GARDENS
Genesis 2:8,9,15-17; Numbers 24:2-9;
It will be apparent from these scriptures that the impression I have relates to the garden. The first garden in Scripture was planted by God. He planted it while the earth was still in its pristine condition. Before sin had intruded through man, God created a garden. The thought of a garden is pre-eminently an area which is for pleasure, for enjoyment, for rest, for satisfaction. People enjoy their gardens; they like to find their pleasure there, but they do not always have an assessment of the moral character of the world. I have often been impressed with the verse which says, ”But there was in the place where he had been crucified a garden”, John 19:41. The moral character of the world today is that it is the place where Jesus has been crucified. That is the character of the world. Someone had planted a garden there, a place of delight, a place of pleasure, and people still plant their gardens in the world in which Jesus has been crucified. But in that garden there was something else. In that garden was a tomb. It was in the place where Jesus had been crucified. Men will claim the earth and try to make it a place for their pleasure and their delight, but you find that the hand of death is upon it all. This was a new tomb where nobody had ever been laid, and “There therefore … they laid Jesus" (v.42). Our Lord Jesus has died from this scene; He has gone out by way of death. I would say to everyone here, do not look for lasting satisfaction in the place where Jesus has been crucified. You will never find lasting pleasure, lasting enjoyment in this world. Our Lord has gone into death, He has been rejected from this world, and it has changed forever because our Lord Jesus has been crucified. Because He has been rejected from it, the character of this world has been fixed.
Nevertheless God had the thought of a garden first, before man had it. For us, it relates to what is on the earth, but not of it. This garden had a centre. Out of the ground, Jehovah Elohim had made every tree grow which is pleasant to the sight and good for food. Think of all the trees of the garden – they are like the saints. When you make contact with a believer anywhere, when you look upon the countenances of the saints, you get that feeling of joy, you get that stirring of heart because you have a link with them that nothing can break. I remember meeting a believer once, a young woman in a shop, and we spoke for quite a long time. When she went to go, she told me her name and where she came from, and I said to her that we had never met before, and we were not likely ever to meet on earth again. We had completely different backgrounds, we came from different countries, different ethnic backgrounds, but we had a link that is closer than I have with the man I sit next to in the office every day. It is a link that can never be broken. God has taken up one and another here and there, but He brings us together, and really that is the thought of the garden. He brings us together in the garden, where He has made every tree to grow. It is wonderful to take account of that; there is an environment that is fruitful. We have been speaking about bearing fruit, and there is an environment which God has established and which is conducive to fruit bearing. He planted this garden and He made every tree grow. The Lord Jesus speaks of every plant that His heavenly Father had not planted (Matt.15.13), but there are plants that remain. Others are uprooted, but not the plants that the heavenly Father has planted.
The first paragraph that we read in Genesis 2 gives an abstract view. Jehovah had planted the garden and made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life was in the midst of the garden. The garden had a centre – the tree of life. Think of the greatness of Christ, beloved, food for the soul; food eternally! We sang the hymn,
‘Lord, in Thee we taste the sweetness
Of the Tree of Life above;
Taste its own eternal meetness
For the heav’nly land we love.’ (Hymn 50)
The dear brother who wrote that hymn wrote many more verses than we have in our hymnbook. He wrote:
‘But, my soul, hast thou not tasted
Of that Tree of life on high?
As through desert lands thou’st hasted
Eshcol’s grapes been never nigh?’1.
The writer wrote about that Tree, about the way in which the Lord Jesus came. He wrote about the Lord Jesus as a tender sapling:-
‘… rising
From a dry and stony land,
Object of man’s proud despising,
Grew the Plant of God’s right hand!’.
