This episode of Bright Hearth is brought to you by Indigo Sundry Soap Company, Rooted Pine's Homestead,

Joe Garrison with Backwards Planning Financial, and by our supporters at Patreon.com.

The task of a father in his home can be described in many ways.

If you've listened to my preaching and teaching over the years, you've likely heard me describe

Godly masculinity using William Mauser's five aspects, that Godly men are lords, husbandmen, saviors, sages, and glory-bearers.

Each of these vocations is helpful in understanding a man's role.

Another way we might think about this task can be seen in comparison

of the task given to our first Father Adam and how it echoes later in the work of the

priests in the temple. Both Adam and the priests are told to work and keep their gardens.

Adam's garden was the first garden, a garden in Eden. God commanded him to take

dominion there, to be fruitful there, to work and to keep the garden, that is, to cultivate it into its full potential

of flowering and joy, and then to guard it, to defend it from enemies, work and keep.

Likewise, the priests were set in a garden, for that is what the tabernacle and later the temple was.

The tabernacle was a mobile diorama of the garden in Eden, complete with a tree of life in the form of the

golden lampstand,

cherubim guarding the holy place, and garden imagery all throughout.

Like Eden, the entrance opened to the east.

Like Eden, which was full of precious stones, the priest wore vestments be decked with precious stones.

Many other parallels can be seen between the garden and the tabernacle and then the temple.

The priests, like Adam, were told to do the same as him, to work and to keep the temple garden.

They were to cultivate the glory of a people at peace with God through their work, overseeing

worship and sacrifice, all ultimately pointing to the work of Christ, the true priest.

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