We have some very precious truths in God's Word concerning the assembly, the body of Christ. God has made that wondrous position for His people so they can be one in Christ and go on together in a practical way. This truth concerning the body of Christ, that precious oneness that God has established by His Spirit, is a truth that has been greatly attacked. Satan does not like it because that precious truth draws us nearer to Christ and consequently nearer to one another.
There is another truth we have in the Word of God, another institution that God has established. It, too, has been under attack by Satan, particularly in recent years, and that is the truth in the Word of God concerning the Christian home. These two things, the Christian home and the assembly, are dealt with in the very beginning of the Word of God. It is as if God would say to us, "I want to show you right at the very beginning how important these two truths are.”
In the second chapter of Genesis you will see, with God's help, a picture that God has established of what He intends our homes to be.
The Lord Jesus and His Church
We have the precious truth concerning The Lord Jesus Christ and His Church, the assembly, pictured here in Adam and Eve. We find that Adam was under a deep sleep when from his side a rib was taken and for him was fashioned Eve, the woman who was brought unto the man. We see here a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus and His Church. He went into the deep sleep of death and God formed for Him this woman, and Christ, like Adam, will have that which is so infinitely precious to Himself which is now spoken of as "flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone," made one with Himself.
When we see the picture of the Christian home unfolded before us, we find a very distinct and instructive order. "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." v. 7. Here we have the foundation, the first step in the establishment of a Christian home—the man who becomes a living soul. He belongs to Christ by the miracle of new birth and now he, as a child of God to whom God has given life, is ready for his home.
Man was formed first and then for him God formed the garden. It tells us distinctly that in the garden "out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food." In the garden which God intended to be the home for the man whom He created and gave life to, He provided everything that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. A man does not have to wander into strange pastures to find that which satisfies his heart. It is all in his own home as God has established it.
A Home in Order
In the tenth verse it says "A river went out of Eden to water the garden," the river of God's blessing for the garden. That which originates in the garden, first waters the garden. Sad to say, we can get the attitude that our responsibilities are so world-wide that we forget that the river was intended to water the garden first. "From thence it was parted, and became into four heads" (v. 10), and from there it goes out. When a Christian home is established according to the mind of God, you will find that there Christ is the center. Where the responsibility that God has placed is acknowledged, the home is watered indeed and that home is a blessing to the whole earth. It goes out to the four corners of the world.
“And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." This word "to dress it" really means to till it—to work it. When it says "to keep it," the thought is to guard it— to till it, to work it, to guard it. This is a very special word to those of us who are in that place of being the responsible heads of our homes. We are responsible before God to work our home. That is, to make sure that we are doing what the Lord would have us do in our home to make it the garden that God intended it to be.
It tells us in the Word of God that husbands are to love their wives. This is one of the principle ways in which we are to till our garden, to work that garden. The husband is to be the principle source of love in his home. That may sound a little strange, but that is the way the Word of God presents it to us because our homes are patterned after the relationship of Christ and His Church. We find that in Ephesians it says, "Husbands, love your wives," but when you turn over to Titus, the teaching is that wives are to love their own husbands. The word that is used there is a less forceful word. It really has the thought of having a strong affection for your husband. It is the pattern that fits into the whole establishment of the Christian home. The young lady is not the one who goes out looking for the man. No, it is the man who before God has that exercise of having a bride. When he feels that the Lord has led him to the right young lady, then it is he who first sets his love upon her. It is a source of tragedy and a serious mistake when a young lady allows her heart's affections to go out and to be fixed upon some young man before that man has given any indication of his feelings for her. That is not according to the pattern that the Word of God presents to us.
The Lord Jesus loved the Church and in return is loved by the Church. It tells us "We love, because He
first loved us." His love is the stronger love. He loves us far more than we love Him. And so it is that the pattern that is shown us here is that Adam was held responsible.
Guarding the Home
He was called upon to till his garden; but he was also called upon to guard it.
How important this is! The husband has that place of responsibility before God to guard his home. Just as there is an enemy who seeks to introduce what is false and what is worldly into the assembly, so there is an enemy who wants to introduce what is false and of the world into our homes. We are to guard our homes and not allow into those homes that which is going to become a source of heartache and sorrow, that which can only result in dishonor to the Lord.
“The Lord God commanded the man, saying, 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: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." v. 16, 17. It is important to see that this commandment was given to the man; it was not given to Eve. This is all tied together with the place of responsibility that the husband has in the Christian home. To till it and guard it is his responsibility as the head of his home, to insure that this home is carried on in a way that is obedient to the Word of God.
A Help Meet for Adam
Through His wondrous grace we find that the Lord God says, "It is not good that the man should be alone." How lovely to see that in all that God has provided, it is not complete without a help meet for him. So it says in verses 19 and 20, "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam.... But for Adam there was not found a help meet for him." Of all the beautiful animals that this world had, nothing corresponded to Adam.
So it is that God forms for the man from Adam's side, one who is his help meet, his like. How vital this is! Often we hear people say, "Well, the person that he's marrying is a Christian," as if that is all that really matters. It is important that the partner be a child of God. The Word of God is very clear on that. "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers." But that is not enough. The Christian home, the home that God intends it to be, will not result simply from two who belong to Christ being joined together. What the man needs is one who will be willing to walk in the same path of faith as he does—one who wants to walk to please God and who has the same exercise of heart and conscience.
