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Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:8-14, 18-24; Psa. 46:4-5; 36:8
Genesis 1 and 2 are undoubtedly a record of God’s creation. But as we have seen, these two chapters do not convey only the thought of God’s creation. After receiving the light, we can see that something much more is conveyed in this part of the Word. The crucial matter conveyed in Genesis 1 and 2 is the divine economy. It is easy to understand how God created the heavens and the earth, but it is not so easy to understand why God created man in His own image, why God created man with a human spirit, and why after creating man He put him in front of the tree of life. These are three crucial points: the image of God, the spirit of man, and the tree of life. To understand Genesis 1 and 2 we must understand these marvelous, crucial, and vital points.
When we see the divine economy, we will realize that God created man in His image so that He could dispense Himself into man. God also created man with a spirit so that He could dispense Himself into man. Finally, God put man in front of the tree of life in order that man could receive Him into his being as life. Within the first twenty years of my study of the Bible, I did not see this. Genesis 1 and 2 were merely a story of creation to me. I was unable to understand the significance of the image of God, the spirit of man, and the tree of life. About forty years ago, I began to see the tree of life, the image of God, and the spirit of man. After seeing all these matters in Genesis 1 and 2, I was somewhat beside myself. We have to realize that we bear the image of God. We look like God. We also have a spirit to receive God as our life. This is all for God’s economy to dispense Himself into us. This is the main thought of the record in Genesis 1 and 2.
Genesis 2:8 furthermore tells us that God planted a garden. The garden that God planted was in Eden, which means “delight” or “pleasure.” God put man in an environment of pleasure and delight, full of enjoyment. God put man into this garden and placed him in front of the tree of life. This indicated that God wanted man to receive Him into his being to be man’s life. The pleasant God wanted to enter into man to be man’s pleasant life.
In addition to the tree of life, the picture in Genesis 2 shows us that there was also a river that went forth from Eden to water the garden (v. 10). An environment where there are trees with a river is an environment pleasant with life. Life is in the tree, and life is flowing in the water. God put man in front of the tree of life, and along with this tree a river was flowing. Thus far, we have seen a man made in the image of God with a human spirit that was able to receive God. Then this man was in front of the tree of life by the side of a river. This tree was “pleasant to the sight and good for food” (v. 9). We need to see the picture in Genesis 2 of a man bearing God’s image, having a human spirit to receive God, placed in front of a tree that was flourishing, green, and full of life, and beside a river of flowing water.
Wherever there is the eternal life, there is always the flow of the living water. John 6 shows us that Jesus is the bread of life (v. 35) with the riches of life for us to eat (v. 57). Then John 7 tells us that whoever believes in Jesus and receives His life will have rivers of living water flowing out of his innermost being (v. 38). In John 6 is the bread of life with the riches of life, and in John 7 are the rivers flowing with living water. These two chapters show us that when we receive the divine life, this life flows in our being as a river of living water. This is the significance of the tree of life and the river in Genesis 2.
At the flow of the river there were gold, bdellium, and onyx stone (v. 12). Bdellium is a kind of pearl, but it is not produced from the oysters out of the ocean. It is a kind of pearl produced from a tree’s secretion. When the resin of the tree, the tree’s life secretion, the tree’s sap, congeals into gum, this gum is considered as a transparent pearl. Bdellium is a pearl produced by the plant life, not by the animal life. Onyx stone is a most precious stone. The picture in Genesis 2 shows us the tree of life and a river of water, and at the flow of this river are gold, pearl from the plant life, and onyx stone. We need to ask what the significance of this picture is.
Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3 that he had laid the unique foundation, which is Jesus Christ, but now we must be careful how we build upon this foundation (vv. 10-11). We have to build upon this foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones (v. 12). In Genesis 2 there is gold, bdellium, and onyx stone, and in 1 Corinthians 3 Paul refers to gold, silver, and precious stones. To build up the church there is the need of gold, of silver, and of precious stones. At the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation, the holy city, New Jerusalem, is built with three items — gold, pearls, and precious stones (21:18-21). In three portions of the divine revelation — Genesis, 1 Corinthians, and Revelation — there are three materials. Gold and precious stones are listed in these three books. But the second material in Genesis is bdellium, in 1 Corinthians is silver, and in Revelation is pearl.
