In Genesis 1, God creates the heavens and the earth, but the earth is without form, void, and dark. Importantly, the heavens are not. God created the angels as a host, instantly as mature as they ever would be. After the creation of the world, God proceeds to form, fill, and enlighten the world. The earth develops and grows towards the maturity of its heavenly model.

Genesis 2 recapitulates the seven days of creation in order. “Without form, void, and dark” is matched by:

(Genesis 2:5) When no shrub of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up–for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground,

In other words, Genesis 2:5 is the condition which the world matures out of. How does it mature out of Genesis 2:5? When a man exists to cultivate the ground. The “small plants” of the field are the grain plants and fruit trees created in Genesis 1. Genesis 2:5 is matched by the curses at the end of Genesis 3. The earth grows fallen shrubs (thorns and thistles) and man will eat bread (mature grain plants) by the sweat of his nose, contrasting with the Spirit put in man’s nose in Genesis 2:7.

Put these things together, and what we are to understand by this is that God’s intent was to mature creation when Adam harvested bread by the Spirit.

In order to understand the process by which man would harvest bread by the Spirit, one needs to understand the structure of the holy mountain, and how that is matched by the various temples in Scripture. The Tabernacle and Temple has three stories:

1. The Holy of Holies. This is matched by the Heaven of Heavens, the throne of God.

2. The Holy Place. This is matched by the visible Heavens, a symbol of God’s dwelling place.

3. The Courtyard. This is matched by the Earth.

Like cards sliding back into a deck, the lowest levels each mature towards the levels above them. The world matures into the brightness of the visible heaven, which matures into the glory of God’s dwelling place, until God is all in all.

Next, we need to understand how this triple-decker symbolism is matched by threefold floral symbolism.

1. The Holy of Holies is matched by the fountain of life, out of which flows the river of God’s delights. You can see this in Genesis 2. God answers the problem of “no water, no man” by bringing up a spring and creating a man. The spring originates above the Garden of Eden and flows downwards (this is how we know that Eden is on a mountain) into the Garden, where it divides into four and flows to the rest of the world. This symbol is picked up by Ezekiel 47, where the eschatological river flows out of the Temple and gives life to the world. It’s brought to completion in Revelation 21, where the fountain originates under the throne of Christ, the Last Adam. The throne is in the Holy of Holies, so that the Last Adam ascends to the throne-fountain.

2. The Holy Place is matched by the Garden, or the Vineyard . If you want to understand why Heaven is matched by the Vineyard, then remember that the Garden is in the middle of the mountain. If you’ve ever driven up a mountain, you recall that you’ve often driven above clouds- you’re in the visible heavens.

3. The Courtyard is matched by the Field. When Israel is gathered at the foot of Mt. Sinai, Israel is in the courtyard.

So Adam is in the Garden, where the river splits into four, and when he’s kicked out, we find ourselves in a field. But there’s one part of the world which is unaccounted for. In order to understand this, we ought to understand that the Bible also divides the world into “Heaven, Earth, Under-the-Earth.” Heaven is the visible heaven, corresponding to the vineyard. Earth is the world we walk on. Under-the-Earth is the oceans, as fish are said to swim under the earth.

Stay with me- the problem of Genesis 2:5 is “no water, no man, therefore no bread.” The solution was the cultivation of a spring and the outward flow of four rivers which divided in Paradise, corresponding to the four corners of the earth. The solution is when Adam brings water from the fountain of life to the ends of the earth. The next time we see rain is the flood. This is no accident.

In Scripture, the divine glory always has a double effect. It glorifies the righteous and punishes the wicked. The fire from the altar kills Nadab and Abihu. But when Isaiah is touched by the coal from the altar, he is glorified and filled with the Spirit. When Daniel sees a river proceeding from the throne of God, it’s a river of fire. When St. John sees it, it’s a river of water. This is the same river, because fire and water are complementary symbols of the divine glory. Both fire and water bless the righteous and punish the wicked.

So when the flood comes, this is the eschatological fulfillment of Genesis 2. God is all in all, but unto damnation for most of the world. For Noah, however, it is unto exaltation. The water stands above the mountains, and the Ark-Temple floats to the top of the mountain. Noah emerges and consecrates the world to God, as Christ will do at the eschaton.

By tying these threads together, we can see Adam’s destiny. He was meant to follow the rivers outwards, using the water from the fountain of life to cultivate fields by the Spirit. No man, no water, therefore no grain. When there’s a man who uses water rightly, you get grain.

