. If not subject, the authority of that other is refused, and, as a consequence, two wills are opposed, the one to the other, while the man that is tested owns in conscience that God has a right to be obeyed.
Satan’s Attention to Prohibition
Now Satan did not begin by calling attention to the blessedness with which the man had been surrounded, nor to the character of God as giving all things richly to enjoy. Rather, he seizes upon the prohibition, calling attention to the interdict alone: “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” whereas God had said, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.” The grand master stroke of the serpent was to instill lust into the soul and distrust of God—to cast a suspicion on the fullness and freeness of His nature to bestow. This was the poison of the serpent which has permeated humanity ever since that day. It was done before ever there was a sin committed. The devil had stepped in and sown distrust in man’s heart, creating a suspicion in the soul, and separating man and his Creator by the loss of faith in Him.
This is what men do between each other nowadays to reach some end they have in view. I dare say they do not perhaps think so, but many of the sorrows between men, or even between brethren, are caused by some hint behind backs, or some whispered story to which the hearts of others are ready to lend an ear, which causes distrust to spring up between souls. Once distrust is engendered, dislike follows, but more especially in the one who has wronged the other. It is exceedingly hard to trust a heart you have wronged. “A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it” (Prov. 26:28). “He that repeateth a matter separateth very friends” (Prov. 17:9). “He that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away” (Acts 7:27). These passages (kindred in their character) are but the workings of this principle of evil. Hence the true saying: “The injured may forget; the injurer, never.”
To restore man to perfect confidence in God and to meet the outrage on His nature were the work of Christ at the “end of the world.”
The “Will”
Man then was a responsible creature before he fell. Distrust of God and lust were instilled into the soul of the woman. Will was put forth against God, and in the case of Adam it was high-handed will (for “Adam was not deceived”; 1 Tim. 2:14), and man fell. A breach as wide as the poles came in at once between God and man — an abyss, impossible to repair or to re-cross. Man became as “one of Us,” said the Lord, “to know good and evil” (Gen. 3:22). This he never can unlearn. He never returns to innocence again.
What then is it “to know good and evil”? It is something which is said of Godhead too — “as one of Us,” we read, “to know good and evil.” It is to sit in judgment and pass sentence on good or evil which we find in our own souls. Of David the king, it was said by the wise woman of Tekoah, “As an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad” (2 Sam. 14:17). This was in reference to the decisions of judgment. This we read of Solomon in 1 Kings 3:9 and of Israel in Deuteronomy 1:39; see also Hebrews 5:14.
This is the work of conscience — to take knowledge of the evil practiced by a will opposed to God, to sit in judgment upon it and to condemn, and alas! to apprehend the good, while opposed to it—to approve of it without the power to perform. This was fallen man with a conscience. Responsible before he fell, he distrusted God and transgressed in will His command. He had an ability, even when fallen, to pass sentence upon his own actions by the knowledge of good and evil — good that he had not the power or desire to practice, and evil that he was not able to avoid! Then at last he is driven out of the presence of God, for he had lost his place on such a ground forever. These three things marked his state: distrust of God, sin committed in that distrust, and his place irrecoverably lost. These three things are reversed by the gospel. His confidence is restored by faith in Him as a Savior, his sins removed, which had been committed in distrust, and he is brought into a new place in Christ before Him.
F. G. Patterson
The Garden of Gethsemane
The Garden of Gethsemane is well-known, not only in Christian circles, but also among many who do not know the Lord. It is found on the eastern side of Jerusalem, on a slope rising gently from the Kidron valley, on the way to villages that were present when our Lord was on earth — Bethany and Bethphage. Once a traveler was over the ridge, the terrain sloped rather sharply downward towards Jericho.
