Two Trees, or Rather, Three

It’s 2020 and our Theme is “Seeing Spiritually.”

During the months of June and July, I am preaching the sermons that you requested. I call it, “Hot Topics.”

This morning’s sermon is a question from our friend Chandler who can’t be here because he’s in a wheelchair, but he’s watching online _ Hi Chandler!

Chandler was reading in Genesis about Adam and Eve and the fall and he asked the question, “What is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?” And another question, “Why would God create a tree that you can’t eat from?’

That’s a really good question, and worthy of a sermon!

In order to answer Chandler’s question we are going to have to talk about two trees, or rather three.

There were two trees in the garden of Eden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.

One tree does not make sense without the other, because the whole purpose of two trees is to offer humans a choice.

When Adam and Eve made their choice, a third tree became a necessarily part of the story. Or you could say it was part of the story from the beginning.

But that is getting ahead of things. Let’s talk about the tree of life, then the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that will bring us to the third tree, the cross.

By understanding these two, or rather, three trees we can find the life that God intended for us.

The tree of Life

Genesis 2:4–10 ESV

4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

Eden was a place for God and man to fellowship.

In the Bible Project videos that we watched in Sunday School we learned that eden was a mountaintop garden which represented the intersection of heaven and earth.

Ezekiel 28 equates Eden with the Mountain of God.

It’s no coincidence that Jerusalem, and the Temple, are located on top of a mountain.

The temple represents a new Eden where God dwells with His people.

Faithlife Study Bible Cosmic Garden and Mountain Imagery in the Old Testament

People in the ancient Near East thought of mountains as divine abodes because they were extremely remote. They rarely ascended mountains unless required by the grazing cycles of their livestock; hence, mountain dwellings allowed gods to remain separate from humanity. This perception was so widespread that people in areas without natural mountains (such as Mesopotamia or Egypt) created artificial ones. For example, in Mesopotamia, the human-made ziggurat was a mountain-temple where the gods met humanity.

So mountains are considered places of worship. And the tower of Babel was essentially a man-made mountain. An attempt to re-create Eden, only without God.

The main thing that the Bible would have you to understand from Eden is that God desires fellowship with people.

You were created for relationship with God.

You were made to talk to God and to hear His voice.

You were made for love, to love and to be loved.

When we think of the garden of Eden we picture Adam and Eve running around naked.

Their “nakedness” was not about sex.

It was about having no barriers to intimacy between each other or between them and God.

After they sinned they became ashamed. Clothing was designed to cover their shame.

Shame is the barrier to intimacy. We expect other people to see and reject us for our flaws.

The tree of life represents the presence of God.

The tree of life was in the center of the garden. You could say it was the focal point of the garden and it represented God’s presence.

Stories of a sacred tree that could bring long life and healing are all throughout ancient literature.

The Tree of Life in the Bible promised more than just good health. It was the very source of life and immortality.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Creation Account

The opening verses of Gen 2 describe God’s efforts to provide a sacred space filled with abundant provision, beauty, and harmony for a spiritually connected humanity.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they were banished from God’s presence.

They could not be allowed to eat of the tree of life in their fallen state or it would become permanent.

If they were not banished, there would be no redemption.

There is life after death, but only through death. It is ironic that the only way back to life and immortality is through death.

It was said that when they ate of the fruit they would die. But in fact they lived for hundreds of years, and without the benefit of the tree of life.

However without the tree of life the laws of entropy take over. They are gradually dying even while they are living.

You were never meant to live without God.

God’s Spirit is what makes you alive.

Our bodies are dust, but our spirit is the very breath of God.

So how do we feed ourselves spiritually?

Eating of the tree of life means taking the life of God internally.

So we have a mountain garden which is the intersection of heaven and earth.

We have a tree in the garden which is the life of God and which they may partake of freely.

What’s left except to take the fruit and eat it?

It’s like salvation, unless you receive it, you do not receive the benefit of it.

Did Adam and Eve ever eat from the tree of life? I don’t know. Probably so.

Unless you think of it as a magic tree where one bite makes you live forever.

I tend to think that they were immortal as long as they continued to eat from the tree.

Why? Because it fits the analogy. We need to continually partake of the life of God.

Think about it. The life of God is right there in the place where God is present. All you have to do it reach out and take it. And then take it internally.

That’s how it is when we are in worship.

The presence of God is here. The life of God is here.

You can just enjoy the atmosphere or you can reach out an take it by faith and make it yours.

Unless you internalize what God is doing, it’s just a good feeling.

The tree of knowing good and evil

Genesis 2:15–17 ESV

15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but 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 surely die.”

The tree of knowledge offered mankind a choice.

Along with the tree of life, there is a second tree.

Some say that the two trees stood beside each other.

The Bible Project portrays this tree as one that you would need to pass to get to the tree of life. Like a test.

Why would God create a tree that you can’t eat? Well the likely answer is that it was a kind of test.

Why a test? Because God wanted to give mankind a choice.

Just like we have the choice to take and eat of the tree of life. We also have the choice not to eat of the tree of life.

What else it there besides life and goodness?

