Are We Back in the Garden? Part 9
November 7, 2004
Dear Friends,
As we take into account the whole counsel of God on the subject of the Garden, let us take a look at the uses of the Tree of Life in Scripture. The first, direct mention of the Tree of Life outside of the Genesis account occurs in Proverbs. “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. …She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.” (Prov. 3:13,18) In this passage, the Tree of Life is godly wisdom. The writer extols the virtues of wisdom which we are encouraged to strenuously pursue. To those who find it, “So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck.” (v. 22) This is very much in keeping with what we have suggested the Tree to represent in our diagram.
Later on in Proverbs, we are again faced with the metaphor of the Tree. “The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” (Prov. 11:30) This analogy is a bit baffling at first. The proverb suggests that fruit produces trees when we are much more familiar with the analogy that trees produce fruit. Actually, when we step back for a moment and think both about the natural analogy and the spiritual analogy, it makes perfect sense. Trees produce fruit which are in fact seeds. The fruit then is the seed for the new tree. This mimics what happens in the spiritual world perfectly. When we have a spiritual mind built on saving faith, we do good works (produce fruit). When we do good works (or manifest the fruit of the spirit – Gal 5), we see our faith increase. All the while this cycle is going on, our fruit (works) lead others to saving truth. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:16) A multiplicity of good comes from the spiritual mind. What a perfectly marvelous spiritual insight which experience shows us to be true.
The next reference is “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.” (Prov. 13:12) To understand the spiritual implications of this verse, we much first understand the natural. What the proverb tells us naturally is that when we go without something we really desire, it is sad to us. When we finally attain that which we desire, we rejoice and celebrate its attainment. When applied spiritually, this proverb has dual application. When we come into Christ and can eat spiritually from the Tree of Life, we rejoice. There are too many references to mention regarding the joy that we have in Christ. Yet, this is not the end of the matter. There are also many verses which speak of the despair of believers at the state of their mortality and the conditions on the earth. In this regard, the application of the verse is yet future when all things are made right.
The next verse states “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.” (Prov. 15:4) Here the Tree is likened to a godly speech. We are familiar with the untold damage that ungodly speech can do in James 3. In this verse, the two are compared. A godly tongue is a tree of life while an ungodly tongue destroys our life (the word “spirit” is Heb. ruach meaning literally breath or figuratively life). James 3:7 tells us “…the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body.” Once again, the Tree of Life seems to carry with it the mind of the Spirit versus the mind of the flesh in action.
We don’t hear again directly of the tree of life again until we arrive in the book of Revelation. We’ll take a look at that next week, Lord willing.
Have a great week!
We apologize for not sending this out last week. We had some computer issues which we are still trying to work through.
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