The Tree of Life
From Genesis to Revelation, the story of Tree of Life runs through the whole Bible like a vein bringing life and health to those who choose to partake from it.
We first read of The Tree of Life in Genesis 2:9. It was good to eat and produced fruit that would bless those who ate it. It's central position within the Garden reflects Christ as the pivotal connection to the world of the believer - Christ and His Body (the church) are hidden in this tree of eternal blessing. I like to think of the Garden of Eden as the first earthly temple - or sacred space. God's children, Adam and Eve would have walked in the presence of their creator Father in the cool of the day, worshiping and glorifying Him freely, openly and in awe of the surrounding flawless beauty and magnificence of His Creation - uninhibited by time or space - forever. The life of God Himself flowed unhindered directly from the tree to Adam and Eve who were God-kind (made in His image) and the light of His glory was their covering. The garden was a place of Divine Council. Everything pertaining to man emanated from this place of deity.
Following Adam and Eve's disobedience when they were persuaded by the serpent to eat from the only forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the scriptures tell us that they were banished from this inner sanctum of God's presence. Eating from the forbidden tree caused them to be immediately cut off from the Father's life source and communion, they began to fade and decay physically and to live peripherally from God in what we now call 'the world'. They were banished from the garden and from the eternal presence of God, not just as a punishment, but to save them from living an eternal life in a state of decay. Ultimately they would die. Had they remained in the garden and able to continue partaking of the Tree of Life, they would have been perpetually trapped in that decaying body and lifestyle. There would have been no death to bring release from their decay for they would have spent eternity in it. This is why God removed them from the Garden.
The Bible's last mention of the Tree of Life is in Revelation 22, where it is available to those who are cleansed or "blessed" and qualified to enter into the New Jerusalem. It's presence there signifies the restoration of what Adam and Eve chose to give up - their place with God for eternity, a theme that runs throughout the Scriptures. The fact that it stands on both sides of the river of life suggests its abundant availability and the complete restoration of access to God and eternal life for those who choose it. This imagery also connects to Ezekiel 47:12, where trees along a river bear fruit for food and leaves for healing, symbolizing God's provision and blessing. At the consummation of all things, it will again become centre-stage in God's story (His-story) of man-kind, with it's leaves will bring healing to the nations following the catastrophic collapse of all that is evil and twelve different fruit will be born on it's branches for each month of the year. The Tree of Life is so vital to the bigger picture that it behooves us to learn more and to find out how we can become connected to it and remain connected.
Here are some more scriptures that evidence the role of the Tree of Life ....
Proverbs 3:18 (speaking of wisdom)
She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed.
Proverbs 11:30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives.
Proverbs 13:12
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.
Proverbs 15:4
Gentle words are a tree of life; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.
Revelation 2:7
Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.
Jewish Apocrypha also refers to the Tree of Life as "an ointment of sweet savor" (2 Esdras 2:12)
In addition "For to you paradise is opened, the Tree of Life planted, the time to come is prepared, bounty is made ready, a city is built, and rest is allowed, goodness is perfected, wisdom being perfect beforehand." (2 Esdras 15:4)
In Jewish faith, the menorah (golden lampstand) situated in the Holy Place of the tabernacle was a reflection of the Tree of Life - each of it's seven candles symbolic of the seven days of creation. The tabernacle itself was the place where God dwelt, it was holy ground. Wherever the Israelites pitched their camp, the tabernacle would be the centre and focal point of the whole camp with the rest of the world being peripheral around them. Their annual Day of Atonement ceremony illustrates this important point and we also see the crucifixion of Jesus paralleling this special day in the Jewish Calendar. Jesus was crucified outside the city walls of Jerusalem. His cross was placed away from the Temple (Holy Ground) and he bore the sins of the world IN the world, NOT on Holy Ground! It would, you see, have been sacrilege to bear the sins of the world on holy ground.
Throughout the Bible, the Tree of Life speaks of longevity, blessings, wisdom, fulfillment, victory, healing, rest, goodness and fruitfulness. That sounds like the abundant kind of life to me! Those who follow Godly wisdom and eat of the Tree of Life are blessed with a spiritually fruitful life. Jesus said, "Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you…Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit for apart from Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)
Although there is no physical tree of life, the spiritual truth of eternal life remains. We are created by God to bear fruit. God has given us the gift of creativity – the ability to experience and display the by-products of being vitally united to Him. It’s a divine law that creativity – the ability to produce – is born inside of each one of us, simply because we descend from The Creator Himself. He gives us the ability and the life source, all we have to do is abide with Him, be vitally connected to Him and His life and He does all the rest. We will be known by our fruit. We are the branches that bear the fruit. The fruit appears when we are connected to the life of the tree. Fruit is the by-product of that tree and is shown off to it’s full advantage as it hangs and matures on the tree itself. The branches are not the fruit, but the fruit comes when the branch is connected to the life of the tree. Cut that branch off, and both the branch and the fruit will perish. Visually this will take time but the moment the branch is severed, it begins to wither and slowly perish resulting in death.