The area was well-known for thousands of years, for David crossed the brook Kidron and “went up by the ascent of mount Olivet” (2 Sam. 15:30). It was a place where Jesus “ofttimes resorted ... with His disciples” (John 18:2). It was a place of refuge from the noise and the crowds of Jerusalem that surrounded our Lord and Master during the day, and it does not seem that these crowds followed Him there, as they sometimes did around the Sea of Galilee. The name Gethsemane means “oil press” or “olive press,” as the slope was covered with olive trees. Indeed, some very old olive trees are still there, probably dating back to the twelfth century. Any olive trees that were there during our Lord’s time were likely cut down by the Romans during the siege of Jerusalem in 69-70 A.D.
A Place of Peace
It was a place of peace and quiet, and not only did the Lord go there with His disciples, but sometimes by Himself, to have a time of prayer, and even to spend the night — see Luke 21:37. Whether there was a garden separate from the olive grove is hard to say, but it was evidently a place that was cared for and cultivated—a pleasant place to visit!
However, when the name “the Garden of Gethsemane” comes to mind, it immediately brings before us the time our Lord spent there with three of His disciples just before going to the cross. What a scene that was, and surely unequaled in the annals of time, or even of eternity! In the very night that He would be arrested and eventually crucified, we see the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, as man, contemplating the cross and all that it meant. He could say, “Now is My soul troubled” (John 12:27), and Mark 14:35 records that He “fell on the ground.” What an agony was His, as He faced the sin question — a question He would settle for all eternity! Eventually all this resulted in “His sweat ... as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44). This is a very rare medical condition called hematidrosis, in which, under terrible stress, small amounts of blood leach out from the blood vessels and mix with the sweat. When we think of who our Lord was, it touches our hearts to their greatest depths, to think that He went through all this.
The Garden of Eden
Much of what we have been saying has been commented upon in other issues of The Christian, but since this issue is on “Gardens,” we will focus more closely on that theme. When God created man, He placed him in a garden — the Garden of Eden—where everything was beautiful and when sin had not yet spoiled this world. Here there was everything to make man perfectly happy and comfortable, yet he failed in the one commandment God gave him. Several thousand years later, the One of whom it had been prophesied concerning Satan that “He shall crush thy head” (Gen. 3:15 JND) was also in a garden.
It was gracious of God not to allow the full effects of the fall to overwhelm this world. There were still gardens in the days of our Lord’s ministry, and there are still gardens today, although spoiled by sin. It is precious to think of our Lord’s resorting to the garden on the Mount of Olives, but how different it was from what Adam and Eve experienced! It was rest and respite for Him from time to time, but now, just before the cross, it was not to experience rest, but rather to go through all the agony of the cross with His Father. Here were the tears, the fear, the sweating, the prayer that He might be delivered from drinking that cup of wrath. But when our Lord had gone through all this, He could calmly submit to the Father’s will. When later He faced the world, whether Jew or Gentile, He could do so in perfect peace and in complete control of all His circumstances.
A Stone’s Cast
None of His own could follow the Lord Jesus in going to the cross. When He went through the distress of facing what it meant to drink that cup that His Father had given Him, it is recorded that “He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast” (Luke 22:41). Yet since redemption has been accomplished, many of His own have been through an agony with God about what they were facing in their lives, and then they have been able to go through it all with a strength and courage that only God could give. The world never saw the tears and the agony they faced privately in God’s presence; they saw only the calmness and peace that was the result.
Our Lord, in the presence of His Father and in earnest prayer to Him, never succumbed to temptation as Adam and Eve had. He was faithful and obedient where they had failed, and His victory at Calvary’s cross is the means not only of our salvation, but also of glorifying God as to sin. However, the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane is not the last time the Mount of Olives will see the Lord Jesus. There will come a time when our Lord will indeed return to that mount, the place called Gethsemane, but then it will be in power and glory. Major geographic changes will take place (see Zechariah 14:4-5), of which we will not speak right now. But the One who agonized there before going to the cross will come back to claim His rightful place. As our hearts have stood in awe and reverence before that scene of agony, so may we also be among those “that love His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:8).
