THE GARDEN OF TREES WALKING

  The problem of relying on commentaries is that they pass down the same ideas and compound many false notions. I took catechism class when I was a youth. There, I was told that the Holy Trinity is “God in three persons” but God is God in One Person. Like those around me, I referred to all three aspects of God as different people. My poor training caused me to ignore Jesus throughout the Old Testament, but  Jesus is the Way then as now!

  We learn from the Word of God. Sure, it requires explanation, but the wrong explanation should not be purveyed. However, translations are ambiguous. Students of the Bible must consider the knowledge, culture, and language of the day. The very word, “created,” comes from the Hebrew word, ‘bara which can be translated generate, select, dispatch, or even cut down (Strong’s Dictionary). Ironically, it even has in parentheses after “cut down” the word “wood.” That makes sense, does it not, because the Garden was a wooded Paradise and trees provided growth to Adam (Man). Now consider the trees of the Garden:

KEY VERSES: ⁵ And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. ⁶ But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. (Gen 2:5-6)

  Every plant would include the largest plant, the trees of the Garden. God, when He “generated” the trees (Gen 2-4), was indeed, sort of a “woodcutter.” He formed the trees of the Garden with His Hand. Of course, that “Hand” refers to Jesus, who John said was there and cutting wood! (John 13,14). That Jesus was a “carpenter” in the translation. Rather, the Greek word for carpenter is tekton (ibid). It is obvious that tekton and technician have the same root, and thus it can be translated as “craftsman.” The English translators surely understood that Jesus was the “woodcutter” in the generation and called Him a “carpenter” during his time on earth.

  The LORD (Jesus) “caused” the mist from the ground. That mist was the Water of Life that God would shortly mix with the dust of the ground to form Adam. That mist would be 80% of the substance of Adam, according to scientists. To put it bluntly, the remainder of Adam was inert material and nutrients from the rich earth. Adam, when he was formed, was made of two substances: water and fertilizer, so to speak. Then God breathed life unto him. God turned that mixture into genes, enzymes, and so forth; and did so in a miraculous fashion that no other could ever do. Jesus “fashioned” Adam from the clay, and a miracle occurred, the lifeless creature was made alive when God breathed His Spirit unto him.

  God fashioned the wood in a similar manner, but they were not as Adam. Neither them nor the beasts had life breathed in them. They were fashioned and grew, but they have not living soul. Trees are indeed like men and are much like images of men. All that is missing from trees are souls.

  Trees are as men who await souls. I like to call the Garden of Eden, a “Garden of Souls” because they seem to represent images of souls to come. Adam was assigned to dress and keep the Garden (Gen 2:15). However, who did that before Adam?

  From the key verses, God had not “caused” rain, but He had caused the generation of the plants. Hence, God is the Husbandman of which Jesus spoke (John 15:1). Jesus’s true Father was not a carpenter but a Farmer! He planned, fertilized, seeded, nourished, protected, grew, and harvested the “Crop.” The “Crop” of course is Jesus, and as the “Crop” Jesus is the “Vine.” What would “vines” do? Spread and multiply. What was Adam to do? Spread the Vine! It all so simple, yet most fail to understand. Many read, but few comprehend. The Garden of Eden has within it the gospel story.

  Again, from the key verses, “God caused.” Everything has a cause and an effect. The word “caused” is not in the Hebrew. It is implied from the previous verse’s “generation.” Generating is the cause, and rain would be the effect, but since it had not rained, by default, the mist was caused by God. Therefore, the “sweat” of God’s Face was the “mist” that caused the trees and Adams. In other words, the Creation was made of the sweat of God’s Face, not Adams, as in Genesis 3:19. God’s “Face,” throughout scripture is Jesus. That is the gospel. God had done the work before sin, but after the original sin, Adam was responsible for His own survival in the World. However, he had a choice in that he could still turn to “God’s Face” to affect all things!

  Pilate asked while facing Jesus, “What is truth?” Jesus died because he claimed that He IS God. Pilate looked God in the Face and failed to know the truth. On the other hand, Bartimaeus was blind, but still saw the Face of Jesus! He said, “I see men; as trees walking” (Mark 8:24). He looked only at Jesus and those around him. How did he know the appearance of trees? Because in his mind’s eyes, he saw trees! Perhaps, as I can in my mind’s eye, he saw a different world than the human eye can see!

  Both Pilate and Bartimaeus were standing in Paradise but they saw things in different realms. Pilate saw a Roman city and a Jewish man, but Bartimaeus saw through the “sea of glass” (Rev 4) and saw who was on the throne. He saw Jesus as the Tree of Life and saw things as John did when he wrote, “He shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst, of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits.” John saw Jesus as the Tree of Life, and Bartimaeus may have as well.

