Gardens of the Bible

Gardens of the Bible

Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 

Genesis 2:8-10

Gardens are mentioned throughout the Bible. The first one of course is the Garden of Eden. God planted a garden and put man there to take care of it.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die."

Genesis 2:15-17

As we know, Adam did not heed the Lord's command and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After this, God banished Adam and Eve from the garden.

So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. 

Genesis 3:23-24

After this people began building their own gardens. In the East, these gardens were usually surrounded by a wall or a hedge of thorny bushes. They often had paths that wandered through the garden. There was usually a water source like a stream or a fountain. Because of the arid climate in these areas, gardens were often the only places where trees or fragrant herbs were found. Often these gardens were built on the edge of town. So, people built watch towers so they could guard their gardens from intruders. However, there was a rose garden in the center of Jerusalem near the temple which stood for hundreds of years. These gardens were the product of people. They represented something about the people who created them. In the Bible, gardens are often used to symbolize a person or people. A garden full of flowers, fruit trees and fragrant herbs would represent a flourishing people. A garden full of weeds and dead or dying plants would represent a people who were not prospering. After the Garden of Eden, the next mention of gardens in the Bible has to do with Abram and Lot. They had both gone to Egypt because of a drought. Once the drought was over, the traveled north to Bethel. Both of them were rich and had many animals that needed pasture. They decided it would be best if they separated into different areas so both could prosper.

So Abram said to Lot, "Let's not have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herders and mine, for we are close relatives. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the left." Lot looked around and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan toward Zoar was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men parted company: 

Genesis 13:8-11

Abram decided to go to Canaan and Lot went to the plains of the Jordan. The area that Lot chose was well watered like the garden of the Lord. It also reminded Lot of the land of Egypt he had just left. So, Lot went to that region and his family prospered. However, sometime later, the people of that region turned away from God and did evil things. Things got so bad that God, after rescuing Lot, destroyed Sodom and Gomorra which were cities in that region. The garden that had been the plain of Jordan was gone.

By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.

Genesis 19:23-25

All that was left of the region Lot had once described as like the garden of the Lord was smoldering ashes. Because of their wickedness, God had destroyed these people and the garden in which they lived. It would turn out that this destroyed garden would foreshadow many events in the future of Israel and Judah. The next kind of gardens mentioned in the Bible were vegetable gardens. This type of garden was very prevalent in Egypt. The Nile River runs down the middle of Egypt. Most of the people and farmland are located right near that river. Over the centuries the Egyptians had learned to build canals to carry water from the river to their vegetable gardens. This required a lot of labor to maintain the canals needed. However, they could raise all kinds of vegetables to eat. The Jews worked in these gardens when they were in slavery in Egypt. After God freed the Israelites they eventually went to the Promised Land. This land of Canaan did not have a big river but was a land of mountains and valleys. The agriculture there depended on rain which God provided for his people.

The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end. 

Deuteronomy 11:10-12

God was showing his people that he wanted only the best for them. He wanted their garden to be different. Instead of working in the mud, building canals, planting seeds and harvesting just vegetables, he was giving them a garden of fruit trees, vines, flowers and fragrant herbs. He would care for the land and provide the early and later rain. The Promised Land was to be a land of milk and honey. The only thing God asked was that his people would follow him and obey his commandments. Unfortunately, the Israelites did not do this. In fact, they almost went in the opposite direction and wanted to go back to vegetables.

The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!" 

Numbers 11:4-6

This pattern continued throughout the history of the Israelites. God had freed them from Egypt and planted them in the Promised Land. He wanted his people to flourish and be fruitful but instead of obeying the Lord they rebelled.

"Long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, 'I will not serve you!' Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute. I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine? 

Jeremiah 2:20-21

King Ahab was one of those who not only disobeyed the Lord, but promoted the worship of idols with his wife Jezebel. There was a vineyard near his palace. Vines were one of the symbols of the fruitful land God have given the Israelites. But Ahab decided he wanted to plant a vegetable garden instead. Naboth, the owner of the vineyard refused to give up the inheritance that the Lord had provided his family. He ended up being killed for refusing the king.

Sometime later there was an incident involving a vineyard belonging to Naboth the Jezreelite. The vineyard was in Jezreel, close to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. Ahab said to Naboth, "Let me have your vineyard to use for a vegetable garden, since it is close to my palace. In exchange I will give you a better vineyard or, if you prefer, I will pay you whatever it is worth." But Naboth replied, "The LORD forbid that I should give you the inheritance of my ancestors." 

