Advent meditation: God placed Adam in the garden to till and keep it. The Hebrew words used here for till and keep are the same ones later used to describe the work of the priests in the Tabernacle. Thus, Adam was to serve as the priest of the garden, mediating God’s life to the whole creation. In this way he foreshadowed Christ, the eternal high priest. (Heb 4:14)
Prayer: O God, You called Adam as a priest to serve You in the garden. Please strengthen all those whom You call to the priesthood so that they might serve You.
Scripture: And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made 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 the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17)