How that Sapling grew until a time came when ‘To its own rich soil transplanted’. That is where the Tree of life is now, in its own rich soil. The tree of life is only seen in its own setting, it is never seen outside of paradise. In Genesis, the literal tree was in an earthly paradise, but now Jesus as our Tree of life is in the paradise of God. But those fruits are available, beloved brethren, fruits to be taken and eaten, fruits for satisfying the soul. Oh, how great is the Lord Jesus, the Tree of life! That Tree of life is sufficient for everyone to prove lasting and eternal satisfaction. What you have to do is reach out and take those fruits. One thing about a tree is that the fruit does not come to you. You have to reach out for it. It involves exercise, it means that you have to stretch yourself, but it is good to stretch yourself. In natural things they tell us that we ought to, and we will be fitter if we do, but it is good in spiritual things also, to stretch yourself and reach out and partake of that blessed Tree of life. Ah, beloved, have you got an appetite for Christ? From the history that follows, it seems that Adam did not have an appetite for it. It seems that he did not partake of it. Beloved, let us have an appetite for Christ. Read the Scriptures, look for Christ in the Scriptures, come together in the gatherings of the saints and hear the Scriptures spoken about, and hear the truth discussed. Look for Christ, get an impression in your soul of Christ because that is what is going to build you up; that is what is going to sustain you through this scene in which we are, the place where He has been crucified. You will go through this scene with the sustaining grace of Christ in your soul. That is what will keep you from anything that the enemy would bring in.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was also in the garden. That involves a question of discrimination, of judgment. Adam was created as innocent; that means he did not have a conscience, he did not know right and wrong. He was given one commandment – do not touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam knew that he was not to touch it. Adam was not deceived; Paul tells us that the woman was deceived, not the man, but Adam failed in disobedience. He did not have the knowledge of good and evil, but he knew what he was doing, and he was disobedient. And so God said that if he was to reach out and eat of that tree of life, it would be a terrible thing – a man living for ever in disobedience (Gen.3.22). That is one of these instances in Scripture where the sentence is unfinished; the consequences were too awful to contemplate. What mercy it was that Adam was sent out of that garden, driven out of the garden of Eden and the angel with the flame of the flashing sword put there to guard the way to the tree of life. But God did not close the way to the tree of life; it has never been closed. God always had in mind that man should have access to the tree of life, but the way was guarded – the flame of God’s flashing sword was there. No sin-soiled feet could tread that way. The flame of God’s flashing sword – what does it mean? It was seen at Sinai. The whole mountain quaked and shook and the fire was there and the sound of thunder and the trumpet was exceeding loud (Exod.19:16-18). The people of Israel were terrified and they said that they could not go near the mountain. God was there in all His righteousness and holiness, laying out His requirements for man, and they said that they could not go near that mountain. God guarded the way to the tree of life. How wonderful it is that we live in the present time of grace when all that has been met. We have not come to mount Sinai; that is not the end of our journey. All that came in through man’s disobedience has been met at the cross of Jesus. I would like to ask everybody here, do you really have the assurance in your soul that everything has been cleared at the cross of Jesus? Have you come to the Lord for yourself? Have you trusted Him? Have you come to Him in your sins and put your faith and trust in Him, and claimed Him as your own Saviour? The work has been done, and God wants you to partake of the tree of life. It is His desire that you should come into His paradise and reach out and partake of that tree. The way to it is in the acceptance of the work of Jesus, and to own Him as Lord. It is the most important thing that anyone can do.
Man was placed in the garden, which was the scene of his responsibility. You might think that Adam was placed in a wonderful position of privilege. Yes, he was, but Jehovah Elohim took man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and to guard it. He had two things to do – to till it and to guard it. We know he failed in the guarding because Satan, the serpent, was there, but Adam was to till it. I do not think that there is any suggestion that Adam failed in the tilling of the ground; in fact I rather think he did not fail in it. Tilling is hard work, it involves turning over the soil. I think that Adam turned over the words of Jehovah. The subsequent history shows that; think of the way in which he named his wife Eve, and of the name which he gave her. First of all, he said that “this shall be called Woman, because this was taken out of a man”, Gen.2:23. Adam showed intelligence then, but not only then; after his fall, he called his wife’s name Eve, “because she is the mother of all living”, Gen.3:20. I think he had listened to what God had said. God had spoken about the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent, and I think that Adam laid hold of that in faith. It shows that there was faith in Adam. He is not listed in Hebrews among those who had faith, but I think that there was a certain tilling going on. Adam had failed in the most grievous way with terrible consequences, but I think he listened to the word of God, and the tilling was going on. The turning over of the soil has to be done in order to keep it fertile.
