The Tree of Life
The Tree in the Garden-
- Yahweh creates Trees of fruit with seeds in them on Day 3, on Day 6 He creates Humans of who he tells to be fruitful and multiply. Both should produce fruit, both from the ground, both with seeds to produce the fruit. (Genesis 1: 11-12 and Genesis 1: 26-30)
- NOTE: Trees do not humans to reproduce or survive. Without trees, humans would lack basic nutrients for them to survive. This is both a physical and spiritual principle. A foreshadowing.
- Genesis 2:9 (Yahweh caused the garden to be full of trees. Many different types, yet there are two trees specifically mentioned to contrast one another. The tree of LIFE and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These trees were placed in the center of the garden.
- Genesis 3:22 tells us that after the original Adam eats of the tree he was told not to God casts them out so that they can’t take of the Tree of Life and live forever. The tree of life on its own was ok but after the disobedience, He doesn’t want them to take of the Tree of Life.
- God then places Angels to guard the Tree of Life from the original Adam. Most likely the same angels that are guarding and encouraging Yeshua in Mark chapter 1 and Matthew Chapter 4 with his 1st test in the wilderness. This test came even before Yeshua started His ministry. 1st test passed.
Old Testament Symoblizism-
- In Exodus chapter 3 Moses who is on the mountain of God encounters a burning bush of which the Lord is in. A bush called S’neh which is a pun on the name of Sinai. A future mountain where the Lord will once again come to meet with His people.
- Notice throughout Scripture the place where God dwells to meet with man is called holy ground. A holy place where human’s ritual statuses must change in order for them to meet with the Lord.
- This is a picture of Eden, the Tabernacle, the Temple, and the new Jerusalem.
- In Exodus 32 we see that Moses attempts to offer his own life as a sacrifice for atonement for the sins of the Israelites and the making of the golden idol.
God is setting the stage for new seed, a new people, and a future Eden.
God Plants a New Eden-
- 2 Samuel 7 tells us that just like God had planted people in the garden he was now planting a new people in a new Eden, Jerusalem. This concept then places hope for the Israelites through the prophets for a righteous seed to spring forth a new tree of life.
- Isaiah speaks of the tree imagery multiple times during Israel’s exile. Isaiah 1 describes Jerusalem as an anti-Eden who’s has become a dying tree and whose life has dried up.
- Isaiah 5 speaks to Yahweh purging and pruning Israel for a small growth (remnant) to emerge.
- Isaiah 10 speaks of the shoot from the stem of Jesse prophesying the Messianic King.
- Isaiah 53 and the tender shoot
- Isaiah 27 on a people who will show fruit to the world
- Isaiah 37 on the remnant of the house of Judah bearing fruit
- Isaiah 44, 60, and 61 all speak of this same narrative. The tree of life imagery.
The Tree of Life in the Gospels-
- Matthew 13, John 15, and more parables about being a tree that produces fruit and is a tree of life to those around us.
- Jesus curses the fig tree. A tree that is in bloom but isn’t producing fruit. Surely Jesus knew that figs were a tree that produces fruit later in the season and yet he used the parable that all trees should produce fruit at all times.
- This leads Jesus to the Temple. In a very prophetic sense, Jesus then harkens back to Isaiah 56, Jeremiah 7, Zechariah 14, Jeremiah 8, and Micah chapter 7.
- The people of this day were awaiting their King and He was walking amongst them showing them by their own prophetic text who He was.
The Tree of Life Dies on a tree of Death-
- Luke 22- Yeshua desired to memorialize the exodus from slavery and foreshadow a greater exodus.
- After the last supper, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives. A garden filled with olive trees.
- It is here we see Jesus enter his final test. A test that was no different than Adam’s in the garden. Will he choose to obey the calling God has for him or choose the tree of his own desires.
- He even tells Peter to watch and pray so that he would not enter into this test. Because the flesh is weak.
- He says in Matthew 26 My Father, if it is not possible for this cup (The cup of the wrath of God as spoken of the prophets) to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done. He saw that for a third time his disciples could not stay awake, their flesh was week so He went back for the third time and prayed. He chose to drink that cup and choose the tree of life.
- John 19 shows the imagery of Jesus carrying his tree of death to the place of the skull (Golgotha) to be crucified.
- Acts 5, Acts 10, Acts 13, Galatians 3, all speak of hanging on a tree.
- Deuteronomy 21 tells us anyone hung on a tree is cursed and he should be taken down the same day to not defile the land.
- 1 Peter tells us that Christ carried our sins in his body on the tree he was hung for. So that we might die to sin. By His wounds, we are healed.
- Revelation 22 John in a vision tells us about a river with water of life flowing from the center of the throne of God and the Lamb through the middle of the city, and on either side was the tree of life yielding 12 kinds of fruit every month. The leaves of this tree were healing for the nations.
On a hill named after a skull the way, the truth, and the life was hung above the skull. The skull in the human body is the place of the brain. Where we think, we capture our knowledge. The place where we determine good and evil. Yet the Son of God in the center of the three crosses hung above in greater glory than our minds, our brains. The Son of God who we invite to come to dwell in our hearts, the center of our lifeblood just like God dwelled in the center of His people in the center of the wilderness. The center of our life just like God dwelled in the center of the Tabernacle, the center of the Temple. On a tree of death, God gave us a way back to the garden and the tree of life.
Tonight as we celebrate Passover, as our Christian friends memorialize his death on this coming Friday
The choice is still the same. There are two trees in front of us today and every day. The tree of our flesh knowing good and evil, the tree of doing what is right in our own eyes. It is that same fruit that our ancestors ate of and sentenced Jesus to death. Or the tree of life, one that knows not death, one that produces the fruit Jesus didn’t see on the fig tree. One that Galatians says we are to bear if we are to be called the Kingdom of God. A bad tree cannot produce good fruit and a good tree cannot produce bad fruit. Chose this day whom you will serve.