MEN AS TREES – Part 3 of 3

KEY VERSE: Within the oracle he (Solomon) made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high. (1 Kings 6:23)

  The “oracle” in Solomon’s Temple was the Holy of Holies, and is the place of God’s Word. Hence, God’s Word is the Oracle and since the “Word” is Jesus (John 1:1-2,14), then the Oracle is the domicile of pre-incarnate Jesus. This passage typifies Jesus in the Tree of Life which was surely an olive tree.
  Previously, it was demonstrated that the Tree of Knowledge was likely a fig tree. The two trees, one for life and the other for death, were surely the long enduring olive tree and the sweet fig tree, respectively.
  Green olives are bitter, but Jeremiah called the Green Olive Tree “goodly” (Jer 11:16). In the story of the Exodus 12:8 at the last supper of the Hebrews, they ate their meal and were told, “with bitter herbs they shall eat it.” Of course, the Exodus represents salvation, the door posts on which blood was brushed represented the Cross, and the lamb, of course, Jesus Christ. Bitter herbs were akin to the gall which Jesus drank in the vinegar before his crucifixion. (Mat 27:34). Of course, the entire exodus out of Egypt and from the hands of Pharaoh of the Hebrews represents the escape of some from Hell and the Devil. The Exodus is a picture of things to come, most notably Judah’s emancipation from Babylon and our own escape from Hell and the evil one!
  The bitter olive fruit is a foreshadowing of the gall which represents God’s sacrifice of Himself on the behalf of all mankind. The olive tree’s branch represents peace. Jesus Christ represents Peace in earth, good will toward men. Surely, of all the trees, the olive tree is the best candidate for the Tree of Life. Adam and Eve could have tasted the bland fruit of the ripe olive, but chose instead sweet figs. That was the choice they made. Olives were substantial fruit, but figs sweet but temporal. We all have that same choice to make; shall it be olives or figs, so to speak? The inclination of mankind has always been for figs because green olives seem to be bitter fruit. They require a special taste to be good.
  Two cherubim guarded the gate to the Garden of Eden – God’s residence in earth. Two cherubim guarded the Word in Solomon’s Temple. The Name of God is the Name that saves. The chief priest had to recognize the Word as Jesus to enter into the Holy of Holies as God’s throne between the cherubim was the seat where Jesus sat and spoke to the priest. That the priest knew the Word is Jesus is speculative, but the validation that he did, was that if he did not, he would die!
  Because the cherubim were of olive wood and hovered over the Oracle has great significance. Oracles are revealed truth. Inside the Oracle, God revealed truth to the chief priest. What “truth” do you suppose was revealed to the priest? The gospel truth. That indicates further that the drab olive tree represents the Doctrine of Christ: “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son” (2 John 1:9). The chief priest, like Adam and Eve before, was presented with two doctrines – the doctrine of men (the law of sin), and the Doctrine of Christ (the Law of God), as is written. Hence, the olive tree represents the Holy Trinity. The root - God the Father, the living water which watered it - the Holy Spirit, and the Tree itself - Jesus Christ!
  I see trees as men who are inanimate, but shortly Adam and Eve by reproduction animated the Garden of souls, and they were made into living souls. With that process completed, I also see men as trees walking just as blind Bartimaeus!
  In the midst of the Garden were two trees. Not by coincidence, in Jerusalem, which I believe was the central place of the Garden, there were two trees. Jesus Christ hanging from his tree and Judas hanging from his. Surrounding the Tree of Life on Calvary were two other trees: the malefactor’s who went to Paradise that day and the one who did not. They were two of the living souls which Adam-kind was to dress and keep (serve and preserve). One was and one was not preserved! The Judas Tree and the Holy Cross represented the same choice as the olive and fig way back in the Garden of Eden.
  It would seem that the Holy Cross would be of olive wood, but it was not. I have written before that the Holy Cross was surely made of four woods, none of which were olive. Why would that be? The four woods would represent all mankind – yellow, red, black, and white – since Jesus died for them all! Who was the Olive Tree? Perhaps Jesus himself! Look at the man who killed to make himself king. I’m referring to Abimelech:

The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us. But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon. (Jud 9:8-15)

  By the olive tree God and man is honored. God is represented in His triune Existence by the Tree of Life. That passage is further validation that the olive was the Tree of Life. Furthermore, to honor “man” as well. Men are not to be honored, but served. It seems obvious that the specific “Man” to which that refers is the Son of God, not Adam! The olive is God’s and his Man’s Tree according to Jotham’s parable about Abimelech.
  The fig tree was sweet and had good fruit. That’s similar to the very words about the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil: “That the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise” (Gen 3:6). It is apparent that indeed the Tree of Knowledge was the fig tree. It’s promotion over the other trees is what Adam and Eve did to the Tree of Knowledge.
  The Serpent climbed the Tree of Knowledge; envision the Serpent wrapped as a vine around its trunk as we often see with modern symbols. Although not specified in the Book of  Genesis, imagine a vine wrapped around the Tree of Life. As the Serpent represented the Devil and the doctrine of sin, the vine represents Jesus Christ’s message and it branching out into the Garden to cover all the other trees.

I (Jesus) am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (John 15:1-5). 

  Job had a hedge about him (Job 1). I always thought that was a hedge representing a thorn-hedge about the Garden whose gate the cherubim guarded. Perhaps though, God’s “hedge” about the Garden was the grape vine, protecting the Doctrine of God. That makes sense since the Vine’s branch that abides in Jesus is the Password for the cherubim for entry back into the Garden and is the Password to abide with him obviously in the heavenly Paradise.
  The “vine” represents Doctrine more than the image of God - Jesus - the visible Tree, especially since we are to walk the Way of Jesus, and that is his Doctrine. The branches of the vine have two choices – to abide in Jesus or not. Those who do have much fruit, and those who don’t bear nothing and will wither, be cut off, and burned (John 15:6).
  The Vine was in the Tree of Life but hovered over the Tree of Knowledge. Adam chose the branch which would wither and die, except the Husbandman came and kept him safe with a coat of skins.
  The bramble bushes are those with thorns such as the blackberry bush. Its fruit is sweet but often goes unpicked because of the thorns. The bramble bush is more a prison than a hedge of safety as it retains what is inside as well as out. Obviously, the “bramble” represents Satan and his angels just as in Job 1.
  Abimelech used treachery to be king. He was the “bramble” and was a representative of Satan just as Judas was. The people made Abimelech king, and did not chose a godly man. That’s the same deed done by Adam and Eve when they chose the Tree of Knowledge and the unrepentant thief who effectually chose Judas and his hanging from a tree.
  It was likely that the Judas Tree is more realistically the fig tree as I wrote previously; not the cercis siliquastrum.
  Jesus said, “I m the vine, ye are the branches.” As the “Vine” was on the “Tree” of the Holy Cross, it makes sense that the “Vine’s” branches covered the other trees at Calvary: the scribes, Pharisees, Pontius Pilate, the Jews, the Centurions and Judas himself. Most of those “trees” withered and died, and were prepared for casting into Hell with Judas who had Satan inside.
  The Vine didn’t wither and die that day. He merely quit spreading for parts of three days. As Jesus slept, the sins of all the dead and living souls (trees) were cast into Hell below for burning. At that point, only the Doctrine of Sin and Satan were defeated, but in the end, the Judas Tree will be cast into the fiery pit!
  What about the crown of thorns which they placed on Jesus’s head? That was typical of Abimelech’s bramble thorns. That crown belonged on Judas’s head, because as Abimelech who made himself king, Judas made himself king of the Jews when he was seditious against the true King – Jesus. Jesus was mocked with the crown of Abimelech. Judas was not mocked, although the same spirit Abimelech ha was the evil spirit in Judas.
  On the other hand, some of the withered branches of the vine still accept Judas as the true King. Islam’s Isa is their “Jesus” who will die for them… not then but when the Antichrist is destroyed.
   I could go further with the tree-typology, but leave that to the reader. I am satisfied that seeing men as trees walking was God’s intent for blind Bartimaeus and for those with special insight.