It is constant work to keep the ground fertile. We come together and we hear things said and we read things too. Let us keep turning it over. It keeps the ground fertile, and that is the way it becomes fruitful, it is the way in which growth is promoted. So Adam was placed in this garden and he was given this commission to till it and to guard it. Let us keep going over in our minds the things that we receive from above, because they come from above. In the reading earlier this afternoon, contributions came in. They are not just what people invent or what they think; these are impressions which the Lord puts into the hearts of the saints. He does it; He works and we experienced that this afternoon. The Lord worked – He placed impressions in the hearts of the saints and then they are made available for the enjoyment of all. So let us turn them over. He has provided something; it is the garden feature, the saints set together in this way. We get blessing as we go over and over what the Lord gives to us. Let us not go away from a meeting and just forget about it. I find great help in writing things down, then you can go back to them. Sometimes you go back to what you have written down before, and you cannot remember ever having heard it before. But it is there and the Lord is able to bring it back, and you can go over it again and get some fresh ray of light. Go over it with the Lord, go over it with the Scriptures, ask the Holy Spirit to show you more. This work of tilling is conducive to productiveness and growth and fruitfulness. It is a wonderful thing that the work of God can be promoted in such a way in our souls and then we have something to share with others; a blessed thing!
Then in the book of Numbers, we have this wicked man Balaam. This scripture shows what God can do. Balaam had an eye on material gain, but nevertheless he knew that he could not go beyond what God would allow. He was called upon by this wicked king Balak to bring a curse on the people, but Balaam said, I cannot do that if God does not let me. God used him. God is able to use anyone. If you look at the book of Job, you will find that God even uses Satan. Everyone and everything serves His purpose. Even a man like Balaam, self-seeking man that he was, served God’s purpose, because God’s purpose was to bless. Earlier, Balaam had said, “I have received mission to bless”, Num.23:20. It is wonderful that God would have His people to be blessed. Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw God’s people, he saw Israel in their tents, according to their tribes. That is how the camp was arranged. The children of Israel were encamped around the tabernacle, arranged according to order, according to their tribes. The standard of Judah was to the east, and two tribes with them and the standard of Reuben was to the south, and Ephraim to the west, and so on (Num.2). They were all arranged according to their tribes and there was order in the camp. Balaam could not hear the murmurings in the tents. Moses heard them, and Moses was before God about it, but in the gatherings of the saints, there was what was orderly, there was what was honouring to God. So Balaam said, “How goodly are thy tents Jacob, and thy tabernacles, Israel”. Think of what the people were in responsibility, proving God’s help through the difficulties of the pathway. And the reference to Jacob, proving what God can be as the One who brings us through. Have not we proved that? Have not we proved the Jacob character in our lives? We have to look back sometimes and we can say, The Lord has brought me through although I did not deserve it at all. Ah, beloved, it makes your heart go out to Him – “How goodly are thy tents, Jacob”. It is how the saints are set together, in localities. I come from one locality; I see various other localities represented here, set together. It is not haphazard, the Lord has done it, the Lord has arranged it. In Numbers 2, the whole arrangement of the camp was specified by God. It was specified who was going to dwell where; God arranged it. God has had His hand over every one of us here, over the details of our lives so that we are set together. So Balaam said “How goodly are thy tents, Jacob, and thy tabernacles, Israel”.
