Garden of the Gods: The King’s Garden

“The King’s Garden (Hebrew: Gan HaMelekh) is a location mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Nehemiah 3:15 and 2 Kings 25:4), and associated by biblical archaeologists with the Al-Bustan neighbourhood in the Silwan area of East Jerusalem. Al-Bustan has traditionally been believed to be part of the royal gardens of the Israelite kings.” (Wikipedia)

⁴ I also tried to find meaning by building huge homes for myself and by planting beautiful vineyards. ⁵ I made gardens and parks, filling them with all kinds of fruit trees. ⁶ I built reservoirs to collect the water to irrigate my many flourishing groves. (Ecclesiastes 2:4-6, NIV)

Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah. (2 Kings 25:4,NIV)

When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled; they left the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls, and headed toward the Arabah. (Jeremiah 39:4, NIV)

The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallun son of Kol-Hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah. He rebuilt it, roofing it over and putting its doors and bolts and bars in place. He also repaired the wall of the Pool of Siloam, by the King’s Garden, as far as the steps going down from the City of David. (Nehemiah 3:15, NIV)

Did Solomon create the King’s Garden near the pool of Siloam (modern day Silwan)? We don’t know. But gardens of splendor were the provenance of kings (1 Kings 21:1,2; Esther 1:5), who were wealthy enough, powerful enough, and had time enough to create such places. For Solomon it was also a way to find “meaning,” by which he meant “the certain prospect of a happy life.” He did not find such a guarantee through building a garden.

The certain prospect of a happy life was only to be found in the original garden planted by God in Eden. Perhaps every garden we create is an unconscious longing for Eden. We are ever trying to achieve a perfectly ordered society, a utopia where none of the futilities of life can worm their way in, but we never manage to achieve it. Like the King’s Garden for Zedekiah it was only a mark on his path to a failed escape from the Babylonians.

Is it wrong then to build such gardens, to try for such a return to Eden? I don’t think so. We are to pray for the kingdom of God to come to earth and live in such a way as to see God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What is wrong is to believe we can achieve it while we are still humans infected by sin. We must strive for it yet not expect to achieve it. Like the founding fathers who tried to put failsafes and measures to deal with human sinfulness into our constitution, we must anticipate that human selfishness will always intervene to spoil our bid for perfection.