Page 158 - Through New Eyes

Eden: The World of Transformation 153

The outlying lands, Havilah, Cush, and so forth, would be
the place of man’s labors. They figure the place where Adam did
his work, wrestling joyfully with the world to make it more and
more glorious. His sons would move downstream and set up
new homes in these lands. Perhaps Cain would dwell with his
family in Havilah, and Abel in Cush. There would be trade be-
tween the members of humanity, as each land’s peculiar trea-
sures were swapped for those of other regions.
And then there was the Garden. This was the sanctuary, the
place where Adam would meet with God at the times of His ap-
pointment. Adam was created on the sixth day, and the next day
was God’s sabbath. Adam was to meet with God, but by the
time God arrived, Adam was already in sin and had to be cast
out. Nonetheless, the pattern was established. Had Adam not
sinned, his sons would have set up Garden-sanctuaries in
Havilah, Cush, and the other lands.
These three environments correspond to the three-decker
world of Genesis 1, but on a lateral plane. The Garden-sanctuary
is the contact-point with heaven. The homeland is to be related
to the earth, and thus God’s people Israel were given land. The
outlying lands, reached by rivers, are to be associated with the
sea, and thus the Gentile nations are pictured as the sea.
Each of these environments was to be patterned after
heaven. Heaven is not only the pattern for the sanctuary and
worship, it is zdso the pattern for home and homeland, and also
for work in the world. (See Diagram 12.6.) Ultimately, the New
Jerusalem is city and sanctuary and world all in one. This shows
9
the “eschatological coalescence of culture and cult .“ As long as
we live in history, however, we can apply the words of Solomon
in Ecclesiastes 3 to ourselves: For everything there is a proper
time — a time to laugh and a time to weep, a time to worship in
the sanctuary, a time to work in the world, and a time to relax at
home. Thus, the three environments will continue to be distinct
throughout history, and each is to be ‘heavenized” in a way pe-
culiar to its nature.
Because of his sin, Adam was excluded from the Garden-
sanctuary. It would not be until the Mosaic Covenant that men
would be readmitted to the Garden, and then there were restric-
tions on who might enter. Sin did not stop with Adam; however,