Genesis 2:15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Keep it. The word keep means to guard or protect the garden.
From what?
When God made Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden to protect it, what was he protecting it from? To answer this question, we have to look back in time before time began. Before creation.
We don’t know a whole lot about what was happening before God created the world, the plant, the animals, and the people, but we do know that the angels already existed. The book of Job describes how the angels were there when God created the world.
Job 38:4,7. 4“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? 7…when the morning stars (the angels) sang together and all the sons of God (also the angels) shouted for joy?
We also know that one of the angels that God created before the beginning was Lucifer. Bible passages like Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 describe Lucifer as the prince of the bad angels (sometimes we call them demons). Before Lucifer was bad, he was good and beautiful. Lucifer was God’s anointed cherub. He was “full of wisdom” and led the worship of God. But then Lucifer’s heart was filled with pride and rebellion. “I will be like the Most High,” he boasted (Is. 14:14). The Book of Revelation describes the fall of Lucifer as a great battle in Heaven.
Revelation 12:7-9. 7Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon (Lucifer, the devil). And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
As you can see, before God put Adam in the garden, evil already existed. Lucifer, the Father of Lies, was roaming freely on Earth. When God told Adam to keep or protect the garden, he meant that Adam should protect it from the evil of Lucifer.
God made us to live within a great adventure story. He made us to be the rulers of this world, its protectors. God made us to listen to him, to listen to his voice of love and acceptance. But now there is another voice whispering to us. The voice of an evil enemy who wants to tempt us to stop trusting God and stop being kind to others.
We don’t live in a garden anymore, but God still wants each of us to be a protector. That is part of what it means to image God, to be his kings and queens (Day 7) and his priests (Day 15). Satan is still trying to trick, confuse, accuse, and tempt us, and it is our job to help each other fight against Satan by resisting his temptations. How? By never ever tempting anyone else to do something wrong. By never ever making someone else feel bad about themselves. And by never ever causing someone to doubt God’s love for them.
The Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee.” Today, you can resist the devil by believing everything that Jesus says to you and about you. And you can help protect others from the devil by helping them to trust everything Jesus says to them and about them too.
Questions: What isone thing that Jesus says about you that you can use to protect your heart from Satan’s lies? Is there anyone you know that needs to be encouraged today so that they don’t listen to the devil instead of Jesus?
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