Sabbath School for Adults: Education: Lesson 1: Education in the Garden of Eden

 Sunday September 27

The First School

Though we don’t think of a garden as a classroom, it makes perfect sense, especially one like Eden, filled with the unspoiled riches of God’s creation. It is hard to imagine, from our perspective today, how much these unfallen beings, in an unfallen world and being directly taught by their Creator, must have been learning in that “classroom.”

Read Genesis 2:7–23. What do you notice about God’s purposefulness in creating, placing, and employing Adam?

God made the man and the woman in His image and gave them a home and meaningful work. When you consider teacher-student dynamics, this is an ideal relationship. God knew Adam’s abilities because He had created Adam. He could teach Adam, knowing that Adam could realize his full potential.

God gave the man responsibility, but He also wanted happiness for him, as well. And perhaps part of the means of giving him happiness was giving him responsibilities. After all, who doesn’t get satisfaction—happiness, even—from being given responsibilities and then faithfully fulfilling them? God knew the heart of Adam and what he would need to thrive; so, He gave Adam the task of taking care of the Garden. “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Gen. 2:15, NKJV). It’s hard for us to imagine, knowing only a world of sin and death as we do, what the work must have entailed and the lessons that, no doubt, Adam learned as he worked and kept their garden home.

In Genesis 2:19–23, God created animal companions for Adam, and He also created Eve as Adam’s wife. God knew that Adam needed the companionship and help of a peer; so, He created woman.

God also knew that man needed to be in close relationship with Him; so, He created an intimate space in Eden within the confines of the Garden. All of this attests to God’s purposefulness in Creation and His love for humanity. Again, from the great distance between us and Eden, it’s hard to imagine what it must have been like—though it is fun to try to imagine, isn’t it?

Though we are far removed from Eden, we can still learn lessons from nature. What are some of those lessons, and how can we benefit from them as we interpret them through the lens of Scripture?