1 Kings 21:1-3

Another garden from this time was the Garden of Uzza or the King's garden. This garden was located next to the kings palace and near the Fountain Gate. King Manasseh was another king of Judah who did evil in the eyes of the Lord. His father, King Hezekiah, had tried to destroy the high places and set Judah on the right path of obeying the Lord. But Manasseh reversed much of what his father had done. He ended up dying and being buried in this garden.

Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. His mother's name was Hephzibah. He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. 

2 Kings 21:1-3

Manasseh rested with his ancestors and was buried in his palace garden, the garden of Uzza. And Amon his son succeeded him as king.

2 Kings 21:18

The last king of Judah, Zedekiah, realizing that the Babylonians were overrunning Jerusalem tried to escape the city by way of the king's garden.

When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled; they left the city at night by way of the king's garden, through the gate between the two walls, and headed toward the Arabah. But the Babylonian army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They captured him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him.

Jeremiah 39:4-5

He was later captured and killed by the king of Babylon. The garden with everything else was destroyed. Here is another description of what happened when the Babylonians captured and destroyed Jerusalem.

The Lord is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for Daughter Judah. He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden; he has destroyed his place of meeting. The LORD has made Zion forget her appointed festivals and her Sabbaths; in his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest. The Lord has rejected his altar and abandoned his sanctuary. He has given the walls of her palaces into the hands of the    enemy; they have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed festival. 

Lamentations 2:5-7

God laid waste his dwelling or the temple like a garden. What could this mean? How do you lay waste to a garden? Let us say you have an old garden. The plants are old and don't bear much fruit any longer. There are weeds and even the walls are crumbling. You decide you are going to replace the garden with new plants. The first thing you do is rip out all the plants, turn over all the soil, remove the stones and weeds, and prepare the soil for new plants. You have pretty much laid waste to the old garden. This is what God did with the Israelites. The Israelites had made their own decisions about what kind of garden they built. They had rebelled against the Lord and built their gardens their way. God had to show them again and again, that the kind of garden they built was not the right one.

"You will be ashamed because of the sacred oaks in which you have delighted; you will be disgraced because of the gardens that you have chosen. You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water. The mighty man will become tinder and his work a spark; both will burn together, with no one to quench the fire." 

Isaiah 1:29-31

"Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, destroying them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. 

Amos 4:9

God had not given up on his people though, he planned to create a new garden for them. After the people were exiled in Babylon, God sent the prophet Jeremiah to them.

This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." 

Jeremiah 29:4-7

God told them to build gardens. In other words, God was telling them that they needed to keep on living. They needed to seek the Lord. Their exile was not going to last forever. God would again rescue them.

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many. The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing. "Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: Instruction will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. 

Isaiah 51:1-4

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. 

Isaiah 58:10-11

For the LORD will deliver Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they. They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD— the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more. 

Jeremiah 31:11-12

"'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: On the day I cleanse you from all your sins, I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt. The desolate land will be cultivated instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass through it. They will say, "This land that was laid waste has become like the garden of Eden; the cities that were lying in ruins, desolate and destroyed, are now fortified and inhabited." Then the nations around you that remain will know that I the LORD have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.' 

Ezekiel 36:33-36

"The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring my people Israel back from exile. "They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them," says the LORD your God. 

Amos 9:13-15

The Israelites were not the only ones that the Bible describes as a garden. The king of Tyre was also described as living in the Garden of Eden.

The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: "'You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. 

Ezekiel 28:11-17

This prophecy was written specifically about the king of Tyre. His kingdom became rich from trading with peoples all across the Mediterranean. However, some people read these verses and can see a description of what happened to Satan in the Garden of Eden. The message for both is that pride is what led them to be cast out of the garden. Ezekiel also gave a warning to the Pharaoh of Egypt about his pride. The king of Judah had gone to the Pharaoh for help against the Babylonians. God warned him that his pride would lead to his destruction. The Lord gave Pharaoh an example of what could happen to a people full of pride. These verses described what had happened earlier to the Assyrians. They were the ones who conquered the northern kingdom of Israel.

Consider Assyria, once a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches overshadowing the forest; it towered on high, its top above the thick foliage. The waters nourished it, deep springs made it grow tall; their streams flowed all around its base and sent their channels to all the trees of the field. So it towered higher than all the trees of the field; its boughs increased and its branches grew long, spreading because of abundant waters. All the birds of the sky nested in its boughs, all the animals of the wild gave birth under its branches; all the great nations lived in its shade. It was majestic in beauty, with its spreading boughs, for its roots went down to abundant waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it, nor could the junipers equal its boughs, nor could the plane trees compare with its branches— no tree in the garden of God could match its beauty. I made it beautiful with abundant branches, the envy of all the trees of Eden in the garden of God. "'Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because the great cedar towered over the thick foliage, and because it was proud of its height, I gave it into the hands of the ruler of the nations, for him to deal with according to its wickedness. I cast it aside, and the most ruthless of foreign nations cut it down and left it. Its boughs fell on the mountains and in all the valleys; its branches lay broken in all the ravines of the land. All the nations of the earth came out from under its shade and left it. 

