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We are now taken back to Eden the garden of God. The first mention of Eden in
Scripture tells of the garden which the Lord planted "eastward in Eden". After that
Genesis speaks of it as "the garden of Eden". After Gen. 4: no mention is made of
Eden until we come to Isa. 51: 3, which uses Eden as a contrast with the wilderness, and
the garden of the Lord in contrast with the desert. Similarly Joel uses the garden of Eden
also as a symbol:--
"The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate
wilderness" (Joel 2: 3).
Ezek. 36: 35 is closely parallel with Isa. 51: 3. In Ezek. 31: and 32: much
that is said of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, resembles the greatness, the pride and the fall of
the Prince and the King of Tyre. The King of Egypt is likened to a cedar tree whose
height was exalted above all the trees of the field:--
"The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him . . . . . nor any tree in the garden
of God was like unto him in his beauty . . . . . all the trees of Eden that were in the garden
of God envied him" (Ezek. 31: 8, 9).
These trees of Eden are further represented as being in "the nether parts of the earth":-
"Yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the
earth" (Ezek. 31: 18).
This must strike the reader as a somewhat curious use of figures. If we think of Eden
as described in Genesis, there is no individual that can fulfil the type set forth by these
"trees". The LXX translates the garden of Eden by the word "paradise", which adds
Rev. 2: 7 and, by analogy, Rev. 22: to our list.
It will be seen that this paradise comes down from heaven as a part of the holy city. It
appears that a paradise, a special garden of God, has a place in the first, the present and
the future heavens and earth. The garden of Gen. 2: belongs to the present creation, but
the Eden of Ezekiel belongs to the earlier creation. The somewhat strange references to
the trees of Eden which had descended into the nether parts of the earth, and which are
linked together with the proud yet punished King of Egypt, show this at least, that Eden
has been the scene of rebellion and of judgment anterior to the sin of Adam. The pride
and fall of the King of Tyre is connected with the garden of God.
The Serpent and the Cherubim.
"Thou wast in Eden the garden of God" (Ezek. 28: 13).
Scripture speaks of two human beings only who were in Eden, the garden of God,
namely, Adam and Eve. Apart from the Lord Himself but one other person entered that
garden. Gen. 3: calls him the Serpent (Hebrew, the nachash, the "shining one"). A
reference to Gen. 3: reveals a close connection between the Serpent and the Cherubim.