More thoughts on the Tree of Life

Yesterday I talked about how chapter two is a close-up view of mankind, particularly as a home for God. There are two important trees in the midst or middle of the garden of man. The first one, which they should eat from, is the tree of life. This is a symbol of the heart of man, the place where he loves, trusts and obeys God. The heart is then symbolically physically represented by the four rivers of water in Eden.

There is a very interesting passage about the heart in the Gospel of John 7:38, "He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water'." No where does scripture mention this. It could be an indirect reference to Ezekiel 47; I am inclined to think that Jesus is referring back to Genesis 2. He who believes in God has a heart out of which flows living water, i.e. his faith gives life to those around him, and he bears the fruit of good works. Those who eat of the tree of life believe in God and so have the obedience of faith (see Romans) that trusts God especially when life is hard and does not seem to make sense.

A living faith is a believing heart that endures in time of trouble. The presentation of the tree of life implicitly signifies that a time of trial is at hand. The tree of life is needed when a battle with death is about to ensue. Immediately after the tree of life is presented in Gen. 2: 10-15, flowing with a perfect logic, God announces His singular command: "Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." God has arranged a test to see and know if the man will eat of the tree of life, if he will believe with his heart even when it does not seem to make sense.

Why does God test us? He has a problem. To put it mildly, He is so awesome and perfect and beautiful and powerful and alive and wise. Even among mortals, the extremely beautiful, wealthy and powerful have a similar problem: they do not always knows who is their true friend and who just wants what they have. God has this problem infinitely more. He also wants to preserve our freedom so that we are not just a bunch of robots who have to love Him. He wants us to freely choose to give Him our love. So He hides, and He gives those who want to draw near to Him tests to strengthen our trust in Him. Sometimes He gives incredibly difficult tests that supersede our intellect so that all we can use to pass the test is our loving trust of His command. He wants us to eat of the tree of life.

The question remains: so then what is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil...? Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.
Copyright 2007.