Ezekiel 31:3-12

Perhaps the most beautiful garden described in the Bible is the one in the Song of Solomon. This book of the Bible is full of symbolism. In this study, it is not possible to go into all of that. However, one of the stories told is about a shepherd and a maiden. The shepherd in the following verses is describing the maiden, his future bride, as a beautiful garden.

You are a garden locked up, my sister, my bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain. Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with choice fruits, with henna and nard, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree, with myrrh and aloes and all the finest spices. You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon. Awake, north wind, and come, south wind! Blow on my garden, that its fragrance may spread everywhere. Let my beloved come into his garden and taste its choice fruits. 

Song of Solomon 4:12-16

One way to look at the symbolism here is to think of the shepherd as representing Jesus and the maiden representing the church. All the fruits and spices could represent the fruit of the Spirit that the church produces. The well of flowing water could be the living water that Jesus gives to each of us. The wind could represent the call for all Christians to spread the Gospel to the ends of the world. Then the maid is telling her beloved to come into his garden. This could represent the Lord coming to live amongst his people, the church. The next verse describes what the shepherd brings with him as he comes into the garden.

I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends, and drink; drink your fill of love. 

Song of Solomon 5:1

These items the shepherd brings with him into the garden can also symbolize what Christ has brought to the church. The myrrh and spices could represent the gifts that the wise men. Hence, they represent the gift of Jesus at his birth. The honeycomb could represent the Word who God sent into this world so that we might be saved. The wine and milk could symbolize what Jesus gave on the cross, his blood and flesh, for the forgiveness of our sins. Finally, he invites us to eat and take our fill of his love for us. The story continues when some other women come to the maid and ask her where they can find the shepherd.

Where has your beloved gone, most beautiful of women? Which way did your beloved turn, that we may look for him with you? My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to browse in the gardens and to gather lilies. I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine; he browses among the lilies. 

Song 6:1-3

In the end, the maid testifies that she belongs to her beloved and her beloved is hers. This is a great description of the relationship that Christians have with Christ. The use of gardens does not only occur in the Old Testament. In speaking with some Pharisees, Jesus describes them as having given God a tenth of their garden herbs to God. However, they have neglected the other fruit of the garden, justice and the love of God.

Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you. "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. 

Luke 11:39

Jesus was telling them that they were not cultivating the garden that God had intended for them to do. Hence, they were not harvesting the things the Lord had wanted for his children. The other gardens in the New Testament are the garden where Jesus went to pray before he was arrested and the garden where his body was placed after he was crucified.

When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was a garden, and he and his disciples went into it. Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the garden, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and the Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons. 

John 18:1-3

At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. 

John 19:41-42

In a way, these two gardens represent a new garden that God prepared for his children. Originally, God created the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve. After the fall, they were evicted from the Garden and had to suffer and painfully toil to get the food they needed from the land.

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." 

Genesis 3:17-19

But God loved his children and wanted to spare them from this toil. So, he planted a new garden. He rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and planted them in the Promised Land.

You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with   its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches. Its branches reached as far as the Sea, its shoots as far as the River. Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes? Boars from the forest ravage it, and insects from the fields feed on it.  

Psalm 80:8-13

The Israelites lost their way and disobeyed the Lord. They began worshipping idols. God allowed them to be defeated. Their garden dried up and became full of nothing but weeds. But this was not the end.

Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 

John 12:23-24

God planted one more garden. God raised up his own Son. The Root who sat at his right hand would plant a new vine so that all nations could partake of its fruit.

Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine, the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.

Psalm 80:14-15

"For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed." I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. 

Isaiah 61:8-11

Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator. 

Galatians 3:19

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.

1 Peter 1:23-25

There is a Christian song by Elevation Worship that in part goes like this:

You turn mourning to dancing

You give beauty for ashes

You turn shame into glory

You’re the only one who can

You turn graves into gardens

You turn bones into armies

You turn seas into highways

You’re the only one who can

Oh, there’s nothing better than you

God has planted a beautiful garden for all of us to live in. We should each tend to our own part of this garden to ensure that it bears fruit, flowers, and fragrant herbs. This is what God has always intended for his children.

So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. 

Romans 7:4-5

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 

Galatians 5:22-23