Sure, it would be nice if we could all live like the family of Seth right outside Eden.
Picture it: nomadic tent dwellers living in simplicity, herding goats and sheep. With that was a whole range of cultural implications we can only guess. Obvious is the lack of attachment to this world, a general lack of acquisitiveness, and a powerful sense of patience about a lot of things. There would be some light hunting and gathering and a little seasonal agriculture here and there. The whole point was to meet the basic needs of the flesh while deeply pursuing something far above this world. It’s a quiet and contemplative life.
Yes, that is the ideal for humans. The objective for us today is to get our heads there; whether we can get our bodies into anything even vaguely resembling that is another matter.
It’s not as if I’m going to boycott Western Civilization with all it’s shallow materialism and hideous immorality. I’m just using what I find at hand to promote something far more important. All Creation is but a tool for His glory. Mankind’s worst foibles can also be used, but it requires a depth of moral understanding foreign to Western culture. I don’t care for the kind of maniacal chase for comfort that produces things like computers, for example, but I’ll use them. I’ll even learn how to fix them and make them work better, only because I’m doing my best to subject all things to the standard of His glory.
Eden now represents what isn’t possible for fallen men, but there’s no reason to stray so very far from it. God’s revelation was all about finding the way back in, about how to get away from this world and the curse of the Fall. That means we pay attention to what He wants from us while we are here. It means our hearts and minds long for Eden, not as our cultural mythology paints it, but as the Word reveals it. Forget the trappings and externalities; contemplate the underlying meaning invisible to our human eyes.
Let you soul wander the paths of righteousness and moral truth until you feel at home. The transition across the line of death will become a sweet release, but only when God says your job here is finished.
