Throughout the Bible trees are used as metaphors for certain people; the most obvious is Jesus as the ‘Tree of Life’ or more precisely, the ‘godhead’ as that ‘Tree.’ [1]
Without going into detail with
supporting verses, the root of the Tree is the Father aspect, the ‘Vine’ or
tree truck itself represents Jesus, for it can be seen, and the leaves the dynamics
(Virtue) of God that represents the Holy Spirit. The flow of water from the
ground possibly represents the Light of God emanating from the Father through
the Son and the Holy Ghost. The leaves of that Tree are for the healing of the
people (Rev 22:2).
The blind man as Jesus approached
him saw Jesus just as, “trees; as men walking” (Mark 8:24). Throughout the
Bible many trees were as men walking. Hence, trees are metaphors for mankind.
There was another tree in the
middle of the Garden of Eden. It was known by its fruit. Its fruit was not
apples at all but figs. That should be obvious because Adam made “aprons of fig
leaves” from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 3:7). Supporting
that is the fig the size of a watermelon that Adam and Eve would refuse to eat
after they sinned:
Then Adam took the fig, and laid
it on the golden rods. Eve also took her fig, and put it upon the incense. And
the weight of each fig was that of a water-melon; for the fruit of the garden
was much larger than the fruit of this land. But Adam and Eve remained standing
and fasting the whole of that night, until the morning dawned. sinned (1 Adam and Eve: XLL:1-3)
The fig was the fruit of the tree that would cause their death. How could that be?
They felt great trouble
from the food they had eaten, and to which they were not used, they went about
in the cave saying to each other: "What has happened to us through eating,
that this pain should have come upon us? Woe be to us, we shall die! Better for
us to have died than to have eaten; and to have kept our bodies pure, than to
have defiled them with food."
Then Adam said to Eve,
"This pain did not come to us in the garden, neither did we eat such bad
food there. Thinkest thou, O Eve, that God will plague us through the food that
is in us, or that our inwards will come out; or that God means to kill us with
this pain before He has fulfilled His promise to us?"
Then Adam besought the
Lord and said, "O Lord, let us not perish through the food we have eaten.
O Lord, smite us not; but deal with us according to Thy great mercy, and
forsake us not until the day of the promise Thou hast made us."
Then God looked upon
them, and at once fitted them for eating food; as unto this day; so that they
should not perish. (1 Adam & Eve LXI:2-6)
Digestion is a process of decay
over time. Perhaps sin was when decadence introduced death into the world.
Something had to die for them to eat, and that something was figs. With
digestion, those vibrant fruits would just wither away within their bodies.
Before sin, the man and his woman
were glorious. There was no decadence (guile) in them. Time would have no effect
on them. That they could eat herbs is a misrepresentation by translators (Gen
1:11). Literally, they could eat glossy things, which was perhaps manna
from heaven that appeared to be hoar frost on the ground that would not decay
(Exod 16:14).
The food in the Garden was manna
from heaven, it seems, but they ate indigestible fruit — figs. Time began for
them as the two began to wither; Eve about 900 years or so and Adam 930 years.
Now consider the saying of Jesus about the fig tree:
And when He saw a fig
tree in the way, He came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and
said unto it, “Let no fruit grow on you henceforward forever.”
And presently the fig
tree withered away.
And when the disciples
saw it, they marveled, saying, “How soon is the fig tree withered away!” (Mat 21:19:20)
The fig tree did not have that
fruit. So, what did Jesus do? He soon withered the fig tree because it bore
no fruit. It was useless. It failed to even bear the bad fruit (Gal 5:19-21). Jesus
would have expected it to bear some fruit even if it was bad. However, it bore
no fruit at all!
It seems that Jesus was using the
fig tree to represent two ideas: (1) That bearing no fruit is not any better
than bearing bad fruits, and (2) that bearing no fruit would cause the tree to
perish as much as bad fruit would end the same way.
For the Christian that should
mean much. Looking at the fruit of the Spirit above, the Christian that has no
charity, no joy, no peace, no patience and so forth, even though they were not
evil, would still perish!
To prove His point, Jesus made
the fig tree wither right then. Whereas Adam withered in 930 years, his
punishment went unnoticed. Possibly, for them to understand that time is
insignificant, He withered the fig tree right then so that they could understand
what happened with Adam with the first sin, who bore no fruit!
From where does that notion come?
“Adam called his wife's name ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all living.
(Gen 3:20). It was Eve’s fruit that had the seed in it to create new beings.
Eve was another kind that Adam had to name, and as such, Adam’s kind is not
correct; we are Eve’s kind. She is the mother of all; that is known because it
was not written that Adam was the father of all! That we are humane
beings is wrong. We are brutish in nature because, like Cain, we are of the
Wicked One.
The fruit of Cain were those
listed in Galatians 5:19-21. They were a wicked fruit, and most people bear
that fruit.
How about people who are lackadaisical
and are neither good nor evil? God expects everyone to show their fruit. No
fruit is not good fruit, so Christians that bear no fruit will perish alongside
those who bear wicked fruit. Jesus revealed that when He withered the fig tree
as the proxy for non-productive Christians to make His point.
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