W. J. Prost
The Garden Tomb
Much has been written about the Garden of Gethsemane, where our Lord Jesus went through the agony of the cross with His Father. It is significant that it is only John’s gospel that calls the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane a garden, and it is only in John that the word “garden” is used in connection with the new tomb where our Lord was buried. John records that “in the place where He was crucified there was a garden” (John 19:41). This was not the Garden of Gethsemane, for our Lord was almost surely crucified outside the Damascus gate, on the north side of Jerusalem, while the Garden of Gethsemane was across the Kidron valley, east of Jerusalem. Many conjectures have been offered as to the exact place where our Lord was crucified, but it is impossible today to be absolutely sure of the site of either the crucifixion or Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb. However, we do know from Scripture that the garden to which John refers was near to the place where Jesus was crucified and that it contained a new tomb, owned by Joseph of Arimathea.
While we do not wish to speculate, it is reasonable to assume that the garden surrounding the tomb was privately owned by Joseph as well, for Scripture notes that he was a rich man. He was also a counsellor, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrim, but one who had not agreed to their plot to kill the Lord Jesus. The garden was likely his own place for rest and relaxation, and the place where he had already provided for his own burial. A godly sister in Christ, more than 150 years ago, perhaps with a touch of the imagination, described the Lord’s burial this way:
“There olives grew and palm trees waved, and there in that garden was a cave hewn out of the solid rock. I saw, far back through the ages, a few men and women who, with tearstained eyes, and tender touch, and silent haste, laid a form to rest — a Form wrapped closely in snow-white grave clothes ...
“But this funeral, done in such secrecy, with so much haste ... this funeral was the grandest that had ever been on earth. Creation held its breath in silent awe; angels wondered, as the Creator was laid by that handful of His trembling creatures in that rocky grave” (J.J.J., Clay and Stone, pp. 86-87).
Joseph’s Tomb
While Joseph’s tomb is mentioned in all four of the Gospels’ records, we have already noted that only in John is it mentioned that the tomb was in a garden. Also, it is the only gospel in which Gethsemane is specifically referred to as a garden. Third, it is of significance that although John uses the word “garden” in connection with Gethsemane, he does not record the agony and prayer of the Lord Jesus, although he was the only one of the four Gospel writers who was present there.
In speaking of the reason for this last omission, we tread on holy ground, but with reverence I would suggest that all this is in keeping with the way John presents the Lord Jesus; He presents Him as the eternal Son of God. As the Son of God, He was superior to all His circumstances, and thus the only incidents recorded in Gethsemane are the displays of His power. First, there was the reference to Himself as the “I am,” which caused His would-be captors to fall backwards to the ground. Second, there was a display of His power in grace: He healed the ear of Malchus, which Peter had cut off.
Again speaking with reverence, God had not forgotten what was due to His beloved Son as man — the one who always did His will. He first provided a garden on the Mount of Olives, and now He provides a garden for His beloved Son in death. Once the work of redemption was complete, God never allowed wicked hands to touch the Person of His Son again. The last act man was allowed to do was the soldier’s piercing the side of the Lord Jesus. After that, only those with faith handled His body.
A Rich Man’s Burial
Back in Isaiah 53:9 JND we read, “Men appointed His grave with the wicked, but He was with the rich in His death.” God had ordained that His Son should have a rich man’s burial, and in a garden, which speaks of peace and rest. Even today men often try to make cemeteries as beautiful as possible, with trees, grass and flowers, and those whose loved ones rest there often place flowers and other ornaments on tombstones. God also was going to honor His Son, even if man had crucified Him.
However, even though man may beautify a graveyard, it remains a place of graves and death. But with our Lord Jesus, that grave into which He was placed would soon be empty, for He had said clearly that He would rise again. So too will those who have died, having put their trust in Him.
The Spices
There is something very special to notice too about the spices that Nicodemus brought to embalm the Lord. It is recorded in John 19:39 that Nicodemus “brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.” Together Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus buried our blessed Lord, the one providing the new tomb and the other the spices.
