MEN AS TREES - Part 1 of 3

KEY VERSES: The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. For the Lord of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal. (Jer 11:16-17)

  Oftentimes I have referred to blind Bartimaeus because once I too was blind, but now I see. Bartimaeus was born blind, but Jesus restored his sight. However, in between blindness and sight, there was a transition wherein he saw things differently than most. Bartimaeus saw “men as trees walking” (Mark 8:24). That phrase has much meaning to me. Why so? Because in the story of the Garden of Eden, I saw the Garden of Trees as men! Of course, they were not walking, but I believe the “trees” of the Garden represented future living souls.
  In the center of the Garden were two specific trees – the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  I saw them as two majestic Trees with both representing men standing. The Tree of Life was a real tree, but with special vision, it is so much more than a tree standing, but The Living God with his attributes: (1) The visible tree representative of God manifested as Jesus, (2) the unseen roots as the Father who emanates the visible tree, and the underground River of God as the Holy Spirit flowing virtuously below throughout the Root, Tree and Trunk, and producing the twelve fruits of the Spirit.
  I see the Tree of Knowledge in the same manner: (1) the Trunk around which the Serpent wrapped itself as Satan, the root as sin, and the stagnant waters which made it grow as the evil spirit of Satan who offered “things” to anyone who would partake of the numerous fruits of that tree: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like (Gal 5:19:21).
  I see men as trees in the Garden walking either one of two ways: “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Gal 5:16), and the other, not walking in the spirit.
  There was much activity going on in the tranquil Garden of Eden. Trees were walking toward one of two Trees – toward the Tree of Life or the Tree of Philosophy. God made both trees for testing which tree would the others “trees” walk toward. Since that time, all the “trees” to ever be planted on the Earth would walk toward one of those two doctrines – the philosophy of the world or the Doctrine of God. We are all “trees” that walk blindly toward the false philosophy of the Tree of Knowledge. Our nature since original sin with Adam, is to walk toward the doctrines of the world. When suddenly God’s Light dawns on the leaves, those “trees” are born again and reseeded with very good knowledge – the truth of and about God.
  Sinners are dead trees much as the fig tree that did not produce fruit in the parable of the fig tree. Reseeded, or transplanted seedlings (babes in Christ), are ”Green Trees.” Abraham transplanted the Hebrews from Egypt to Israel. The Lord called Jacob’s name “Israel,” and Israel became a “Green Olive Tree.” The tree became a hybrid. The spirit of Satan withered the tree season after season until it was no longer as it once was. Israel, once a Green Olive Tree, became a dead fig tree. The Lord kindled a fire in its branches and consumed it. However, by grace, a few branches remained alive in storage in Babylon, and later the remnants of those original trees were replanted on Israel’s soil.
  144,000 of those full-grown Green Olive Trees will be replanted in the heavenly City of God, New Jerusalem, wherein they will remain Green Olive Trees for eternity (Rev 7:4). They will endure to the end because God has sealed them with protection from the elements of the Earth and from the virus of sin itself. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will be cut down and thrown into the fiery pit to be consumed. There is no mention of it in the City of God! On the other hand, the Tree of Life remains a Green Olive Tree, and in the end, will still stand in the City of God on the River of God. Israel is all about eternal life.  Scripture points toward Israel as the Garden of Eden and Paradise in Heaven itself. It can be identified by where the Tree of Life stands.
  The forbidden tree was not an apple tree nor was it fruit apples! It is obvious that the forbidden tree was a fig tree. First off, the two convicted sinners were last seen under the tree sinning. They chose the doctrine of sin over the Doctrine of God. Th next event was them covering their shame with aprons of fig leaves. They did not go to the Tree of Life for its leaves which they could touch, freely eat, and so forth; they turned to the wrong trees’ leaves to heal the wrong they had done God and to themselves.  The leaves from the Tree of Life would have been sufficient, but they chose wrongly. Therefore, the two who did not understand the penalty – that they would die – were convincingly shown death. God killed an animal to demonstrate death, and used its skin to make coats for the two. Finally, they understood death to the extent that they did not want to die and were willing to do things God’s Way!
  Israel was like wild grapes and its fathers (kings) like first ripe fig trees who “went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved” (Hos 9:10). Baal was the god that Balaam blessed on the Mountain at Peor. Aaron’s grandson Phineas cast a spear there into a couple who were copulating. 24,000 died there of the plague. The heresy of Peor represents death, and Baalpeor as death because of whose god to whom Israel fornicated!
  I always contend that the Tree of Knowledge represented the tree of carnal knowledge and the heresy of Peor somewhat validates that.
  Sinners, therefore, are like ripe fig trees, according to Hosea, and their behavior as wild grapes. Hang onto the thought about wild grapes until tomorrow when they too will be discussed.
  The punishment for Israel’s insolence and proclivity toward sin was also foretold by Hosea:

And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them. (Hos 2:12). 

  God will destroy Israel’s fig trees and wild vines with their wild fruits. The most prominent “fig tree” in the Garden was the forbidden tree – the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As of this writing that “tree” has already served its purpose and no longer exists. I believe the “fig tree” was destroyed in the midst of the Garden (Jerusalem) when Judas Iscariot, filled with the spirit of the Satan, hung himself from a tree. (Mat 27:5). Judas was cursed as was Satan because Jesus himself said, “cursed is every man who hangs from a tree” (Gal 3). Judas was cursed, and Jesus as well, since he died for all of us “trees.” Judas, by tradition, is believed to have been hung from a redbud tree since they have always been called, “Judas Trees.” However, scripturally, it is more likely that he was hung from a fig tree because that tree belonged to Satan, and Judas had Satan in him (Luke 22:3).
  Just as by grace, the Word (Jesus) saved Adam from the fig tree, he calls every person from under the vines of wild grapes and their own fig trees:

For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig tree. (Zach 3:9-10)

  In summary, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was likely a fig tree. Tomorrow, the species of the Tree of Life will be examined.