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil on the other hand, was a tree that produced fruit that was forbidden. Adam and Eve were told they were not to eat from this tree otherwise they would SURELY die. Again, the spiritual concept remains true today. Eat from it and you will be trying to earn your way to heaven by doing good deeds. The scriptures tell us that this is called self righteousness. This is a tree that many of us (including Christians) are partaking from every day unless we recognise that true abundant life comes only from Christ. We can stay on the good side of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and try do things right in our own eyes, or we can be on the dark evil side, worshiping Satan, rejecting Christ and living the life of perpetual disappointment and rejection. Either way we are still eating poison. Let’s face it, being on the good side is better than being on the evil side, however, despite your position on that tree, ALL it’s fruit is poisonous – as Adam and Eve found out. Eventually all the fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil mingles. There isn’t really a good side and a bad side because both sides merge into one and the fruit between the two is indistinguishable. There is no difference between the fruit from the good side and the fruit from the bad side because all the fruit is the same. What a dreadful thought!
In the Garden, Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because Satan (the serpent) convinced them that they would NOT die. He didn't say that their relationship with God would die - but that THEY would not die. He spoke a half truth. The first time they had heard about death was when God said "you will surely die" when he warned them to not eat of the fruit of this tree. There is a line of thought that the 'you' God was referring to was not just Adam and Eve (who, after all, were the only ones listening at the time) - but to them AND their offspring ie the whole of mankind. In the Hebrew, the YOU is plural. Perhaps God was saying: “You (all/mankind) are not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because in whatever day you (all/mankind) eat from it, you (all/mankind) will certainly die.” Worth a thought.
It doesn’t matter which side of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you park in, you’re still partaking of the fruit that separates you from God. Remember God also said “you will surely die” (emphasis mine) Genesis 2:17. Those words ‘surely die’ implies the beginning of death – not the event itself. From the moment they partook, Adam and Eve BEGAN to die. Death is to be separated from God. It means a cessation of a relationship with the Living God and all that He has for us. Before they fell, Adam and Eve had everything, including an intimate relationship with their Creator. They walked together, listened to Him, and talked with Him, they were part of the Divine Blessing and part of the Divine Council. God gave Adam stewardship over the earth and all the resources he needed to live a life in closeness to his Maker. They had it all, but they gave it up just for one piece of the forbidden fruit.
Satan has made us think that if we eat from the good side of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we’ll not die - that we’ll be OK. He has also deceptively given us the idea that there are two trees – one of good and one of evil. The good side of the tree might appear good. It’s fruit looks tasty and attractive. It’s looks wholesome, spiritual and innocent, but deep inside it’s rotten at the core.
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—” (Rom. 5:12 NIV)
The poison gradually infiltrated their minds, their view of sin and how they saw themselves and their seed was for ever tainted with the poison. It was hereditary poison. They now saw themselves as man-kind, not as God-kind and instead of being clothed with glory, they were clothed with nothing but shame. Their nakedness, instead of being natural and beautiful became shameful and humiliating to them and they instantly needed covering.
Before we know the Lord and before we have received the Holy Spirit, we can only live by the resources drawn from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is no other way for us to live. We are trapped in our humiliation and shame, living in perpetual separation from the true life-giving source of an all-loving all-seeing Father who’s dream it is to have us vitally connected to him through Christ – but He wants us to do this as a choice, not as a puppet by being forced or coerced into it.
Contrary to popular belief, life is not black and white. It’s not just about good and evil. In the bible we see that the children of Israel did what was right in their own eyes but God had said” If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight……” (emphasis mine). All too often we do what we think is the right in our own eyes, but we are not the moral compass – only God the Father is! Instead of life being about good and evil, it’s really all about life and death. Which do you choose? You have been given the choice, so this life here on earth is about choosing – choose the Tree of Life, while you can.
Once Adam and Eve had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were not permitted to eat of the Tree of Life. Why? Because the Tree of Life gave eternal life. They would have been eternally connected to decay had they partaken of the Tree of Life after they had eaten the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Their eyes were opened to their separation from their Father, the blessing turned into a curse and so death was the only option available.
God had a plan to bring that Tree of Life back into the story of mankind by sending Himself on to the earth as a man and offering true life to those who believed in Him of their own free will. “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! (Deuteronomy 30:19).