Myrrh
But in Psalm 45:8 we read that “all Thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made Thee glad.” Myrrh is obtained from a small thorny tree, but it is necessary continually to “wound” the tree by cutting deeply into the bark in order to have the sap “bleed” out. It then forms a gummy, fragrant resin which has been considered very valuable throughout the world’s history. It speaks of fragrance through suffering — that which ascended up to God in the perfect obedience of His beloved Son. It has the character of the sweet savor of the burnt offering.
Aloes
Aloes is also extracted from the wood of a tree. It has the unusual characteristic of being bitter in taste, yet yielding a beautiful fragrance. It speaks to us of the sin offering, for the suffering for sin yielded the most beautiful fragrance. The result of all that bitterness and suffering was to settle the whole matter of sin before a holy God and provide a way for the removal of sin, not only from those who believe, but eventually from the entire universe.
Cassia
Finally, the Lord’s garments were permeated with cassia, a spice that is extracted from the twigs and bark of the cinnamon tree. While it has a strong and pleasant aroma, it was also well recognized for thousands of years as having medicinal and healing properties. I would suggest that it speaks of healing and comfort. Some may ask, Why then was it not present in the spices brought by Nicodemus? The answer is beautiful. Without the resurrection, there could be no salvation and no healing and comfort. Precious as was His work on the cross, it would not have sufficed to take away sin, had He remained in the grave. It is in resurrection that we have the cassia, perhaps best described in John 20:17: “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.” The cassia is not specifically named, but the result is clear. We are brought into favor and into relationship, not only with God, but with God as our Father. Never had this relationship existed before, for while God was always, in one sense, “one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:6), yet He had never before been known to man as Father, in the intimate sense of that relationship. It is indeed a relationship from which healing and comfort flow.
That tomb is empty now, for as He had said, our blessed Lord rose triumphant from among the dead, and then later ascended to His Father. Soon all the redeemed will join Him there, forever to celebrate His victory over death and the grave.
W. J. Prost
The Garden of the Lord
A garden enclosed is my sister, [my] spouse;
A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Thy shoots are a paradise of pomegranates, with precious fruits;
Henna with spikenard plants;
Spikenard and saffron;
Calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense;
Myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:
A fountain in the gardens,
A well of living waters,
Which stream from Lebanon.
Awake, north wind, and come, [thou] south;
Blow upon my garden, [that] the spices thereof may flow forth.
Let my beloved come into his garden,
And eat its precious fruits.
I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] spouse;
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.
Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, beloved ones! (Song of Sol. 4:12 – 5:1 JnD)
With these choice words from the Song of Songs, the Bridegroom likens His bride to a garden of delights. Probably, all believers, with hearts opened to understand the Scriptures, would agree that in the Bridegroom, or the “Beloved,” of the Song of Songs, we have a beautiful figure of Christ. Most would also concede that, in the interpretation of the Song, the bride sets forth Christ’s earthly people.
While, however, the strict interpretation of the bride has Christ’s earthly people in view, we are surely warranted in making an application to the church, the heavenly bride of Christ.
Furthermore, if we may discover in this garden the excellencies that Christ would find in His heavenly bride, do we not at the same time learn what the love of Christ is looking for in the hearts of those who compose the bride? May we then, for a little, meditate upon this garden, with its spring, its fruit, its spices, and its living waters, as describing what the Lord would have our hearts to be for Himself.
My Garden – His Garden
First, we notice that the Bridegroom always speaks of the garden as “My garden,” while the bride delights to own it is “His garden.” “Awake, O north wind ... blow upon My garden,” says the Bridegroom. The bride replies, “Let my Beloved come into His garden.” The application is plain – the Lord claims our hearts for Himself. “My son, give Me thine heart,” says the Preacher (Prov. 23:26). It is not simply our time, our means, our brains and our busy service that the Lord desires, but first, and above all, He claims our affections. The garden must be His garden.