In the third chapter we find that God had not idly given instruction to guard the garden. There was an enemy and the enemy appeared. He sought to introduce into the garden disobedience to God which would result in the loss of the garden. He first approached Eve with a very subtle kind of attack that, first of all, questioned what God had said and then contradicted what God had said. But what we have shown here in a most striking way is the picture of Eve failing in her responsibility to be a help meet.
Stepping Out of Place
She was to help Adam to go on for God and to fill his function in the garden. Instead she took over and started doing the talking. She sort of set aside Adam's place of headship and stepping out of her place, tried to take Satan on by herself. The result was only chaos, and when a sister steps out of her place in the home, all we can have is chaos. She was to be a help meet, but instead of filling the role that God intended, she became just the opposite and acted in such a way as to lead Adam away. He took the fruit from her and he did eat.
Adam was the one who was told to guard his garden and Adam failed in his responsibility. The Lord God came down and what did He say? "Where art thou?" Did God not know what had happened? Did the Lord not know that Eve was the one who had first taken of the fruit? Of course He did! But He addressed the responsible head, Adam! Adam blamed his wife and said: "The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." As far as Adam was concerned, it was either God's fault or it was Eve's fault.
As we read on in verses 13 through 19, we are introduced to a pattern of sorrow that still applies in the world today. But notice: "And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life." The Lord God addressed Adam. Eve must bear the consequences of her act, but the responsibility was Adam's. He was the one to whom the Lord said, "I commanded thee." It was Adam's disobedience.
We cannot avoid the responsibility that God puts upon us. Husbands are to guard the home, to insure that nothing is going to come in that will make it lose that character of a garden that God intends it to have. Eve failed in her responsibility as a help meet. Adam failed in his responsibility to guard his garden and to act as the head of his home. God said, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake." In Rom. 5 it says, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." If you or I had written it, we would have written, "By one woman sin entered into the world." But the Spirit of God didn't write it that way because Adam had the place of headship and was responsible. It tells us, "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even to them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression." Why doesn't it say Eve's transgression? Because what is being taught is that Adam had a specific known commandment. The result was that his home was no longer a garden.
Children in the Family
We find in the fourth chapter that God introduced children. Cain was born into the family of Adam and Eve. "She conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord." The name Cain means in the acquired. How many dear Christian parents have looked upon their firstborn and said, "How wonderful, we have gotten a child from the Lord." [Another writer has said, "Whatever Eve's own condition as believing the promise, what she says at the birth of Cain was the expression of the thought that the fulfillment of promise was in nature, which could not be. Sin was there and death, and the judgment of the hope of promise connected with nature had come in. have gotten a man from Jehovah' was faith in promise, but the expectation of the accomplishment of promise was in nature. And Cain had to go out from the presence of Jehovah."]
When Eve had the second-born child, it tells us, "She again bare his brother, Abel." The name Abel simply means vanity. There is a real message here. If we look upon the children whom the Lord has put into our families as something simply that we have gotten from the Lord, we are not looking upon them in the way God intends us to. Cain, the first man born into this world, ended up as a murderer. He killed his own brother. Did Adam and Eve have any responsibility for what Cain did to Abel? Indeed they did. I have no doubt that Adam and Eve realized as they saw the body of their dead son just what the enormous consequences were of losing the garden. Adam allowed into the garden that which he was supposed to guard against, and it resulted in this tragedy of seeing Abel dead and Cain banished from, the presence of the Lord.
This should speak to our hearts, particularly to those of us who have young children. We should not allow anything to come into our homes that is going to stop that flowing of the river that God intends to be in the home, or that is going to cost us our garden. Adam was responsible as the head of his home, to guard it. In his children he reaped the consequences of his failure to exercise that responsibility.
There was another child born into the family of Adam and Eve, but they didn't look upon Seth as something that they had gotten from the Lord. They viewed Seth as one who had been appointed to their household.
A Home Appointed by the Lord
It actually says here, "For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.” God intends that in the Christian, the children in that home should be looked upon as those whom the Lord has specifically appointed to be there. The Lord maintains that they are His, but He has put them into our homes. If we view our children in this way, we will bring them up in a far different way than if we see them simply as that which we have gotten from the Lord.
When Seth was introduced, he had a son called Enos. We read, "He called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." Here was the result that God pictured to us as viewing our children as those whom the Lord has appointed to be in our home.
Suppose the Queen came to me and said that out of all the gardens in the world she had picked my garden in which to put six of her plants for me to care for and raise for her. Can you imagine me saying to myself, "Well, as long as they get a drink now and again they'll be all right. It doesn't matter if they get enough food or if they are too hot or cold." Or can you imagine me saying for one moment, "It doesn't matter if there is a little bit of poison in their food—it can't be too bad." I don't believe I would think that way. God has appointed plants in many of our gardens. He has chosen, out of all the gardens in this world, your garden in which to put those plants. And now He holds you responsible as to how those plants are raised. There is a difference in saying, "I have acquired this baby boy or girl from the Lord and he is mine to do with as I please," and in saying, "I see him as one that the Lord has put in my garden— appointed there with the responsibility to raise for Him.”
The Lord has faithfully shown us from the Scriptures what He intends our homes should be, what He intends the husband should be and do in his home, what He intends the wife should be and do, what He intends the children should be, and how they are to be viewed in the garden that God intends our homes to be.
J. Brereton