Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
6 sermons cite this verse
… We need to get reading before I lose my way. Genesis chapter 2, verse 9. Do verse 8. Lord planted a garden eastward of Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I realize that most of you would know the story of the fall of Adam and Eve into sin when they partook of the forbidden fruit. And something happened. They died, not physically. They died in their relationship, their sensitivity, their openness to God. And it was not their hunger for God that saved them. It was God's hunger for them that saved them. We have people all the time say, I found the Lord, and I understand what they mean. But the reality is most of us were jumping over rocks and running around trees and swimming in the ocean trying to do anything to get away. …
… And there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made us spring up every tree that is pleasant to the side 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. Go and skip down to verse 15. The Lord 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. Then the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him. Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. …
… God planted a garden in Eden in the east and placed there the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground he made various trees grow that were delightful to look at, good for food. You know what this stands for in this beautiful symbolic language? is all the things that God made for us to delight in. God is not interested in putting us down. He's not our rival. He's not taking advantage of us. Read the Greek myths if you want to see that. No, the God of the Bible wants us fully alive. And so he says, look, eat all the trees of the garden, all these beautiful things I made for you. It stands for all those things that give delight to our bodies and indeed to our souls. Good, good. In the middle of the garden, he planted the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life, what's that? Well, that's eternal life. Does God want us to delight in this world? …
So starting in verse 5, we see a parallel account of how God created man. 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's pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden, which by the way, Eden means delight. So this garden of delight, a river flowed out of it to water the garden. And there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon is the one that flowed from the whole land of Havilah where there is gold. The gold of that land is good. Delium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It's the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is the Tigris which flows east of Assyria. Excuse me. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to work it and to keep it. So there is so much here and it is stunning. …
… Number two, what does the serpent represent? And number three, what does the tree of the knowledge of good and evil really represent? Genesis 1, 2, 3, where did the serpent come from? What does the serpent represent? And what does the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represent? Number two, I want you to read Job. If you can read the entire book, great. If not, get to chapter 42. I want you to read Job 42, and I want you to answer this question. Who is God upset with and why? Okay, you got the Genesis assignment. Job 42, who is God upset with and why? And the final question I want you to ask, doesn't require any Bible, it's just a question. how much of your life do you believe is predestined by God? And how much of your life is the direct result of your own free will choices? I'll say it again. How much of your life is predestined, inevitable, because God said that's going to be? …
… The Bible says that God planted a garden in Eden in the east. And in that garden, he caused to grow every kind of tree that was a delight to the eyes and good for food. And it tells us that in that garden, there was a tree called the tree of life. there's another tree called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then God took the man that he had created and put him in the garden he had prepared for him and told him you may eat freely from every tree in this garden except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day that you eat from that tree you will surely die and then the story says God said it's not good for the man to be alone I'm going to make a helper for him and so out of the ground the Lord God made every beast of the field and every bird of the air and he brought them to the man to see what the man would name them and whatever the man called it that was its name man named all the animals the man named all the birds he named everything God put in front of him but there was no fitting helper found for the man then God caused the man to fall asleep and he removed a rib and closed over the place with the flesh and he took that rib and made it into a woman and brought the woman to the man and the man said Zot …