GARDEN IN EDEN ...YOU!

Gan גַּן “Garden”

Summation: Gan is a proper name of a location. Not just any garden or orchard is in view when Moshe was inspired to write the Torah and include the Hebrew noun, Gan (Gen 2:8), and when Ezekiel wrote of Gan Elohim that was hosted by the Cherub, Lucifer (Ezekiel 28:13). An exact real estate was in view.
Gan means an enclosed garden or orchard, and not anyone outside may stroll into the garden at their whim without an invite, nor may the tenants remain if they disobey the Land's Lord. Exile is a certain reality of mistreating the property of the owner.

Study: One morning in August of 2016 I received a message from my niece, Brooklyn. She was praying about "going up" with us to Israel in March of 2017. I told Brooklyn, "I can't wait to show you the Land, the Garden of Eden!" Brooklyn did go with and what a grand trip the thirty of us had. Is it true? Is Israel the Garden of Eden? 

Gan comes from ganan meaning "enclosure" or "fenced orchard."  The word occurs about 130 times in Holy Writ, and is first used in Genesis 2:8, "and YHWH Elohim planted a garden from the east, in Eden, and there He placed the man whom He had formed. " Gan is a proper name of a location. YeKhek'el (Ezekiel) uses the same word when he writes of the history that predates Adam and Eve; he writes of "Gan Elohim" located on the holy mountain of God, which from context we know is Mount Zion, in Israel (Ezekiel 20:40).

The fundamental meaning of gan is "to cover over, to protect/shield." Well, that is interesting, isn't it, that Gan foremost is about a plot of ground protected by a hedge, fortress, or wall. One Hebrew dictionary says the meaning of gan is "to surround, defend, and protect." A man plants a garden, his intent being to grow veggies and fruits for eating, and flowers and trees for beauty, and he intends to erect a fence to guard that plot, the work of his hands and the means of his family's sustenance and survival. He is a fool if he does not border in and fence out for his gan. One definition of gan says, "a garden locked up" (NET Bible, 1st Edition). Ganan, from which Gan is derived is used eight times in the Word and in context of the guardianship of God.

Gan Eden was a paradise and real estate provided for God's first tenants, our parents, Adam and Havva. It was a land area given them for their protection. They were soon exiled because of disobedience, but their posterity were invited back inside, and Jerusalem was and is that plot of earth that God esteemed to be His land. He calls Yerushalayim "my land" and the Bible calls it, the Garden of the Lord.  For those who travel with me to Israel (go with us; we "go up" every spring or fall) we see the remains of the garden ZecharYah calls, "the Holy Land" (Zechariah 2:12), that land promised, Avraham, Ytzack, Yaaqov, Yehudah, and David, God’s image, the Sons of God, is Israel! 

Here is another beautiful consideration, YOU are Gan Eden! Why sure you are! Elohim once lived in His garden in Eden. He then dwelt in the Tabernacle, a guarded estate, and then He dwelt in the Temple. And, now, He abides in you! You are His Temple, His estate, His dwelling, you are His garden! And, He covers you, He hedges you, He defends and protects YOU! Listen to what the prophet Y'ShaYahu (Isaiah) says, YHWH will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered gan (garden)" (Isaiah 58:11). YirmeYahu (Jeremiah) says similar, "and their life shall be like a watered garden" (31:12). In Shir haShirim or "Song of Songs" Shlomo writes, "YOU are a garden spring, a well of living water... (Jeremiah 4:15).

Final thought: is God still concerned about real estate? Yes! He was at the beginning and He never changes! At the end, the Scriptures say, "In that day, a vineyard of song; I, YHWH am its keeper; I water it every moment lest anyone damage it. I guard it night and day (Isaiah 27:2,3). The context here is His millennial rule in His kingdom, in His land, after He has put away Leviathan the serpent, the dragon, Lucifer.