01/15/F – A Tree of Life

Psalms: “Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth! You have covered the heavens with your majesty.” (‭‭Psalms‬ ‭8:1‬ ‭CSB)

God’s splendor, majesty, eminence and glory has been set and displayed throughout the universe above – yet the Lord God especially desires the excellence, the greatness, the magnificence, the power and might, and the glory of His name to be seen and known throughout the earth. That responsibility has been given to humanity. That was the primary and preeminent commission that God gave to man before the fall… and after the fall, it is the primary and preeminent commission that He has given to His faithful worshippers and disciples. How do we make God’s magnificence and the knowledge of His glory known throughout the earth? Quite simply, by making The Lord (Jehovah) our Lord and Master.

Proverbs: “Long life is in her right hand; in her left, riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant, and all her paths, peaceful. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her, and those who hold on to her are happy.” (‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3:16-18‬ ‭CSB)

In the midst of the Garden of Eden was the Tree of Life. That tree was created by God and placed in the garden to supply Adam and Eve with everlasting and sustaining life. As long as they fed on the supply that God provided for them, they would not lack for anything they needed. However, there was another tree in the garden: the tree of the knowledge of good, and also of evil. The devil, Satan the accuser, deceived mankind into rejecting the Tree of Life for the tree of knowledge – telling them that by eating of that tree, they would no longer be dependent on God: they would have self-knowledge… they would have their own understanding… their eyes would be opened to see what was really going on behind the scenes… they would see beyond God’s grand conspiracy to keep them blind to the “full truth.” As we all know, Adam and Eve took the bait and fell for Satan’s deception. Once they ate of the tree of knowledge, they knew goodness (because they had experienced it in their life-giving relationship with God), but they unleashed and became intimately familiar with all kinds of evil. They lost their access to the Tree of Life, and for the rest of their lives had to eek out a living via their own extremely limited resources.

In all the years that have passed since then, Satan hasn’t really changed his game plan. He still accuses God and baits people with independence and alternate or additional “truth” …and we consistently take the bait and fall for the deception. Instead of filling the earth with the goodness, magnificence, and glory of God – in our own wisdom, we fill the earth with disorder, confusion, and every evil thing. We don’t have to buy into Satan’s lie… we don’t have to take the bait and fall into deception. We can reject the “tree of knowledge” and submit to the Lordship of God and His Son Jesus Christ instead. Through obedience by grace through faith, we can allow God’s word to abide in us as we abide in Jesus the Vine and Source of New Life. We can reject the wisdom of the world, which is in essence godless and demonic, and receive the wisdom of God instead. Then God’s wisdom becomes to us, a tree of life: blessing us with every spiritual blessing, including a long, abundant, and fruitful life that glorifies God to the rest of the world.