Some are in search of the Holy Grail. I have found it! The “cup” or body of Jesus itself is the Holy Grail for which mankind still searches. It is still here on Earth in phantom; the contents of the Grail remain here in this world in the bodily shape of the Person, Jesus but its material is not of this world.
My point is that we look for real solid material things but
should search for esoteric things.
I have searched for the Garden of Eden for years by not going anywhere further than my recliner. The Bible, I believe tells of its location; albeit it requires an intensive search in the annals of time and even before time even began. Ezekiel provided some clues:
13 You have been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes was prepared in you in the day that you were created.
14 You are the anointed cherub that covers; and I have set you so: you were upon the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15 You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you.
16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned: therefore, I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty, you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I will cast you to the ground, I will lay you before kings, that they may behold you. (Ezek 27:13-17)
Almost everyone focuses on either
one of two things: (1) Tyrus as Lucifer, or (2) the destruction of the city of
Tyre.
Nebuchadnezzar, as I wrote in the
previous commentary, did not destroy the “citadel” city of Tyre; Alexander the
Great did enter it. However, Tyre may represent the final destruction of the
world as we know it. While we have riches and safety because of the grace of
God, His patience will run out. Just as Tyre ended up an unsafe place, so will
the world.
However, my focus is on that area
as “the garden of God.” Tyre was the trade-route for that area and time and
Ezekiel spent much time writing about its commerce and riches. It would be no
longer a “garden” but a great city of God; perhaps the one that John called “Babylon”
(Rev 20:18).
Tyre is Tyre, but it may
represent Jerusalem as well. The real city of Babylon was destroyed by Persian
king Cyrus in 539 BC. The Book of Ezekiel was written between 593 and
571 BC. Tyre could have represented the fall of the city of Babylon, or any
great city, even the fall of Jerusalem or even the world.
It could be that Ezekiel was
speaking of the fall of Jerusalem, the “harlot” that killed Christ. It did fall
in 70 A.D. when three Jewish malefactors, allied together for the “good” of the
Jews, destroyed Jerusalem.
Just as Ezekiel was speaking of
Lucifer when he wrote about Tyrus (the city), he could have been speaking of
Tyre as a representation of the “Babylon” Jerusalem as well.
About Tyre, Ezekiel wrote, “You
have been in Eden the garden of God.”
Where is Eden? “Eden is where
wealth comes from”
There is evidence of Eden (Aden)
to this day. The city of Aden in Yemen and the Gulf of Aden whereon Yemen lies southward
on the Arabian peninsula.
The land of Dan westward of
Jerusalem was once known as “Eden.” Eden, if it was real estate, was surely the
entire Kingdom of David with the bounds that God delegated to Abraham: “The
Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘Unto your seed have I given this
land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates” (Gen
15:18). That real estate is now part of the “fertile crescent” that runs
through Jerusalem, Tyre, and Sidon, even to the Euphrates River in what once
was the border of Babylon. Central to the land given to Abraham is Jerusalem
and Mount Calvary is the celestial axis and “naval of the world.”
I submit, not Babylon, but the land
promised to Abraham was “Eden” and that before time, that area was like the
pleasantries of the city of Tyre.
Like the king of Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar
was also an antitype of Lucifer. Nebuchadnezzar failed in capturing Tyre
whereas Alexander succeeded. If Tyre represents Eden, then Alexander was not the
destroyer but perhaps Lucifer himself. As such, Tyre may represent the world
and its destruction. As it gets more prosperous, even Utopian, it is closer to
destruction. Tyre is how the world is at the present time. We may be marked for
destruction, but destruction will come at the end of time sometime in the
future. No longer will time be utilitarian because mankind will be gone,
replaced by God’s kind — those who are in Christ.
However, continue to focus on the
Garden of God. There is a marker for the Garden of God — the Jordan
River, in the Hebrew, “Naral ha Yarden,” the “River of the Garden.”
When Lot and Abraham stood south
of the Dead Sea, they looked northward and saw the Garden of Eden; “Lot lifted
up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere,
before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord…” (Gen
13:10) “Even as” is not even in the Hebrew. “Garden” is. They were not looking
north to a plain that looked like the Garden of the Lord, but along the
Jordan River is the Garden of the Lord where it existed before time
began.
When we think of Adam and Eve
being cast out of the Garden of Eden, we think of them being cast out of real estate
here on Earth. I suggest that their Garden was Paradise in the realm of heaven and
that they were cast out to a garden in the world that was harder to till as Genesis
chapter three indicates.
That is not to say that heaven is
on Earth but that there is another unseen realm that can be entered only by
translation there. Adam and Eve did not die per se, but they were translated
from a realm where time does not exist to one where time does exist. In a
sense, time killed them gradually.
So where is Paradise? It is in
another realm with a “gate” between the two; one guarded by cherubim (Gen 3:24).
Ezekiel referred to Tyrus as “the
anointed cherub.” He would be the chosen one among the cherubim that guarded access
to Paradise in heaven. In a manner, Lucifer does guard the way to Paradise for
he stands in the way to the Tree of Life, just as God said about the Garden of
Eden.
With that said, the Garden of Eden was before time, surely in another realm of which the Kingdom of David is a reasonable facsimile. The real estate here on Earth will remain, but be destroyed entirely by Lucifer someday and then Paradise in heaven will come to its foundation — its firm place here on Earth, to wit:
And I (John) saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And 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. (Rev 21:1-3)
The destruction of “Tyrus” is the
world in the “sea” of the cosmos. It will not be accomplished by any king, but
Lucifer whose sole existence is to tear down things so that God can build back
better.
The destruction of Tyrus
represents God preparing the world for the Garden of Eden to return to its firm
place.
The Book of Enoch points
toward Paradise here on Earth being the same as Paradise in heaven but in
another realm. I believe Enoch knew that!
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