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Tree of Life

             And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. (Genesis 3:22-23)

down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. (Revelation 22:2)

You probably thought you were safe from Genesis. So did I, and I specifically hoped to be safe from this topic. It has bothered me for years. Scripture seems to say that if Adam and Eve had not sinned, they would not have died. So, had they not sinned, the Tree of Life would have been superfluous. In Revelation, we see the Tree of Life in a place where everyone already has eternal life. The Tree of Life is superfluous.  Once Adam and Eve sinned, they were kicked out of Eden so they couldn’t eat of the tree and live forever (in their sinful state.) So, the Tree of Life was superfluous. Put bluntly, I don’t get it. It makes no sense! I told some friends yesterday morning that this is one of those questions that I plan to ask God when I get to heaven.

Perhaps He has taken pity on me and isn’t making me wait that long. We aren’t explicitly told this, but it’s evident from the context. The Tree of Life was the solution to death. The Tree of Life was there before Adam and Eve sinned, and it will continue to be there after sin is no longer an issue. That’s because the answer to the problem of death was and always will be there (here?), whether it’s needed or not.

If Adam and Eve had run to God after having sinned, God could have opened the medicine cabinet and taken out the tincture of the Tree of Life. It was there. It was available. They may not have known it, but if they had trusted God and gone to Him, the treatment for their ailment was ready. God’s solution was, is, and will always be there.

But they didn’t go to God. They sought their own solution. Even when God confronted them, they rejected His solution. They chose clothing even though nakedness wasn’t the real problem. They chose to shift the blame. There comes a time when the solution is taken away, lest it be applied or used in a way that does more harm than good. As a gift from God, it was a cure. It would have been harmful as something they (thought they) appropriated to themselves.

But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t available even before we needed it. Please – tell me where I’m off base  - or not. Tell me I’m crazy – or not. I think I finally have the answer. It may be an answer someone else has given, but they didn’t explain it in a way my mind could grasp at the time. Does it make sense? Does it fit Scripture?

 

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