The Tree

 

What can we say about our loving Father that will describe Him accurately enough so we can understand how much He loves us. Because, if we understand and can realize just how much He loves us, we will be able to let go of all the junk and all the emotional baggage we carry around with us. For most, love is such a foreign concept because they have been abused by people so much they think love is something of fairy tales. While other's idea of love are so messed up, that when they encounter God's love it isn't what they had in mind. 

The idea of an all powerful deity wanting to have a personal relationship with us is weird enough but that He loves us to the point of placing His son on a cross so that the one thing that separated us could be forever destroyed. I was listening to some of Dan Mohler's preaching the other day and He was pointing out the time when the Israelites were being bitten by snakes because they were being disobedient. Moses fashioned a bronze snake and placed it on a pole and whoever saw the snake on the pole, they would be cured of the snake bites. I'm sure I'm not doing the story justice but the point is this, God had placed in the law that anything hanging on a tree was cursed. The snake on the stick was technically on a tree, they knew the law and therefore believed that they would be cured of the snake problem.

I asked God about the tree itself, why a tree? What was the symbolism of the tree and why was anything hanging on the tree cursed. 

I heard, it all started in the Garden of Eden. So I'm looking into the garden and we see two trees, one a tree of life and the other is a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These two trees were in the middle of the garden and when Eve ate of the wrong tree, then Adam, they became self-conscious. Before, they didn't care about how they looked but after they were very aware of their nakedness. I believe the nakedness was something that compares to being vulnerable. Yet they weren't aware of their vulnerability till the fruit. They only were aware of their surroundings, what was going on around them. They had no cares for self as God provided for them.

It would be like someone growing up on a tropical island with tons of fruit and vegetables to eat. You have no clue about society or their requirements so you aren't aware that being naked is wrong. You had no worries, no needs and no fears. Everything revolved around God. We wouldn't need altars or church buildings or prayer time either as God would always be there, ever present.

When the fruit was eaten, self-consciousness came into being. Suddenly, shame entered their minds, condemnation entered them too. If we looked back at the island, it would be like a ship coming from a modern society and telling those two living there that they are being shameful by running around naked. Then they would be shown how to act like them and then self-consciousness would destroy all the freedom they had before.

The fall of man stripped our life of freedom away from us. We had a life of being unaware of rules, laws or any kind of constraints. It's hard to imagine because we would think about the chaos of it. We would think that rules would surely be needed instead of them running around care free. Children are like this. Children aren't aware of the rules when they come into this world. That's why they cram everything they can into their mouths. They don't know any better. We are very quick to teach them the constraints and to correct them if they don't live in the societal parameters. 

Like Adam and Eve, they knew no wrong. They knew to just exist and to be. They weren't aware of anything until they were infused with knowledge, then they knew. Only by knowing something can we be held accountable for it. 

So the tree, why are things cursed that hang on trees, the snake was cursed, the sin in Jesus was cursed but why? What is the symbolic representation of the tree? Some of you out there may know. I haven't heard anything but a thought about the garden. One tree cursed us with knowledge, the other would have given eternal life. I will keep asking and listen for the answer.

To God be the Glory!