Eating From The Tree… pt. 01

It would not be a faithful representation of this author if I didn’t start the first entry on this blog with a meditation about the beginning of the book of Genesis. These are the passages that I return to again and again.

The First Stories in the Love Letter 

If I compared my regular journeys through the scriptures, my day and night muttering over the texts, to a game of hop scotch it would look something like this: I would start on the first block, jump to the second, then back to the first, then to the third, back to the first, and so on. I practically live within Genesis 1-11. It’s the part of the labyrinth of the Bible where I feel the most at home. Not because it’s easy, but because I have spent the most time there. Probably because it’s hard. Its density is overwhelming to me. And attractive. And revelatory.

God chose to start his love letter with these stories. (1) The making and ordering of everything we understand in all the universe (it’s all from him). (2) The designating of the task to oversee it all to his created image, the ones who look like him: humanity. (3) And then the blessing of his children, go “be fruitful and multiply.” Right at the beginning the Bible starts talking about fruit. And God’s first command to his children is that they would go and enjoy and oversee everything he has made. ~“Eat from every tree.” People often miss this. We mistakenly presume that the second command is the first. But it’s not. The second is this: ~“Do not eat from the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of knowing good and bad.” Have you ever done any careful consideration about what this story means for you?

To paraphrase him, God tells humanity, “Do not take the knowledge of good and bad for yourself.” … but … are we not supposed to know what’s right and what’s wrong? Well of course we are. But what are Adam (hebrew for ‘human’) and Eve (hebrew for ‘life’) like as people? Most scholars agree that they’re depicted in these stories with a childlike ignorance and innocence. Of course God wanted them to know right from wrong. And yet he tells them, “Do not take the knowledge of good and bad for yourself.” Why would he do that? 

Here’s why: Our gracious God wanted his children to learn what’s right and what’s wrong from him. As we walked with him in the cool of the day, we were supposed to have a relationship with him, watching his ways, hearing from his mouth, learning from his instruction. That is how the human soul was designed to operate.

“That is how the human soul was designed to operate.” 

The Bible’s way of sharing this truth is through the image of “the tree of life.” There’s a tree that never withers, which is always fruitful, and which will sustain your life again and again as you eat from it. It will refresh you, renew you, keep you alive forever. Eating from this tree is trusting God’s way. Eating from the other is trusting your own understanding. 

The book of proverbs is often treated like the training wheels of learning to read the Bible. In many Jewish cultures Proverbs is the place we begin when teaching our children. Because all of the scriptures are what we call “wisdom literature.” The Bible Project calls them “Meditation Literature,” which I find wildly helpful. But do you want to know what one of the primary repeating themes of the book of proverbs is? (And one of the primary repeating themes of the whole Bible is?) 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not rely on your own understanding.”

(Prov. 3:5, NET)

How to Live Forever

Do you know how to live forever? Well, you see, there’s this tree… you know, death isn’t the design. Death was introduced after the ideal. Death is what creation does to itself when it doesn’t trust its creator. And none of us trust our creator. The vast majority of human history is a sad story of a lack of trust. And there’s this crucial detail near the end of the sad fail of a fruit eating story in the beginning, that God exiles humanity away from his garden presence and sets a flaming sword and spiritual bouncer at the doorway back in. The rest of the Hebrew Scriptures is a wild meditation about everything necessary to get back to Yahweh-God’s presence where we can find life that truly lasts as we listen to him and trust in him. Walk in his way. Learn from his instruction. Much of it is Yahweh-God kindly coming to meet us with his presence, since we can’t go to meet him ourselves. Jesus showed us the clearest picture, but more than show us, Jesus entered through the fire at the door himself, was pierced by the sword, and he stands at the door, knocking. He holds the way open for us. He is the way himself. 

And there you have it. Jesus makes God’s love, grace, instruction, and way of life, available to us. He is the creator who desired that we might not need to be exiled. He is the word from the beginning which our first parents were called to trust. He is the king we submit to as we ‘grow up’ in his kingdom, under his correct rule and reign. He shows us right living. He teaches us the actual truth. In trusting him we find forever-life. I wholeheartedly believe that.

The truth cannot be untrue.

He offers right-now-life freely, fully, and without hesitation to any who will make the choice to trust him, instead of eating from the knowing-good-and-bad tree. Release control. Eat from him. Stop trying to achieve and understand in your own strength. Rely full on him. We can’t do anything without him. He said so himself the night before his crucifixion, 

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”  (John 15:5, NIV)

True life comes from living under the tree of life. True joy comes from relationship with Jesus. True peace comes from trusting in God’s way, instead of relying on your own perspective. He is the creator, the source of all life. Where else could we go to find life that lasts? 

May we trust in him. May we comfort and convict others as we see them veer away from the tree of life. May we have a passionate vigor as we consider the beautiful truth that Jesus has opened the door to Eden. May we eat from the tree of life ourselves and encourage others in the same. I hope you will trust him today, instead of yourself. 

May that be true.

(I took this photo of a tree of life in Portland Oregon, on Mt. Tabor, July 2021)

“How blessed is the one who does not follow the advice of the wicked, 

or stand in the pathway with sinners, 

or sit in the assembly of scoffers! 

Instead he finds pleasure in obeying the Lord’s commands; 

he meditates on his commands day and night.”

-Ps. 1:1-2

Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005), Ge 1:1–2:3.

Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005), Ge 2:15–17.

Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005), Pr 3:5.

Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005), Jn 15:5.

Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005), Ps 1:1–2.