8-9 the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10-12 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there.  13-14 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

15-17 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:10-17 English Standard Version

The Bible is about real history - and real geography too! Moses, the man God used to write these things, uses names of regions and rivers that people in his generation would recognize. But he was writing long after the flood of Noah's generation which would have had a massive impact on the landscape. We don't know exactly when the rivers were given the names Moses used.

The name Havilah (where the river Pishon was) is the same name as one of Noah descendants. In fact, many of his descendants had names which seem to have been given to the regions they settled in, people with names such as Cush, Egypt and Canaan. The Tigris River that Moses names is the river where the prophet Daniel had an amazing vision of an angel during the days of King Cyrus of Persia. So the garden of Eden was a real place. It was in this garden that God put the man He had created to work it and keep it. What does that tell us about the sort of life God had in mind for man? (vs 15-17)

It suggests to me that work was not a bad thing. Man was given an occupation. He wasn't created to be lazy and idle. The hardness and harshness of work in this world only came about after Adam sinned. Verses 15-17 also tells us of the first commandment God ever gave, in fact, at that time it was the only commandment. He was forbidden to eat from 'the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.' It wasn't an apple tree! The only description we have is in the next chapter where we’re told it “was good for food, and a delight to the eyes.” It was a real tree, but there may have been symbolism attached to it. Do you think there is any importance in that it was only Adam at this moment to whom the command was given?

I think the apostle Paul gives a good answer to that. He wrote: “When Adam sinned - sin entered the world! Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Yes, people sinned even before the law (of Moses) was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. Still, everyone died - from the time of Adam to the time of Moses - even those who didn't disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did.” (Romans 5:12-14 New Living Paraphrase).

Being the first man on earth, Adam was representing the whole human race. If he disobeyed God, mankind would fall with him and be under the same condemnation. The good news however is that Paul goes on to say in that chapter that “Adam was a type of the one who was to come.” He was speaking of Jesus. When Jesus came into the world He was also representing others. His life of obedience leads to the salvation of everyone who turns from sin and trusts themselves to Him. Sin came into the world, and into our life, through Adam – salvation and sanctification come to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s as if Adam was counsel for the prosecution - and Jesus counsel for our defence. In Christ we are found ‘not guilty’!