The Four Rivers are the Tree of Life and the Heart

The woman at the well was the gospel yesterday. One further point that I have not developed much in this blog but which is very important in what I am saying is that there is a very strong connection between the living waters and the heart and that connection goes way back to the very beginning of the creation of man. Let’s look back at this original connection that occurs in the creation account:

“And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which flows around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it” (Genesis 2: 9-15).

The very first mention of the tree of life in the Bible is immediately followed by this passage about the singular river which breaks into four different rivers. Rivers work in the exact opposite manner: many rivers become one great or mighty river. Here in Genesis, however, one river becomes many rivers. This description of an unnatural river is the symbolic representation and clue about what the tree of life is. The tree of life is mentioned, and it is followed by its symbolic description so that we may better know what the tree of life is.

As I have said in previous posts, the Garden of Eden is not so much a place as the man and the woman; Eden means delight, and we are God’s garden of delight. He created us for Himself and to bear much fruit. He made us to be His children, His temple, and His bride. From Him comes our life and our fruit. This life was lost through sin, but Jesus comes to restore our relationship with God and so that we may have life and have it abundantly.

The two trees of the garden singled out are two abilities God has given us; the tree of life is the heart and its ability to love, trust and obey God. God then symbolizes the heart with the one river which flows into four rivers because our one heart is divided into four chambers which are connected to the four sections of “rivers” bringing differently equipped blood all around our bodies. Oxygenated blood is pumped out of our heart to our entire body and is taken back to our heart to be pumped to the lungs which oxygenate it and send it back to the heart afresh to be pumped out all over again. Four chambers are needed to accomplish this life-giving and life-sustaining task.

Earlier this winter my children and I were playing in our front yard and digging a tunnel in our six-foot high mountain of snow from the driveway. Toward the end when I was getting worn out, I lay back on the snow looking up at the two large, leafless Elm trees which dominate the front, and I noticed that, from the ground up, there is a resemblance between trees and the circulatory system. Physically, they look somewhat similar, in my opinion, and how fluid moves in both the circulatory system and a tree is also very similar. In the circulatory system, the life-giving oxygenated blood is transported throughout the body through its “rivers,” but it only provides that life and oxygen at the very end of the line in the capillary system; likewise, the “blood” within a tree is circulated with in by its “rivers,” but the exchange of life and oxygen only takes place at the very end of the line in the leaves. Leaves and the capillary system themselves look very much alike, and in them both take place the exchange of life.

So why is the heart called the tree of life? Well, looking at the human body and focusing on the circulatory system, we look much like trees, and the circulatory system and trees operate in a number of similar ways. We are like trees. Throughout the Old Testament, in fact, we are compared to trees many times, and even in the New Testament there are connections and symbolisms between humans and trees.

The tree of life is the four rivers of water, and those four rivers of water symbolize the heart. Here we have the connection between the heart and living/flowing waters. The most important reason why the heart is the tree of life is that the only way we have spiritual life is by loving, trusting and obeying God, and these good actions are matters of the heart. With a good heart doing what it was made to do, we will have abundant life. Just as the heart is the center of the circulatory system, so our heart is the center of our spiritual life and our relationship with God and others. In the end, we will be judged on how much we loved.

The exchange of life happens in the smallest parts of an organism: the exchange of life in a tree is in the leaves, the exchange of life in our bodies is in the capillary system, the exchange of life in our spiritual lives is in living our ordinary life well. Being faithful and trusting in the small and little ways of our ordinary life is where God meets us and forges us into saints. Relationships consist and are built up with a myriad of little events and ordinary occurrences that further cement and strengthen the connection and union of people; our relationship with God is no different. When we fulfill our deepest desires with the only One capable of doing so, our whole life changes and becomes His. To this person Jesus says, “If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’ ” (John 7: 37-38). Our thirst for happiness and meaning is fulfilled and quenched only in Jesus, and being thus quenched with the life of God, our heart itself becomes a life-giving font of water and joy. We become other Christs who spread the truth and life who is Jesus.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.