But grain isn’t bread.

So what next?

In order to grasp the next step, one should understand what’s happening in Genesis 2-3. Man was created on the sixth day, and you see the events of the sixth day in detail in Genesis 2. If we follow the text forward, the seventh day occurs in Genesis 3, when Adam goes to the Tree of Knowledge and falls. How do I know this? Several ways:

1. The seven days of creation are recapitulated over and over throughout the Bible, and each recapitulation provides additional insight into the Sabbath of Genesis 1. In Genesis 37, for example, the creation week is recapitulated. The clearest correspondences is Joseph’s two dreams. He dreams of sheaves of grain, corresponding to the third day, where grain plants and fruit trees were made. Then he dreams of eleven constellations, the sun, and the moon bowing down to him. This clearly corresponds to the fourth day. The seventh day is matched by Joseph’s brothers attacking him- a new fall.

2. Israel is supposed to work six days and rest on the seventh. On the seventh day, Israel brings her work to God, doesn’t kindle fire, and God kindles His fire twice as brightly. In Psalm 104, the fruit of man’s work is bread, wine, and oil, the three sacramental foods. Wine gladdens man’s heart. This is Sabbath food. Bread strengthens man’s heart. This is his food to work six more days and come to Sabbath again. Oil brightens his face. This is glory-food.

3. Genesis 3:8 says that God came to Adam “in the Spirit of the Day.” Typically this is rendered “cool of the day”, but the word is the same as the “Spirit” of Genesis 1:2. The “Day” here is the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord is the Day of inspection. Every day, God “sees” the world and pronounces it “good”- or later in Scripture, “wicked.” The climax of this sequence is day seven, where as noted above, the sabbatical fire is brightened. The “Day” is the Sabbath. Adam is meant to meet with God and be inspected.

4. That the Day of the Lord refers to inspection by divine light is clear in Malachi 4, where the Sun of Righteousness rises to begin the Day of the Lord, and Israel is thereby enabled to distinguish the righteous from the wicked.

5. Sabbath itself refers to God coming to be enthroned in His world, which occurs in a theophany. When God is enthroned in the Tabernacle, the Glory-Cloud fills the Tabernacle. When God is enthroned in the Temple, the same happens. When Jesus, the incarnate Word of God, comes to the Temple, a Day of the Lord begins- He starts to cast out the wicked.

What was Adam supposed to be doing? He was meant to meet God at the Tree of Life. God would appear in His Glory to inspect Adam and Eve. Because they had met Him at the Tree of Life, and rejected the temptation of the Serpent, God would bless them. Having experienced temptation and rejected it, they would have matured slightly. So how do I know this? This is actually pretty simple.

After the exodus, Israel arrives at Sinai to begin her covenantal relationship with the Lord. In Exodus 24, Moses and the seventy elders ascend to the middle of the mountain (corresponding, if you recall, to the Garden), God appears in His Glory, and eats with them. When they ascend the mountain, they bring nothing in their hands. For the first meal, God alone provides the food. Afterwards, they are to provide Tribute. This will be demonstrated below.

But we know that this isn’t how things actually happened. Knowing what we know from the rest of the Bible, we can understand what happened in Genesis 3.

Adam was meant to lead his wife to the Tree of Life, where God planned to appear t them, instruct them what to do for the next week, and eat with them. They would partake of the tree of life. On their way to the tree, they came across the tree of knowledge, which God had told Adam was off limits. By the tree, there is a serpent, a wise serpent, the one to whom was given dominion over the cosmos until man was ready. He was supposed to teach them the ways of the world before ultimately handing it over to man. This was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, language which throughout the rest of Scripture refers to kingship.

As we know, the Serpent had fallen, but this could still accomplish God’s purpose- Adam would mature and learn about the world by resisting temptation. This isn’t what happened, though. God had provided the commandment to Adam, and he was meant to guard his Bride, tell the Serpent to buzz off, and continue to the Tree of Life. Instead, Adam wanted to see what would happen when his Bride ate the food. If she didn’t die, Adam would know God was lying. She ate and didn’t die, so Adam now “knew” that God was a liar. He ate too. This is the delay of the Parousia.

But then a booming sound is heard. The Garden lights up. God has appeared in His Glory for their Sabbath meal, but Adam isn’t at the Tree of Life, where he was supposed to be. Hearing the deafening noise and seeing the Garden light up, Adam and Eve hide among the trees. God arrives. Having intended to bless them on the Day of the Lord, He inspects them and sees “not good.” They are cursed. The Sabbath has arrived, God has descended to eat with His children, and His children didn’t show up for the meal. So the meal doesn’t happen- the Tree of Life is blocked off.