As we read this beautiful description of the garden of the Lord, we note five outstanding features which set forth in figure what the Lord would have our hearts to be for Himself. First, the garden of the Lord is an enclosed garden. Second, it is a watered garden with its spring shut up and its fountain sealed. Third, it is a fruitful garden – a paradise of pomegranates with precious fruits. Fourth, it is a fragrant garden with trees of frankincense and all the chief spices. Last, it is a refreshing garden from whence “the living waters” flow, and the fragrance of its spices is carried to the world around.
The Garden Enclosed
If the heart is to be kept as a garden for the pleasure of the Lord, it must be as “a garden enclosed.” This speaks of a heart separate from the world, preserved from evil, and set apart for Him. We hear our Lord tell His Father that His own are a separate people, for He can say, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:14).
Does not the Preacher exhort us to keep our hearts as “a garden enclosed,” when he says, “Keep thy heart more than anything that is guarded” (Prov. 4:23 JnD)? Again we do well to heed the Lord’s own words. Unless the girdle of truth holds in our affections and thoughts, how quickly our minds will be drawn away by the things of this world, and the heart cease to be “a garden enclosed.”
How necessary, then, to have our hearts kept in separation from the world and preserved from evil. Nevertheless, the refusal of the world and the flesh will not be enough to constitute our hearts “a garden enclosed.” The Lord desires that our hearts may be sanctified, or set apart for His pleasure, by being occupied with the truth and all that is according to Christ. Does not Paul set before the Philippians “a garden enclosed” – a heart sanctified for the Lord—when he says, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8)? Thus set free from all that might come in between the soul and God, our hearts will be at liberty to enjoy the things of Christ and our minds free to “think on these things” —these holy and pure things which should mark one whose heart is “a garden enclosed.”
A Watered Garden
The heart that is set apart for the Lord will have its hidden source of refreshment and joy. It will be a garden with “a spring shut up” and “a fountain sealed.” A spring is an unfailing supply; a fountain rises up to its source. The Prophet can say, of one who walks according to the mind of the Lord, that his soul shall be “like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (Isa. 58:11). The world is entirely dependent upon surrounding circumstances for its passing joy; the believer has a spring of joy within — the hidden life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As the spring of life, the Holy Spirit meets all our spiritual needs by guiding us into “all truth”; as the fountain of life, He engages our hearts with Christ above. The Lord can say, “The Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of Me” — Christ in His new place in the glory. Thus as the Spring, He refreshes our souls with the truth; as the Fountain springing up to its source, He engages our hearts with Christ.
Let us, however, remember that the spring, which is the source of blessing, is “a spring shut up,” and the fountain is “a fountain sealed.” This reminds us that the source of blessing in the believer is sealed to this world and wholly apart from the flesh. The Lord speaks of the Comforter as One that “the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17). Again we read, “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other” (Gal. 5:17). We may mind the things of the flesh and turn aside to the world, only to find we grieve the Spirit so that our hearts, instead of being as a watered garden, become but a dry and barren waste.
A Fruitful Garden
The “spring” and the “fountain” will turn the garden of the Lord into a fruitful garden – “a paradise of pomegranates, with precious fruits.” The ungrieved Spirit will produce in our hearts “the fruit of the Spirit,” which, the Apostle tells us, “is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness” and “self-control” (Gal. 5:22 JnD). What, indeed, are these precious fruits of the Spirit but the reproduction of the character of Christ in the believer? The fountain, rising up to its source, occupies with Christ and His excellencies, and, beholding the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory to glory. Thus the heart becomes a garden of the Lord bearing precious fruit for the delight of His heart.
A Fragrant Garden
Not only is the garden of the Lord a garden of precious fruits, but a garden of spices from which sweet odors arise. In Scripture, fruit speaks of the excellencies of Christ, but the spices, with their fragrance, speak of worship that has Christ for its object. In worship there is no thought of receiving blessing from Christ, but of bringing the homage of our hearts to Christ. When the wise men from the East found themselves in the presence of “the young Child,” they fell down and “worshipped Him,” and “presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh” (Matt. 2:11). When Mary anointed Jesus with “a pound of ointment of spikenard,” she was there as a giver to render the worship of a heart filled with the sense of His blessedness. When she is at His feet as a worshipper, with her precious ointment, we read, “The house was filled with the odor of the ointment” (John 12:1-3).