  The Garden did not look the same in Roman times. The Husbandman had grown the Garden Paradise into a Great City. Pilate only saw a small city insignificant to Rome, but Bartimaeus saw a Great City — the City of God. Bartimaeus was greater in God’s Sight because Pilate saw an old falling down wall with meek Jews.

  Bartimaeus saw the Great Wall that God made; high with twelve gates! Can’t you see? There is an opaqueness between our eyes and the invisible realm. I am trying to open your eyes to truth, but only the Word can reveal the Truth! What is truth? Pilate saw God face-to-Face, and perhaps lived. There is evidence of that in history, but perhaps he saw God face-to-Face and died, just as God told Moses on Mount Sinai.

  “There was not a man to till the ground” (from the key verses). That statement says much. Only God had created. He generated all things! No man was there to do anything, yet eventually scientists created all things, and were not even there to see it! The Truth is right before their faces, yet they fail to see it. Pilate was staring God right in the Face and did not see God. Scientists stare Existence in the “Face” and fail to see God, to wit:

¹⁹ Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. ²⁰ For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: ²¹ Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. (Rom 1:19-21)

  When we look at what God caused, then we should see God. Jesus is the evidence of God and so is existence. Because Jesus is the Face of God, when we look at the grandeur of the world, we should see the glorious Face of Jesus. We should see the Tree of Life as the Face of God just as Bartimaeus saw it, even before he could clearly see this “Second Adam!”

   Perhaps, made to the same image, Bartimaeus saw Adam in Jesus. He had seen the trees of the Garden, and perhaps he had seen Adam as well!

  Adam would look like Jesus, and Jesus Adam, because Adam was made in God’s Image. Jesus is the Image of God as well, but His attributes are of His Father, in Mind and Spirit. Adam, after sin, was unlike the Father but more like his earthly father, the Devil.

  Only the Living Water from the Mist of the ground would generate Adam. It was the source of his blood in which God put the source of life. Scripture calls that source, “seed,” but God put enzymes in the water and made blood. Then he caused DNA to fill the enzymes and after that, all mankind were made in the biological Image of Jesus, but intercourse with the Serpent mutated God’s “Seed” until now each has their own image!

  Now, rather than God sweating for mankind, mankind sweats for themselves. When God transported Himself from the unseen to the seen, He did something for us! He agonized! His blood and water, after He was pierced, and returned to the ground from whence it came. The Creator took water and made the blood for Adam to live. He did that again when He died. His Living Water returned to the dust wherein he made man, perhaps the same place, so that Adam-kind could be regenerated!

  The water made the blood of Adam; hence regeneration is by the blood, but the blood of animals was not efficacious. Living Water from the Unseen is  the main  ingredient for life, and that is Water from God.

  When you read “mist” in scripture, think on that. God would not be interested whether you understood His creation process or not unless it pertained to regeneration. Remember that the Holy Ghost of Jesus looks like the Image of Jesus (Luke 3:22). Our own Holy Spirit should also look like Jesus; not the outside, but on the inside, we should all look like Jesus if we have “consumed” His blood and water. Not in wafer or drink, but in our hearts!

  Did you ever get a deeper commentary before? Always ask yourself, “If Jesus was there in the beginning, what was He doing?” He was “cutting wood” for you, molding you, and serving you. What should you do not out of gratitude? Like Adam failed to do, to dress and keep the Garden. What are we to do? Serve and preserve the Garden of “men as trees; walking.”  

  The “Garden of Trees Walking” are us. We must decide whose “tree” we are, and then allow God to guide us to cut us as He pleases, not as we please.

   Likewise, it is imperative to never stand under the Serpent’s “Philosophy Tree” or he will be the one who shapes us. Right now, Satan is tending the “garden.” He is shaping us “trees.” We are to remain in the Image of God, but unlike you, there is a bad “woodcutter” in the world reforming you to his image. In the end, before Jesus comes to “cut the wood” again, the false Christ will cause defective trees to burn, and his will is that all should perish.

  I see Satan carving out God’s “trees” now more than ever. He is patient; with one whittle at a time. Satan is making a new “garden” of thorns and thistles.  Isaiah saw it long ago, “The sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars” (Isa 9:10b).

  As the bricks have fallen down this year, Satan is re-carving mighty “sycamores” into knotty “cedars.” Unless you are in the word, you may be on Satan’s “lathe” right now, being remade in his image. Pull that plug! You know where the Power IS!

(picture credit: Adobe Stock Photo)