THE TREE OF LIFE

• Most people see it as disjointed rules.
• A boring set of what to do and what not to do.
• But its a wonder to be sure!
• It is an awesome plan of God.
• Today I want to show you a theme that runs through the Bible showing God's desires for all of us.
• God is eternal, and is not limited to time like we are.
• And when you study this book that covers thousands of years, and see an issue coming up again and again, you know that only a God who has been around forever could do that.

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.  
(Heb 12:2-4)

And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
(Genesis 2:9)

And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever:
(Genesis 3:22)

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
 (John 6:47-57)

• The seed is planted in the earth and is germinated to reproduce the very sort of tree from which the seed came.
• After its kind.

• Jesus even called Man's heart the earth in the parable of the sower and the seed.

• Man did not physically start growing a tree of life in his body after he ate fruit, but there is a message in the idea of seed and earth.
• Seeds and earth go quite well together.
• Propagation of the tree occurs in that manner.
• And God wanted man to have LIFE form with himself.
• The tree of life and its fruit show us this principle.
• Spiritually speaking, man was to see the tree of life reproduced in himself.

• Romans 5:12 tells us that the only reason death came was due to sin.
• Had Adam never sinned, he would never have died.
• And the reason God told Adam to leave the Garden lest he take of the fruit of life and live forever, was because Adam had sinned.
• And he would die.
• But notice that God said, " lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: "
• ALSO.
• God did not want Adam to MIX fruit of lie in his system with fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.
• He does not want us straddling the fence and living for Jesus and for the world.
• Its one or the other.
• And if its forbidden fruit, then man is out of the Garden and will not have fruit of life ALSO.
  

• We cannot obtain God as God.
• He had to be manifest in flesh for us to accept Him.
• We do not eat the tree of life but we do eat the fruit on the tree.
• God made something we can receive.
• All the fullness of the tree is in the fruit.
• The fullness of the Godhead was in Jesus bodily.

• Go to Him in order to please God.
• Everything is in His body.
• Since man is physical, God came in the physical to retrieve man.

• His broken body is like a doorway for us.

• The broken body is a doorway.

• Jesus is referred to as a room in which we can dwell.
  

• God casts man out because he eats another tree's fruits.
• Adam is then barred out.
• A sacrifice is required after this.
• And all of this was a message that Jesus Christ was going to come and fix things up one day.
• The lambs that were sacrificed speak of Jesus who would come and die to pay for the sin man committed, because sin demands a payment of death.
• We must understand clearly that sin demands a payment of death.
• The soul that sins it shall die.

• Lambs and bullocks and other sacrifices were offered on a brazen altar with a grate and fire beneath, or the earliest forms of stones piled up and a pit made in the stones for fire.
• But Jesus was sacrificed on a TREE.
• A cross was called the tree.

• Where we had fellowship with God.
• We walk up to the tree of life in the Garden when we had no sin, and we take its fruit and eat it.

• The Bible uses language that always goes back to eating food.
• And this is the root of the problem in Genesis.
• Man ate the forbidden fruit and sinned.
• But here we see allusions to tasting the Lord!

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.
(John 6:63-64)

• The flesh represented the WORDS he spoke.
• The eternal life they would get were from His words that are spirit and LIFE.
• The spirit quickeneth, or makes alive.
• And His words are Spirit.
• But there were those who WOULD NOT BELIEVE.
• In other words, believing is eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
• Since His flesh was crucified and his blood was shed on the cross, He is speaking particularly about His words concerning the Cross.
• Peter knew He was talking about WORDS OF ETERNAL LIFE when he spoke of eating His flesh to get eternal life...

Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
(John 6:67-69)

Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
(John 7:16-17)

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
(2 Corinthians 3:18)

And he made the candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work made he the candlestick; his shaft, and his branch, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, were of the same: And six branches going out of the sides thereof; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side thereof, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side thereof: Three bowls made after the fashion of almonds in one branch, a knop and a flower; and three bowls made like almonds in another branch, a knop and a flower: so throughout the six branches going out of the candlestick.
(Exo 37:17-19)

And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:
(Zec 4:1-2)

• The seven lamps were in the form of branches of an almond tree.
• In other words, this TREE had LIGHTS or LAMPS.
• SEVEN LAMPS.
• In the same chapter we read what these lamps represent.

For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth.
(Zec 4:10)

• The eyes of the Lord.
• Run through the WHOLE EARTH.
• ALL the earth.
• Seven means complete.
• Seven eyes see all the earth.
  
• These seven eyes of the Lord pop up again in the Bible in Revelation.
• There they are eyes on the lamb.
• Recall we spoke about how all lamb sacrifices and bullock sacrifices represented Jesus who would be sacrificed for our sins.
• Well in Revelation Jesus is represented by a lamb with seven eyes.
• We just discovered that The seven eyes were also associated with the SEVEN LAMP CANDLESTICK.
• The seven eyes and the seven lamps all are speaking of the same thing!
• Its the same point in each vision, but using different pictures and symbols.

And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
(Rev 5:6)

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And (1) the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the (2) spirit of wisdom and (3) understanding, the (4) spirit of counsel and (5) might, the (6) spirit of knowledge and of (7) the fear of the LORD; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
(Isaiah 11:1-5)

• He would not judge after the sight of His eyes.
• He would not reprove after the hearing of his ears.
• In other words He would not use faulty basis for determining the truth.
• Eyes see and hears hear, but what we see and what we hear is often not enough to prove anything.
• When you judged someone, to know their hearts and their intentions will make you a perfect judge.
• Not just relying upon what you outwardly see and hear.
• Jesus looks into our hearts!
• And these seven spirits are upon Him to enable him to judge RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT.

• He referred to His sacrifice in that instance, because His body was later represented by bread to eat when He spoke of His flesh dying on the cross.
• His blood was spoken of as wine to drink when it would be shed on the cross.
• And eating that would cause us to have eternal life.
• Eternal life - the same life Adam would receive upon eating the fruit of life.
• Fruit of life is devoured to get life and Jesus' flesh is devoured ot get life.

• By eating.

• Jesus is seen as a lamb in Rev 5 because He was sacrificed! For our sin.
• And priests actually ate part of the sacrificial beast that was offered to God.
• In fact, the lamb whose blood was put on the doors in Egypt to save Israel from DEATH, was EATEN inside beyond the door, showing the same picture of the FRUIT OF LIFE being eaten in the Garden.

Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.
(John 8:15-18)

• And this tree has seven spirits.
• Seven spirits are seven eyes of Lord in Zechariah vision of the candlesticks.
• Revelation has the seven spirits as seven eyes on the lamb.
• It all fits together.

Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:
(Ecc 12:5)

• It has WHITE BLOSSOMS that bloom early in spring.
• In Hebrew the name actually means HASTE.
• The almond blossoms are a sure sign that spring is near.
• White hair is a sure sign old age is near -- unexpected.

Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
(John 7:24)

• He shines on our lives and 2 Cor 3:18 says we have Hi slight shine on us and are thereby changed into His same image.
• From glory to glory.
• WE MATURE, LIKE HIM.

• We stand in His perfect light.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.
(John 16:13)

• So the DOOR AND THE LIGHT are associated together!
• Jesus is BOTH!

• We see the full glory of God, and we shine moreso.

And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
(Rev 5:6)

• He knows it all.
• Nothing is hidden from Him.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
(Heb 4:12-13)

• He sees the whole earth.

• He is the door.
• Enter into Him.

His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
(Rev 1:14)

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
(2Co 4:6)

• Jesus is LAST ADAM who has word for us!

• Let us glow like Jesus.

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
(Eph 1:18)