Paul says that from Adam to Moses, there was no law.

In other words, what began with Moses was actually a reinstatement of what was intended to occur with Adam. This is why Moses and the seventy elders ascend to eat a meal with God in Exodus 24. This is the meal that Adam was supposed to eat with God, finally coming to pass. By what transpires afterwards, we know what was supposed to happen with Adam.

In Exodus 25, after the meal, Moses collects tribute from the people to construct the Tabernacle. In Genesis 2, the author describes the raw materials of the world. Read together, the implication is that Adam was supposed to go out into the world, collect the raw materials, bring them to God, and continue the work of maturing the earth towards its heavenly prototype. Remember how this is associated with Bread? Now we can finally connect that up with the contributions towards the Tabernacle.

Leviticus 1-3. This is the destiny of the world. This is Adam’s vocation, reinstated.

Leviticus 1 is the ascension offering. It recapitulates the exodus. First, the animal is killed, just like the whole of Egypt dies on the night of Passover, including the Israelites, who emerge from their bloody doorposts (doorposts are associated with wombs throughout the Bible) in a new birth in the morning. Then the animal is washed, just as Israel passed through the Red Sea. Then the animal is burned up in an ascension to God. This is when Israel arrived at the holy mountain and ascended, in the persons of Moses and the seventy elders.

Leviticus 2 is the Tribute Offering. Because Exodus 24 (as in the intended meal of Genesis 2-3) included no Tribute as it was the beginning of the covenant, from this point forward, the sabbatical meal was to include Tribute. The Tribute Offering is Bread, Oil, and Incense. No wine yet, as that was for Israel after she partook lawfully of the Tree of Knowledge, the Tree of Kingship, because Wine is the sabbatical drink. This is why the drink offerings must be poured out in the old covenant.

But Bread, Oil, and Incense is exactly what is in the Holy Place. You’ve got the Bread of the Presence, the oil lampstand, and the incense altar. In other words, this is the Tribute that Adam was supposed to bring. As it corresponds to Exodus 25, this Tribute is meant to glorify the world as God’s Temple.

Leviticus 3 is the peace offering. This is the sacrificial meal that is then eaten with God.

Adam was meant to go into the world. Cultivate fields. Harvest them, working them into Bread, and bringing the raw material of the world along with him. Then he was to ascend the holy mountain, bringing this Tribute in his hand. God would take the Tribute and God and man would sit and have a meal together.

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Man is the “generations of the heavens and the earth” according to Genesis 2:4. He is the offspring of the Holy Spirit of God (heaven) and the dust of the ground (earth). Man is the vessel through which the earth matures towards the fullness of its heavenly prototype. Now we know the way in which this was to occur. He was meant to go into the world, cultivate fields with heavenly water, harvest bread, bring that bread to God on the holy mountain, and then sit and have a meal with God. Ultimately, this would proceed towards the eschatological Sabbath, which we can see in Genesis 9.

In Genesis 9, the whole world has been watered by heavenly rain (in judgment).Noah ascends to the mountain for the (typological) final meal. He consecrates the whole creation to God, this final, mature, complete creation. Then Noah enters his tent and drinks Wine in Sabbath Rest. Wine gladdens the heart of man. It is the drink of kings.

When Noah offers the whole creation to God in its prototypical eschatological Sabbath, this is a type of Jesus offering the completed new creation to God (1 Corinthians 15) so that God is all and all. But it is simultaneously a a type of the Eucharist, where Jesus offers us Bread AND WINE.

That means that the Eucharist is simultaneously the meal of the age to come, when Christ hands the whole world to His Father, and the meal that we eat now. This is why we speak of the Second Coming in the past tense when we celebrate the Eucharist: Remembering all these things that have come to pass for us, the Cross, the Grave, The Third-Day Resurrection, the Ascension into Heaven, the Session at the Right Hand of the Father, and the Second and Glorious Coming.

It’s at that point that the Bread is consecrated to God. The consecration of that Bread to God is the consecration of the whole created order to the Father by Christ.

So when we partake, we are entering into the Age to Come. We drink wine as well, because in that moment, God is all in all.

This is why we offer our monetary tribute to God after the Eucharist is brought forth- this is the completion of what Adam was supposed to do. We turn our stuff into the “stuff of the age to come” at the Divine Liturgy.