Beloved brethren, we can enter into the most blessed experiences as accepting the way in which God has set us together and preserved us. Balaam says “Like valleys are they spread forth, like gardens by the river side”. There they are, fertile gardens by the river side. The river is to be drawn on; it is like the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. There is a never ending flow which is to be drawn on. We prove in our gatherings that we have been set like gardens by the river side. Let us maintain ourselves by the river side. The prophet Isaiah began his word in chapter 1 by speaking about the state of Israel, and he said that they were like a garden that has no water (Isa.1:30). That is a terrible situation. In a garden that has no water, everything dies, and it is sad to look at a garden like that. But here we have gardens by the river side referred to, where the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ is there to be drawn on. The Holy Spirit is to be drawn on in our gatherings together, so that we can prove something of the living character of this. Then Balaam spoke of Israel being “Like aloe-trees which Jehovah hath planted, like cedars beside the waters”. It refers to the dignity of the saints standing there like cedars of Lebanon. Then he said that “Water shall flow out of his buckets”. Not into Israel’s buckets; it is not only what is flowing in, it is what is flowing out from the saints viewed in this way. In these gardens by the river side, there is something flowing out for the blessing of others, and it goes on to the greatness of the God who brought it all to pass.
In the scripture in the Song of Songs, we first have the beloved speaking of the spouse; he says “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; A spring shut up, a fountain sealed”. How wonderful it is to think of the way in which Christ views the assembly. She is in type a garden enclosed, just for Him. There is no alien feature here, no polluting or corrupting influence comes here. She is a garden enclosed; what is only for Christ and for Him alone. You sometimes find houses with large gardens open to the public. But the garden enclosed is just for Christ, it is not a common place. It is what the assembly is, only for Christ. Do I hold myself in the light of that? Every one of the Lord’s people belongs to the assembly. Do I hold myself as being exclusively for Christ? Is there no other claim upon me but Christ’s? I might find that in Him I have joy and satisfaction, but can I say that I have no other claim over me? In principle, when we come to own Jesus as Lord, that is what we are saying. I own Him as my Lord; that means He has exclusive claim upon me. But then you find that you are drawn into a relationship which is even greater than that; “my sister, my spouse” means that you find His love. It is the place where you can enjoy His love, His affections; enjoy His company. It says of the garden of Gethsemane in John’s gospel that Jesus was often there with His disciples. It speaks of a secluded place apart where you can enjoy His company and just be with Him alone, and know what it is to hear His voice, to hear Him speaking and to speak to Him and to hear what He would say to you. It may be experienced a little alone in your room, or more when you are together with the saints. He is more ready to speak than we are to listen. There they are – the living waters, a fountain sealed, a spring shut up in this enclosed garden which is His sister, His spouse.
It goes on to speak about various features of the garden; pomegranates and precious fruits, henna, spikenard, saffron, calamus and cinnamon with all trees of frankincense. Some of us were speaking in the interval about the fragrance that you would appreciate in the garden. It speaks in chapter 2 of the vines in bloom giving forth their fragrance (v.13). The garden is a place where there is not only what can be seen and what is available for food, but fragrance is there. Think of the Lord absorbed in these things. We sometimes sing to Him
‘All that delights Thy taste
Doth here abound’. (Hymn 361)
I have often thought of that as we have sung it. The Scriptures use figures so that we can understand them. Man has five senses; think of all that delights the Lord’s taste, of what He sees in the assembly, what He hears. He says in type “Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice”, Song of Songs 2:14. Think of the fragrance which He receives, of Him tasting “the best wine … That goeth down smoothly”, Song of Songs 7:9. There is that which He tastes. Think of what is available to Him within His embrace. Speaking carefully and reverently, the Lord Jesus is a perfect Man, divine in His Person. You think of His every sense being satisfied and pleased with what He receives in the assembly.
I might just say that literally, the Song of Songs refers to the Lord’s relations with Israel, and how He will win her heart in a coming day. You get throughout the book the Lord’s assurances of His love for the loved one, but also her feeling of inadequacy. That is a theme which runs through the book, although His assurance of love continues and what He finds in her continues. But in the assembly there is no inadequacy. The assembly is His fulness. You could not think of inadequacy in the assembly. But think of what He does find – these wonderful descriptions here of a fountain in the gardens, a well of living waters which stream from Lebanon. That is what He is describing, and then there is what is to be released.
