In the short message I gave officiating at my son's wedding I made the point that the verses in Genesis 2 portray Adam, not as a glorified gardener or grounds keeper, but as a priest mediating the glory of God to all creation.
This observation was based on the fact that the words describing Adam's task in Gen.2:15 are only found together in one other context - those passages in the Torah describing the work of the priests in the tabernacle.
A Christian brother pinned me down later in the week and asked specifically what those verses are. Here's what I wrote him:
Adam’s work was described as “to work (ebed) it and take care (shamar) of it,” Genesis 2:15 NIV. Though these words appear by themselves numerous times, the only other passages where they appear together are in the passages describing the priest’s work in the tabernacle. These are the verses:
Numbers 3:7-8 NIV They are to perform (shamar) duties for him and for the whole community at the Tent of Meeting by doing (ebed) the work of the tabernacle. They are to take care of (shamar) all the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting, fulfilling the obligations of the Israelites by doing (ebed) the work of the tabernacle,
Numbers 8:26 NIV They may assist their brothers in performing (shamar) their duties at the Tent of Meeting, but they themselves must not do the work (ebed). This, then, is how you are to assign the responsibilities of the Levites.
Numbers 18:5-6 NIV You are to be responsible for (shamar) the care of the sanctuary and the altar, so that wrath will not fall on the Israelites again. I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to do (ebed) the work at the Tent of Meeting.
This observation linking Adam with the Levitical priests is not my own but was made by Gordon Wenham in a paper entitled “Sanctuary Symbolism in the Garden of Eden Story,” presented at the Ninth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 1985. He makes the following statement:
“The Midrash drew attention to passages where these terms [ebed and shamar] were used separately. It did not note though that the only other passages in the Pentateuch where these verbs are used together are to be found in Num.3:7-8; 8:26; 18:5-6; of the Levites’ duties in guarding and ministering in the sanctuary. If Eden is seen then as an ideal sanctuary, then perhaps Adam should be described as an archetypal Levite.”
He makes many other observations to prove his point about Eden being viewed as a primeval sanctuary – from which both the tabernacle and Solomon’s temple drew for design elements. And that Adam is to be pictured as a priest mediating God’s glory to all creation only serves to make more evident that Adam was “a pattern of the one to come” Rom.5:14 – namely, Christ Jesus, who is our great High Priest.