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a tree that people eat from their whole life before they come to Christ. It is a hard tree to stop eating from because we always want to think that we are basically good people and if we do enough good things, we might just scrape our way into heaven. We ‘hope’ we do what is right and we ‘hope’ we are on the right path. We ‘hope’ we will have favour with God and be ‘allowed’ in. We do what we can to earn our place, but it won’t matter a jot. There is nothing YOU can do to gain access to Heaven. When your time comes, your good deeds will be as filthy rags before God. Jesus said "I am the way, the truth and life, no one comes to the Father except by Me" John 14:6
….. but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:14
The story of the Samaritan woman at the well is an excellent picture of how living waters flow from the Tree of Life. She was trying hard to forget her past, the people who had hurt her and the people she had hurt. She knew the law – that Samaritans should not converse with Jews. Samaritans were considered to be ‘unclean’ to a Jew. The differences between Samaritans and Jews led to great animosity between the two people but they had one thing in common - Jacob's well. It was an extremely deep well, precious to the people in that area because it provided a life source for them. Despite the intense heat, Jacob’s well never ran dry and everyone in the area came to draw water there. She did what she thought was the right thing to do. But Jesus had other ideas - He engaged with her in 'forbidden' conversation.
The Samaritan woman had led a life that had made people look down on her, treat her with contempt and rejection, so she preferred to get water for herself and her family while no one else was about. She trudged to the well, her water pots balancing on a wooden rod across her shoulders, at the sixth hour which was between midday and 3pm. Anyone with any sense would draw water when it was cool - early in the morning. But to avoid being beaten by the taunts and the jeers, she preferred instead to be beaten by the hot midday sun as she carried the heavy clay pots of water from the well back to her home. She was burdened down by her shame and here was Jesus, a male Jew, trying to converse with her and tell her that she needed living water that springs up into everlasting life. As she conversed with Jesus, I can imagine the trickles of His Divine Life infiltrating her soul, dripping cool clean water over her sins and washing them away as she came to realise who He was.
There’s a beautiful song “spring up oh well within me, spring up and make me whole”. Maybe she had been told that her ancestors sang a similar song (Numbers 21:17) as they trudged through the dry and barren wilderness in search of water. In Exodus 15 the children of Israel were roaming around the wilderness gasping for water that wasn’t bitter and undrinkable. Moses cried out to God for help and the Lord showed him a tree. “When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet”. God said “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you”. Gen 15:24-27
Healing and refreshment comes from living and abiding in Christ - the Tree of Life.
In life we try to be good, but it never works. Something or someone comes along and tests our patience. We get cross, we do and think bad things and no matter how hard we try, we fail each time. We hurt people and people hurt us. The woman at the well had been married five times. Things had gone badly wrong in her life and now she had a reputation that forced her to keep away from others - but still, she tried to be good.
Remember the story of the Good Samaritan? The only man to help the beggar was a man who was considered to be an outcast himself. Someone who was looked down on by Jewish society, but he reached out with practical resources to help a man in need. A famous politician once said “No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions; he had money as well.” Good intentions need to be backed up with collateral!
Sadly things are really no better in the land of Israel today because as whole, they still reject Christ as their Messiah. The woman at the well is a beautiful story of how things can change when you acknowledge Jesus as the Christ and the source of life. You too can drink from His Life source. The bible teaches that eternal life comes from knowing Jesus Christ as your Saviour. He is the Tree of Life and the rivers of living water are what come from His Holy Spirit. Baptism in the Holy Spirit is a picture of identifying with the death of Christ and His resurrection. It’s a picture of our old lives being washed away and a new life in Christ – in the Tree - bearing fruit that pertains to life and health.
We are created to bear fruit. God has given us the gift of creativity – the ability to display and impart by-products of being vitally united to Him. It’s a divine law that is born inside of each one of us, simply because we descend from The Creator Himself. He gives us the ability and the life source, all we have to do is choose to abide in Him - be vitally connected to Him and His life and He does all the rest.
That’s why God said to Moses that “I am the Lord who heals you”. If you want to lead a life of productivity and receive healing, you need to partake of the Tree of Life. Being vitally connected to the Divine Community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit can cause well-springs of living water to bubble up in your spirit to feed your soul (your mind/will and emotions) as well as your physical body! When the Samaritan woman realised that God already knew about her past and offered her forgiveness, she leapt up and ran to tell all who thought they knew her that she had met the one who knew ALL things about her – the Christ. She was no longer condemned. She was no longer rejected. She was free!
https://drivethruhistory.com/jacob-well-in-samaria/