In the Song of Songs, the beloved is in type Christ, the loved one is the female vessel. Now she starts speaking, and she says “Awake, north wind, and come, thou south”. There is no corrupting foot that can go into that enclosed garden, but there are influences from above. ”Awake, north wind” – think of the discipline of which we spoke earlier. “Awake, north wind”; could you really ask for it? But if you knew the One whose garden it is, if you knew the heart of Christ, you might say, It is necessary. I never ask for discipline, but I can see how necessary it has been. So she says, “Awake, north wind”. Why? In order that the spices might flow forth, that there might be a release. Then “come, thou south”. Life is not only discipline; we get the occasions of divine favour – a wonderful thing. Perhaps the north wind is when we are apart and we experience the trials of the pathway, but the south wind, beloved – if the Lord does not come tonight, we will experience something of that in the morning as we have our part in the scene of divine favour, in the service of God. That is the experience of that south wind blowing gently, as we are carried in response to the Lord Jesus, in response to the Holy Spirit, in response to the Father, then widening out in response to God. How wonderful it is to be in the light of divine favour, and it is so that the spices flow forth.
And then she says “Let my beloved come into his garden, And eat its precious fruits”. There is something for Him there, and He replies “I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice”. Think of gathering the myrrh. The myrrh speaks of suffering, it speaks of the way in which the Lord Jesus has gone, and He is in type saying this in appreciation of that. There is an appreciation of Him here. As the chapter goes on, there is decline and she did not fully appreciate Him. He appeals to her, He says “Open to me … For my head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night”. He would appeal on the basis that He has been through the night, He has been that way. He would say, “Open to me”; He would say that to us, beloved. Let us open to Him, let the Lord Jesus have an entrance. That would appeal to our hearts; “my head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night”. He has known the night as no other could know it. He has been through that season, but through it, Christ has secured in the assembly a vessel which is going to answer to His affections eternally. He would say to us now ‘Open to me’. He says, “I have gathered my myrrh with my spice”. I believe myrrh is very bitter to the taste but it has a wonderful fragrance. If you appreciate something of the sufferings of Jesus, if you appreciate what He has done on the cross, and if you dwell upon the sufferings of Christ, there will be fragrance for His own heart. It is wonderful to Him, so He says “I have gathered my myrrh with my spice”; there is what is to His taste. And then He says “I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey”. The honeycomb with the honey is what is worked out together, what the saints are together. We have been set together in view of working something out together and it is what is particularly sweet to Him, to take what has been worked out together among the saints in the way in which He has set us, and find that it is according to His taste. That is what He was seeking; “I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk”. Think of what is for His joy; the wine is what is for His joy. It is the wonderful result of the fruit which we were speaking of in the reading, what is for the pleasure of the Lord Jesus Himself. Oh beloved, we are to enter into this. He says “Eat, O friends; drink, yea drink abundantly, beloved ones!”.
So the Lord has this thought of a garden. It has been planted. Each one of us, we might say, is in the garden in which He has set us, and there is what is to be for His own pleasure. The dignity of the saints moving together can be taken account of. There is what men can take account of, but then there is what is for the heart of Jesus Himself. He says, as it were, I have been this way in order that I should receive something from you. How much is He going to receive from us? How much would He get from me? If we are left here until tomorrow, we will have a wonderful opportunity as we come together to look at those emblems on the table. Hardly a week goes by without us hearing those words, “given for you”, Luke 22:19. Think of the way in which He has been, and it was for us. We break the bread, and we partake of it together because He asked us to. He did not ask us to do a hard thing. He just asked us to express our love for Him, to show that we desire to be faithful to Him in the scene from which He has been rejected, to show that we want to have our part in faithfulness to that blessed One, and enter upon the wonderful service that no human mind could imagine. It lives and flows, and it swells and expands, and it is all for the pleasure of divine Persons. May we all have our part in it, for His name’s sake.
Address at Peterhead
16 August 2014
A. Martin