Tonight I went to a Women of Westminster Faculty Lecture. I haven't been to the rest of the series, but I couldn't resist tonight's topic:
The Gardener-King of Creation: Adam in his Ancient Near Eastern Setting.
(With some other stuff on the king as builder!)
(Now who does that remind you of??!!)
Doug Green gave us lots of examples from ANE texts to show how building and gardening were royal peacetime activities which demonstrated their unchallenged dominion over their enemies.
Which is interesting when we come to Genesis. Doug suggested three ways that the Gen 2 account points to Adam's kingly role:
(i) Adam as a gardener (v15)
(ii) Adam naming the animals (v19-20)
(iii) Adam's formation from dust (v7; see 1 Kings 16:1-3 for this as a metaphor for enthronement and also consider the reverse metaphor, dethronement = being swept away like dust).
And then Doug took us to John's account of the resurrection. Note especially 19:41, the garden setting and 20:15 the appearance as a gardener. And remember the whole context of John's gospel as a re-writing of the creation history from 'In the beginning' to 'It is finished'. The resurrection (which John keeps telling us happened on the first day of the week) is the first day of the new creation, and Jesus appears as the new Adam, in the form of a gardener.
So, it seems to me, the implication is that when we receive dominion and are given our royal robes and crowns to wear, and when the battle is won and all the enemies destroyed so that we're living in peacetime, we'll be engaging in royal peacetime activities: building and gardening.
Better start practising now!