The Encourager
“Leaves from the Tree of Life by Mike Richardson”
In Genesis 2:9 we read where God put the tree of life in the middle of the Garden of Eden. As long as Adam and Eve had access to the tree of life they would live. The tree gave life, thus when Adam and Eve sinned God cast them out of the garden, hid the garden, and placed an angel to guard the garden so they could not come to the tree of life and partake of its fruit and live. Because sin has entered into the world all men die (I Cor.15:21), but God has given us a “tree of life” in the Bible where we do not have to die the second death which is eternal damnation in hell.
(i)Christ and the Bible Compared to The Tree of Life. Christ is like the tree of life in that He gives life (Jno.10:10; 14:6). The Bible is like the tree of life in the fact it points us to Christ who gives life to dead souls. A “dead soul” (Eph.2:1) is separated from God and thus needs God (Rom.5:8-11). One who is spiritually dead (separated from God) has no prayer, no worship, no love for God. He needs to be reconciled (reunited) with God. Christ gives life to the spiritually dead when one obeys Him. One comes to know God by hearing His Word (Rom.10:17). The Bible is God’s Word to man (2 Tim.3:16) this is what will lead us to eternal life if we follow it. (a)Christ and the Bible Preserves Life. Christ and the Bible are like the tree of life in that they preserve life. We need to be fed. Christ and His word are the bread of life (Jno.6:32,35,48). Just as Adam and Eve needed to eat of the tree of life to live we need to eat from the word of life for eternal life. (b)Christ and the Bible Bring Joy. God gave the tree of life to Adam and Eve as a gift so they could enjoy life. He gave His Son (Jno.3:16) so we could have eternal life (Psa.119:105). He gave His Word so we can enjoy life here and look forward to life beyond the grave. Christians should be the happiest people on the face of the earth for they have the most to forward too (I Thess. 5:16).
(ii)Leaves from the Tree of Life. Now let us consider some things we need to see from God’s Word if we want to live in heaven for all eternity. If we don’t eat from the tree of life, the word of God, we will experience eternal destruction away from God. Rev.22:2 John writes, “In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Let us look at four leaves from the tree of life that will help or be a “cure” for the “sin ailments” we face in everyday life. (1) A Leaf for Curing Lying. Notice the prayer of the Psalmist in Psalms 120:2, “Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips And from a deceitful tongue.” We need to pray that we be delivered from lying lips. God and His Word are truth and He expects us to be honest and true (Titus 1:1-3). God cannot lie and He wants His children to be honest (I Jno.5:20). The father of all lies is Satan (Jno.8:44) and it was Adam and Eve believing his lie in the Garden that brought forth sin and caused them to be cast out of the Garden of Eden and to be separated from the tree of life. We need to pray lest we
fall into the trap of the evil one and use lying lips that can bring about destruction (Prov.19:9; Rev.21:8). So a leaf or cure for lying is prayer. (2) A Leaf for Curing Covetousness. What leaf from the Bible do we see will cure covetousness? The cure for covetousness is gratefulness (Prov.3:9-10). Instead of noticing what we don’t have, we show gratitude for what God has given us. It is easy to be focused on what our neighbor has that we forget to be thankful for what God has given us. If we aren’t thankful for what we have it is easy to be envious of what others have that we don’t. Covetousness is a sin (I Cor.6:10) and the cure is gratitude to God for our many blessings. That is a leaf from the tree of life. (3) A Leaf for Curing Pride. The leaf for curing pride is to remember that whatever we are and whatever we have is given by God. James wrote, “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble” (Jas.4:6). Pride is dangerous because it seeks to glorify self instead of God (I Pet.5:5-6; Prov.6:17). The cure for pride is to take eyes off self and put them on God. As one fellow said, “Humility is not thinking too highly of oneself, nor is it thinking too lowly of oneself, it is not thinking of self!” (4) A Leaf for Curing Sin. Coming to Christ is submission, being baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). When one is immersed by faith into Christ, their sins are washed away. The Word of God says you can have your sins blotted out. After being immersed into Christ and are added to the body of Christ when we sin and fall short we now have the avenue of prayer to seek forgiveness (I Jno.1:9).
We need to eat from the tree of life daily…let us study the Word of God and follow it’s Divine precepts.