It is significant that three items are listed. The number three has a spiritual significance in the Bible. It denotes the Triune God, and it also denotes resurrection on the third day. Therefore, three in the Bible denotes the Triune God in resurrection. The Jews and the Muslims believe in God. They believe in the God who created the universe, and we also believe in God. The Jews and the Muslims believe in the God of creation, but we believe in the God not only of creation but also in resurrection. The God we believe in is not only the creating God but also the God in resurrection. This is a tremendous difference. The God in creation never became a man. But the Triune God in resurrection became a man, lived on this earth as a man, passed through death, and was resurrected. Our God is not only the God in creation but the very God who became a man, lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, died on the cross, and was resurrected. Today He is the very Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — in resurrection. The God in creation created the universe, but the God in resurrection regenerates us and transforms us to make us a new creation. As the God in creation, He created us, but as the God in resurrection, He regenerates and transforms us to make us a new creation. We were once the old creation, but now we are a new creation in resurrection.
Adam was made by God of the dust of the ground. He was a dusty man placed in front of the tree of life. We also are men of dust, but by partaking of Christ as the tree of life, the river of water of life will flow within us and transform us into precious material for God’s building. Spiritually, we are being transformed from a man of dust to a man of gold. In the previous chapter we saw that God does not desire us to be good men but God-men. We not only need to be God-men but also gold men. As a Christian, you must be a God-man and a gold man. In the Divine Trinity are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Gold signifies the nature of the Father; bdellium and pearls signify the produce of the Son, the second in the Trinity; and onyx stone, precious stone, signifies the third in the Trinity, the Spirit.
We have already pointed out that bdellium is a pearl produced from the plant life and not from the animal life. The shedding of the blood from the animal life is required for redemption, but with the plant life there is no thought of redemption. In Genesis 1 and 2 sin had not yet come in, and man had not fallen. Thus, there was no need of redemption, but there was still the need of the secretion of the life-juice. Thus, bdellium signifies that the Son of God had to be a tree to be broken to secrete His life-juice to produce bdellium. In the Bible the plant life signifies the producing, multiplying, and propagating life.
When the Lord died on the cross, He was broken. A soldier pierced His side with a spear, and there came out blood and water (John 19:34). Two things came out of the Lord’s side — blood for redemption and water for life secretion. In Genesis 2 there was only the need of the secretion of life. There was no need of the shedding of blood, because in Genesis 2 there was no sin. In John 19 from the side of the broken Jesus, blood came out for redemption, dealing with sins (1:29; Heb. 9:22) for the purchase of the church (Acts 20:28), and water came out for the secretion of the life-juice, for imparting life, dealing with death (John 12:24; 3:14-15) for the producing of the church (Eph. 5:29-32).
Silver signifies the redeeming Christ with all the virtues of His person and work. Today the Son of God is signified in God’s building as the silver. With bdellium there is the thought of life secretion only, but with silver there is the thought of redemption, which includes the shedding of blood and the secretion of life.
In the consummation of the Bible there is neither bdellium nor silver but pearls. Pearls are something produced by the animal life of the oyster. Pearls imply the thought of redemption and the thought of life secretion to the uttermost. Pearls are produced by the oysters in the waters of death. When the oyster is wounded by a particle of sand, it secretes its life-juice around the sand and makes it a precious pearl. In eternity future we will still be reminded that the Son of God came into the death waters as the living One, the oyster, and was crucified, being wounded by us to redeem us and to secrete His life over us to make us precious pearls for the building of God’s eternal expression.
The tree of life signifies Christ as our life received into us. Then the Spirit as the river of water of life flows within us. The result of this flow is that we are transformed into precious materials. In the spiritual sense, gold, bdellium, and onyx stone all signify transformation. The old creation gets transformed to be the new creation. The Lord wants to transform us from a dusty man into a gold man with bdellium and onyx stone. We have to believe that the Lord has added some amount of gold, bdellium or silver, and onyx stone into our being. This is not merely creation but transformation in resurrection by the Triune God. We need to praise and thank the Lord for the transformation of the Triune God in resurrection. This is God’s economy. The tree of life, the river of water, the gold, the bdellium, and onyx stone are all for God’s economy. This is to dispense the Triune God into His created man.
The ultimate consummation of God’s eternal economy is the New Jerusalem, the eternal building of God, builded with transformed materials of gold, pearls, and precious stones through the dispensing of the Triune God into His chosen and redeemed people. I hope we can spend some time to pray over the verses and the fellowship in this chapter until all these points get into us. We need to worship the Lord that He is the tree of life and the life-giving Spirit as the river of water of life flowing within us. Thank the Lord that He is now transforming us into gold, bdellium, and onyx stone. After a number of years many of us will possess more of the Triune God as gold, bdellium, and onyx stones, and the church life will bear a strong testimony of the Triune God in resurrection.