In our day, if our hearts are to be a garden of the Lord, let us not forget that the Lord not only looks for the precious fruits of the Spirit, reproducing in us something of His lovely traits, but also the spirit of worship that rises up to Him as a sweet odor.
A Refreshing Garden
Last, the Lord would have His garden to be a source of refreshment to the world around. Thus the Lord speaks of the believer, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, when He says, “Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38-39).
We learn from the Song of Songs that the Lord wants our hearts as a garden of delights for Himself. He desires to come in and dwell within our hearts. If we are slow to let Him in, He may allow adverse circumstances, trials and sorrows, in order to drive us to Himself, so that we may say like the bride, “Let my Beloved come into His garden.” If we open to Him, we shall experience the truth of His own words, “If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20).
If then the heart of the believer is kept separate from the world, preserved from evil, and set apart for the Lord, it will become like “a garden enclosed.” In that garden there will be found a spring of secret joy and refreshment that, like a fountain, rises to its source. The fountain, springing up to its source, will bring forth precious fruit, the excellencies of Christ.
The fruit that speaks of the moral traits of Christ in the heart of the believer will lead to worship that rises up as a sweet odor to the heart of Christ.
The heart that goes out in worship to Christ will become a source of blessing to the world around.
In the light of these Scriptures, we may well pray the prayer of the Apostle when he bows his knees to the Father, and asks “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:16-17).
The Lord claims the undivided affection of our hearts. The garden must be His garden. Moreover, if the Lord claims our hearts to be a garden for His delight, they must have the marks of the garden that is according to His mind.
H. Smith (adapted)
The Choice of the Flesh
Under the influence of others, Lot had accepted the outside path: Left to his own choice, he showed that the world was in his heart (Gen. 13:10-13). Without seeking direction from God, he chose his path according to sight. “Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan.” It was an alluring sight and had promise of present ease and plenty. Everywhere there was water for his flocks, without the labor of digging wells. So fruitful was the plain that it was “even as the garden of the Lord.” Most significant of all, it was “like the land of Egypt.” Alas! Lot, having followed Abraham into Egypt, had acquired a taste for Egypt’s pleasures and thus had strengthened the desire for worldly ease and plenty.
So Lot chose all the plain of Jordan, gave up the separate path for which he never had personal faith, and forever left the land of Canaan. There was nothing gross or wrong in choosing a well-watered plain, but it proved that the heart was not set on the unseen land of God’s promise. Moreover, the real danger of the well-watered plains was that Satan had reared Sodom in their midst.
Abraham remained in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain. Having left the path of faith and chosen the path of sight and worldly ease, his way was always downward, for we next read that he “pitched his tent toward Sodom.” Of this city we are told, “The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” We shall yet learn that for Lot there was no recovery. Lower and lower he sank, until at last he passed from the scene under a cloud of shame and dishonor.
H. Smith
The Master's Pleasure
I remember when first I had a garden, and knew nothing of rose culture, how delighted I was when I noticed a most vigorous growth on a beautiful rose tree. I looked for many fragrant blossoms on that branch that seemed to lengthen by inches every day, but no roses appeared, and the other shoots which were bearing roses began to languish and cease to flower. Then I realized that this most promising growth was the product of the briar root, and because it had not been cut away, the tree had lamentably suffered. For that season, it did not put forth any of its former beauty. Self in us abides the same and will to the end, and if the life of Jesus is to be made manifest in our mortal bodies, there must be the mortification of our members which are upon the earth. We must be those who have no confidence in the flesh. Self-judgment must be our rule. Many a promising shoot will have to be cut away, and we be made little, if Christ is to be seen in us. Many of those bitter experiences in life, when things that we cherished and in which we could boast, which made something of us, but were taken from us, were simply the Master’s wise cutting down of self that Christ might be magnified in us. If we have been planted for the Master’s pleasure in His garden, we must be subject to His culture, or else we cumber the ground. How often under that culture has our pride been checked and our vanity wounded, and this pruning must continue to the end; the experience is not joyous while it lasts, for the sharp pruning knife seems to cut into the very core of our being, but it is all meant to yield afterwards those peaceable fruits of righteousness, the fragrant roses that delight the Master’s eye. Ah! let us yield ourselves to the Master’s hand who ever uses the knife for our good.
