Who doesn't want to know from whence humanity came and to where some are going? What follows is the examination of the Garden, Heaven, the Creation, and the Re-creation from the Book of Isaiah:
2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. 3 For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody... 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished... 11 Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away... 13a And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth... 16 I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people. (Isa 51)
The audience is the seed of Abraham (i.e., Jews and Christians) from verse two. Jews were blessed by God and Christians are their "increase." The Abrahamic Covenant is essentially a reaffirmation of the Noahic Covenant which covenants three groups of people: "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant" (Gen 9:27). The outcome of that was the Abrahamic Covenant. "Enlarging Japheth" is the "increase" spoken of by Isaiah. Since the "tents of Shem" are the Hebrew tabernacles - Judaism - then Japheth dwelling in their tents are Christian Gentiles. That leave Canaan; who does he represent?
I pondered that question for weeks, then my preacher spoke on Simon the Cyrene and it clicked! I found it misfired. After that, I researched it further: The land of Canaan were the indignant people of the Levant - the inhabitants of what became the Kingdom of David. As such, they were the despoilers of Eden. In Abraham's time, Salem - thought to be ancient Jerusalem - was ruled by a King-Priest who is identified as the pre-incarnate Messiah (Heb 7:1-4). To this day, Canaanites (Muslims) still fight Christians and Jews there. In David's time, Canaanites served King David.
Much is said in verse three: The land of Canaan will comfort the line of Shem who is identified as Zionists - citizens of Israel and specifically of Jerusalem. The comforting of the Canaanites is the service, perhaps, of which God spoke to Noah.
Also, in verse three, was another promise: Adam and Eve were sent forth out of the Garden of Eden to till the soil (Gen 3:24). Since the Garden was eastward in Eden, then Adam was sent into the wilderness of Eden. From scripture, that seems to be the Kingdom of David, or the Levant and a little more. God gave Isaiah the prophecy: "He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord." Canaan land, at some time subsequent, would be made like Eden, then, the desert like the Garden of the Lord. The Garden had been deserted when Adam and Eve were expelled. The only known inhabitant of the Garden until Abraham's time was the King-Priest Melchizedek. He was a Priest without a congregation, and a King without subjects.
The purpose of Abraham was to create a kingdom and a congregation for God at the same location as Eden and its Garden. The Abrahamic Covenant was eternal; the prosperity offered to Abraham was not really Canaan's land, but the Kingdom of God - God's citizens residing in Paradise.
Those passages are more than symbolic that Canaan land was more than a future home for mankind, but a return home to Paradise, and that Paradise would be the permanent home of Abraham's increase! (i.e, that physical Canaan land is actually physical and spiritual Paradise.) Salem (peace) soon after became known as Jerusalem (foundation of peace), thus the foundation of the Peace of the Garden. That is where New Jerusalem will come down (Rev 21).
It is known from the Bible and history that Eden (The Kingdom of David) was never tranquil. There has never been peace in that area. However, God described Canaan land to Isaiah much differently, "Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." Joy is the eternal life and gladness is the hope of salvation. Thanksgiving is gratitude for salvation, and song is an expression of joy. In other words, Jerusalem will be the place of Paradise in Heaven. That was revealed as well to the apostle John:
I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. (Rev 21:2-4).
What was revealed to John is the same City as revealed to Isaiah. Jerusalem, hence, is the Garden Paradise where life was generated, and is the Great City which was regenerated for a regenerated people. The author's revelation is revealed by Isaiah in verse six: "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner." Paradise in Heaven and Paradise on Earth will transform into one. That transfiguration was what John saw as New Jerusalem came down to its foundation in Jerusalem! Verse six indicates that Jerusalem is the eternal place of salvation; no wonder so many have been buried there!
Next comes the reward in Isaiah's vision: "The redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion." Not only will New Jerusalem come "home" to its foundation, but those redeemed by the blood of Jesus will come "home" to their foundation - the Garden Paradise, then populated, which is the City of God rather than the Garden of God.
God then revealed to the skeptics how that could happen in verse thirteen: "And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth... I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth." Since God created the heaven and the earth (Gen 1:1) and shadowed Adam and Eve from harm, could He not plant a Garden in the heavens and lay its foundation on Earth as a place to shadow Zionists forever!
Zionists are thought to be only the Jews. Remembering that Gentiles dwell in the tabernacles of the Jews, then God defined Zionists in this manner: "Thou art my people" (verse 13).
That is not scientific evidence that the Garden of Eden is Jerusalem, but spiritual evidence. It is not accepted by the world unless they are endowed with another sense. The author "sees" that because of the special "light" that emanates from God. When anyone sees what the world cannot see, they become born again, and are regenerated - endowed, or regenerated, with bright eyes and a bright nature as Adam's!
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