That would be the question because all Adam and Eve would ever have known is the goodness and the beauty of God’s good creation.

“Knowing good from evil” is an expression that is often used in scripture as describing a coming of age.

Some scholars say that it has sexual connotations (like reaching puberty.)

In fact some see the tree as a metaphor for sex and insist that sex was the original sin.

That presents a problem, because sex isn’t bad in itself.

The problem is people. Something was lost when they ate of the tree. What was it?

By eating of the tree, mankind lost their innocence.

Genesis 3:1–7 ESV

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

The serpent promised that their eyes would be opened, knowing good from evil.

The serpent promised them that they would be like God. They were already created in God’s image.

They already had free access to the Tree of Life.

They had life and immortality. They lived in a place that intersected heaven.

Up until that time they had only known good, now they also know about evil.

What they did not know was evil. How could they have known?

I image after eating the fruit (We picture an apple, but a pomegranate is more likely) Adam and Eve are standing around to see what they will see that they didn’t see before.

Suddenly Adam has an angry outburst. Guys always seem to get angry when they don’t understand their emotions. Adam Suddenly realizes that he just did what Eve said without questioning her. He panics and begins to blame her (you know, to put her in her place). He feels weak and disrespected and it must certainly be her fault.

At that moment, Eve begins to have an emotional meltdown. She suddenly realizes that Adam isn’t looking at her the way that he used to. She becomes very self-conscious. He must have noticed that she’s put on a few pounds. His anger cuts to her soul. She feels his fear and frustration. She blames herself, she feels it must be her job to make him happy and she’s not doing it very well.

Do you see how sin breaks down intimacy? They are totally missing each other. But now they have a bigger problem. How do they face God?

They have just realized that it is possible to have thoughts that are not good. So what does God think of them? Is God angry like Adam? Is God going to withdraw like Eve? If they can see through each other with suspicion, what will God see when He looks at them?

What they lost was innocence, the ability to implicitly trust.

Innocence is the quality of having no experience or knowledge of the more complex or unpleasant aspects of life.

That was their loss, but what did they gain?

By eating of the tree, mankind asserted self-determination.

Scripture gives us the background that there was a rebellion in heaven among the heavenly beings.

Some of these beings had apparently decided that they wanted to be like God, and in doing so they brought about chaos and disorder - they opened the door to evil.

God had sheltered Adam and Eve from knowing about rebellion and evil, but to be fair He had to give them the choice to know if they wanted to.

Scriptures, like the book of Job. give us insight into how events in heaven influence God’s dealings with humans.

The point is that we are part of a cosmic demonstration, that human beings will eventually chose to love God from their own free will.

In order for man to love, there needed to be free will.

In order for there to be free will, there must be a choice, a test, at least the possibility of discovering evil as the alternative to good.

The tree of life is a life of complete dependence on God.

It is a life of blissful obedience. Why should anyone want to do anything other than what God would want since God is good?

Well that is the question that opened up when Mankind chose to disobey God.

It is now up to us to decide what is good and what is evil.

In other words, life just became much more complicated.

People have mixed motives. Even when we want to do good, evil is right there questioning everything.

The tree of life is wisdom (4 times in Proverbs). This tree offers knowledge.

How do we find our way back to the tree of life?

How do we find wisdom in the midst of so much knowledge and information?

How do we find that place of trusting God in the midst of chaos and confusion?

How do you get innocence back once you have lost it?

That’s where the third tree come in...

The cross (the way back to the tree of life)

Genesis 3:21–24 ESV

21 And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

What if God’s discipline is really His grace?

Adam and Eve are banished from the garden and the tree of life.

They are removed from God’s presence and yet God has not left them.

God kills animals to make cloths for them - the first substitutionary sacrifice.

Something has to die for sin to be covered.

If they were to eat from the tree of life there would be no death, no path back to life.

Death is not the punishment for disobedience, it is the natural consequence of disobedience; there’s a difference.

God’s plan is to restore the connection between heaven and earth.

The temple mountain is referred to as “the mountain of God, “ a restored Eden where God meets with his people.

The tree of life appears again in Revelation in the New Jerusalem.

Revelation 22:1–2 ESV

1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a false tree of life.

Bible Project “Tree of Life” video.

The Cross of Jesus Christ is the new Tree of Life.

An interesting fact about the Revelation 22 passage is that the Greek word used for tree is not the typical word for a living tree, though it can be. It basically means anything made of wood.

Some scholars have pointed to this as a hidden gem in the text to tell us that the Tree of Life in the final chapter of the Bible is really the cross of Jesus.

Why?

Because Jesus passed through death to give us life, so that even though we may die we are assured of eternal life.

As it said in the video, Jesus Himself is the vine that connects us to God and to the life of God.

Jesus told us to eat of Him. Just like the fruit of the tree of life, it is taking God’s life into us.

Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23–25 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

Questions for reflection:

If you had to pass by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would you have taken it’s fruit? How have you made choices in your life that tend toward being independent of God?

Do remember a time in your life where you had innocence? What did innocence feel like? How do you get back to knowing God’s goodness?

What does life mean to you? What is the source of your life? How do you receive life? As we take communion, what are you internalizing?