J. T. Mawson
Flowers of Grace in the Lord's Garden
The Gospel has been planted in our hearts that it may develop its beauty in our lives. We have but to yield ourselves to the blessed culture of the grace of God, and to be subject to the Lord Himself, whose tillage we are, and the blessedness of the Gospel will soon be seen. The meekness and gentleness of Christ will not be mere phrases on our lips, but beautiful realities in our lives. The Gospel brought forgiveness to us, so shall we forgive others; it brought peace into our souls, so we shall be peaceable; it set us in righteousness before God, so we shall be practically righteous in our ways; it has brought to us the knowledge of God’s love, so we shall love one another and do good to all men. And these flowers of grace will not bloom and wither in a day as so many flowers in our gardens do; they are everlasting flowers. God Himself will preserve them, for they glorify Him, and that which glorifies Him, because it is the fruit of His own word, will live and abide for ever. The poet Gray has tunefully said,
“Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.”
But these flowers of grace that adorn the Gospel in the lives of God’s people are not in that category. God sees them and delights in their fragrance even if nobody else cares. But others see them too, and many a weary Christian has been refreshed and blessed by their fragrance. A schoolmistress said to a friend of mine, “Your garden gives pleasure to many. I bring my girls past it every day, for I like them to appreciate beautiful things.” She spoke of a fading earthly garden, but these are heavenly flowers in the Lord’s garden which bless the soul. They flourished well in the young assembly at Antioch. And Barnabas, who had travelled all the way from Jerusalem to see what God had wrought there, was glad when he saw the grace of God. The Gospel was thus made visible there (Acts 11).
J. T. Mawson
Difference Between Paradise and the Third Heaven
There is this difference between Paradise and the third heaven. The former is the place of delights, the garden of delights with which God surrounds Himself, God’s Paradise; the other is approaching God Himself in the Holiest of all, where Christ is gone.
J. N. Darby
Gethsemane - The Place of Sorrow
In the Garden of Gethsemane, the subject of His fear — this dreadful judgment, in which Satan had his power, becomes His glorious obedience, and He presents Himself in the calm of all His life, and with such an evidence of divine power accompanying it, that His enemies go backward and fall to the ground. He delivers Himself up according to the Father’s will. Satan is just for nothing in it. This was most glorious. Gethsemane, that place of sorrow, but well-spring of delight and deliverance for us dug in the depths of Christ’s soul, was passed.
J. N. Darby
The Lord's Garden
Has the Lord called you out, just apart to Himself?
Shut up to His presence alone?
In a garden enclosed, you may bear precious fruit,
Which only to His eye is known.
The fruits of the Spirit, so precious to Him,
Need not active life to be known,
But in quietness, restfulness, patience and peace,
These fruits in His presence are grown.
The love and the gentleness, goodness, joy, faith,
Which come from His great heart of love,
Can only be known, when we’re resting in Him,
Occupied with the One up above.
The peace and long-suffering, temperance too,
The meekness, expressed by our Lord,
Were all shown in Jesus, when here upon earth
He walked as a man before God.
Up there in the glory, He lives for us now,
The Lamb, who to this world once came;
And seeks by His Spirit, to work in His own,
To bear fruit for His precious name.
In a garden enclosed, just shut up with Himself,
Is the place for these graces to grow;
Where we’re watered by rivers, and streams of His love,
And His presence continually know.
L. Beckwith