In the Bible, men are likened to trees.
Our church, Healing Wings, started in 1994. Soon, God told me He was giving us a building. When He showed it to me, I did not like it at first. It was old and dilapidated. It had been uninhabited for five years, so the front of the building was overgrown.
But God told me to go and take a second look. He said, “Femi, go back there and look at the trees.” When I did with some colleagues, we all agreed that 12 Festival Road, Victoria Island, Lagos, was our Promised Land.
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The proof was in the fruit trees.
When Moses sent spies to scout the Promised Land, they returned with fruits from the trees: grapes, pomegranates, and figs. Our Promised Land in Victoria Island also had fruit trees. It had mango, almond, and banana trees. So we plucked the fruits and ate them.
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Trees of Eden
The Bible starts with a tree and ends with a tree. Trees are at the heart of the gospel of the kingdom of God. At the beginning of creation in Genesis, God placed two prominent trees in the Garden of Eden. One was the Tree of Life; the other was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
God forbade Adam and Eve from eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He said if they ate from it, they would die. But He did not restrict them from eating the fruit from the Tree of Life. It was readily accessible to them.
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But Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They did the exact opposite of what they should have done. Instead of eating the fruit of the Tree of Life that was not denied to them, they ate the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They wanted to be wise, so they listened to the devil’s counsel.
And so:
Through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)
For this transgression, God kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden for their own good. He did this so they would not then eat the fruit from the Tree of Life and live forever in their sins. He then placed a cherub with a flaming sword to guard the way to the Tree of Life to prevent Adam and Eve from reaching it.
In effect, sin and death became our inheritance, and life was denied to us. The challenge then, from Genesis to Revelation, has been to find a way to regain access to the Tree of Life.
Men as Trees
In the Bible, men are likened to trees. Jesus says He came down from heaven to earth:
(So) that we may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that (God) may be glorified. (Isaiah 61:3)
The psalmist says of the redeemed:
We shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever we do shall prosper. (Psalm 1:3)
When Jesus opened the eyes of a blind man, he received a strange revelation: He looked up and said, “I see men like trees, walking.” (Mark 8:24)
Jesus uses trees as object lessons for men. He says:
Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them. (Matt 7:17-20)
Obviously, the trees Jesus is talking about here are men.
John the Baptist warned the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to him for baptism:
Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:10)
First and Last Adam
Paul talks of two representatives of the human race. The first was Adam, whom he calls the first Adam. The second was Jesus, whom he calls the last Adam. He then points out that:
As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:22)
Only Jesus can enable us to regain access to the fruit of the Tree of Life from which we have been barred since Adam and Eve. To do this, Jesus became a man. He joined Himself to our sins on the cross, so that we can be joined with Him in His righteousness.
But as a man and, unlike Adam and Eve, Jesus did not succumb to the vain entreaties of Satan. As he did with Eve, Satan tempted Jesus with the lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life. But unlike Eve, Jesus did not succumb to Satan’s temptations.
Therefore, as through one man’s offence judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:18-19)
Cross As a Tree
Because of His distinction as a man, the Book of Hebrews indicates that Jesus provides access to God for man by:
A new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh. (Hebrews 10:20)
He did this by being crucified for our sins on a cross. New Testament writers recognise that Jesus’ cross was actually a tree.
Peter says:
(Jesus) Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree. (1 Peter 2:24)
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. (Acts 5:30)
We are witnesses of all things which (Jesus) did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. (Acts 10:39)
Since death came to the world through a tree, life has to overcome death through another tree. Since we became debtors to God by eating the fruit of a tree, our debt had to be cancelled by eating the fruit of another tree. That tree is Jesus, the Tree of Life, who was crucified on the tree, or cross, of Calvary for our redemption. Jesus’ sacrifice on the Calvary Tree took away our sins.
As a result, the cherubim with the flaming sword who prevented us from gaining access to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden was removed.
With our sins taken away, we can now go freely to eat the fruit of Jesus, the Tree of Life, and live forever without the bondage of sin. There is now an open invitation to:
Taste and see that the Lord is good. (Psalm 34:8)
Jesus says:
Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. (John 6:53-56)
Bible treasures
Jesus teaches that:
“Every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” (Matthew 13:52)
When we combine our new and old spiritual treasures, we discover that the Old Testament is full of types and shadows of Jesus, as the Tree of Life. CONTINUED.
[email protected]; www.femiaribisala.com
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