Planting, Cultivating, And Harvesting

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

In the beginning, when God created the earth, He planted grass, herbs, trees, and all plant life we see and recognize. And God saw that it was good. God developed the earth as he desires with all the Garden.

Yes, God created a garden. It was beautiful. Can you imagine all the new growing plants, herbs, and trees with all their splendid color?

God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

God made all the plants of the field which he planted to be food for all living creatures. The fields multiplied the crops in the likeness of its kind. Everything was good.

God caused the plants not to grow because he caused it not to rain, yet. Gen. 2:5 says, …there was not a man to till the ground. God needed mankind to till and cultivate the ground for these plants to grow and thrive. Verse 6 tells a mist rose up from the ground to water the fields. 6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

[T]he Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God placed a man in His garden to care for it. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden. God had planted His garden; it was called Eden.

God planted; man cultivated. [T]he Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

God planted His garden just as we plant our gardens and fields. It is about this time each year we have been planning what we will try to plant. We begin getting the garden and fields ready for the planting season. We are prepared to cultivate it as God instructed man to do for His garden. We know man must cultivate the garden to allow the highest possible yield to occur. We must remove any foreign plants from around the desired plants. Why?

God said unto Adam, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.

Someone came in the middle and sowed bad seed among the grasses, herbs, and trees in God’s garden. By the fault of man did this happen. Now man must cultivate the garden under hardships.

Let us take this story and interpose the garden as the kingdom of God sown in God’s fields and garden. The plants of the field which God planted are mankind. The thorns and thistles (weeds) are the plants Satan planted in God’s field. Now they are growing together. What shall God do to have a harvest?