Our Spiritual Supply
A Devotional Series from Genesis
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
3/3 Reading Portions: Exodus 14; Luke 17; Job 32; 2 Corinthians 2
Genesis 2:10
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.
RIVER
As mentioned in our devotional thought two days ago, the planting of the Garden of Eden prophetically foreshadowed the best that is yet to come. Salvation in Jesus Messiah was not meant to “take us back to Eden.” No. Our redemption in Christ was meant to take us to supreme fellowship with Christ in heaven, a reality beyond our grandest and most glorious imaginations.
Exegesis is the term the theologians use for interpreting Scripture, drawing out from Scripture what the author intends to tell us (and in our very basic understanding of Scripture, we must do so). Nevertheless, there is an element of eisegesis in our ultimate interpretation; that is, using a subjective approach to interpreting Scripture based on inserting biases or assumptions into the text. “How so, Jon Cardwell?”—I can hear the gasps from some of my more educated and sophisticated ministry friends. My answer—because the Bible is subjective (John 5:39). The author’s intent, YHVH God’s intent, is to lead us to Christ, to immerse us with Christ, to keep us in Christ, and to celebrate that Jesus Christ is the blessing from which all blessings flow. Without Jesus Christ, we have nothing and are nothing.
The river that flows out of Eden prophetically foreshadows that which is ordained for the new heaven and earth. It is written,
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22:1-2
Eden’s river, prophetic of the source of refreshment in the regeneration to come, is the truth of intimate fellowship with Christ through the Holy Spirit. One of the illustrations used of the Holy Spirit is a river, and this expressed by our Lord Jesus Himself:
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39
Through the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ alone is the source of both our salvation and our sanctification, just as water and blood came out separate when His side was pierced on that tree (John 19:34-35), this is the testimony of the Holy Spirit, as it is written:
This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. 1 John 5:6-8
Hallelujah! What a Savior!