A Landmark Tree

The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you…. Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. (Genesis 12:1, 6-8)

The area where I once lived in South Dakota is a genuine plain. We lived in a town that was eight miles from U.S. Highway 81. When our car turned west onto the road headed toward that highway, we could see three tall trees standing in the distance near the intersection eight miles away. We could drive that entire stretch without losing sight of those three trees. I often drove with an eye on them. The land was flat enough, the road was straight enough, and the trees were tall enough. There was another constant which made that experience possible: the trees never moved.

In our survey of trees in the Bible, we’ve encountered several purposes for trees, including beauty, food, deliverance, and peace. Today we encounter another purpose for trees in the Bible – landmarks.

When Abram was living in Ur of the Chaldeans, the Lord had prompted him to travel “to the land I will show you.” Abram migrated for decades until the Lord met him again at the great oak tree of Moreh near Shechem and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” The tree became a landmark to record the location and announce the climax of Abram’s soon-to-end journey. The oak tree marked the spot.

In response, Abram built an altar to the Lord. Commentators have noted that when Abram built the altar and called on the name of the Lord, he also proclaimed the name of the Lord. That’s comparable to pioneers of the American West who built churches wherever they went, marking the end their journeys and the proclamation of the gospel.

We still regard trees as landmarks. At the climax of a 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, an oak tree served as a landmark of redemption. I used to live in northern Ohio near where the tree in the movie was located. It was struck by lightning in 2011 and eventually was cut down. That oak tree no longer marks the spot. 

Next time, we’ll encounter more trees that served as a landmark in Abram’s life.

 

The Tree of Peace

He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. (Genesis 8:10-12)

July 4, 1776, is the most celebrated date in American history because of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Another congressional resolution that day is easily overlooked. On July 4, 1776, Congress also adopted a resolution to create the Great Seal of the United States. The design of the great seal features a bald eagle at the center. In the eagle’s left talon are 13 arrows. The right talon grasps an olive branch with 13 olives and 13 olive leaves. Together, these objects symbolize the sovereign authority of the 13 colonies to make war and to make peace.

An olive branch is a near-universal symbol of peace. Neil Armstrong placed a gold olive branch on the moon in 1969 as a gesture that the astronauts had come in peace. The olive branch was recognized as a symbol of peace in ancient Rome and ancient Greece, as well as other ancient cultures. 

The symbol of the olive branch can be traced back even further than that. Tertullian, a church father from the early third century, wrote that the dove sent forth by Noah from the ark “announced to the world the assuagement of divine wrath, when she had been sent out of the ark and returned with the olive branch.” The great flood began with gopher wood (cypress) and ended with an olive leaf.

This is the first occurrence in the Bible which specifies an olive tree or its fruit. Olive trees are the most common kind of tree mentioned in both the Old Testament and New Testament. We will be encountering olive trees again in later passages. For now, the olive leaf Noah held in his hand can prompt us to remember that “since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). Divine judgment has fallen upon Jesus at the cross. The flood has passed over us and we are now at peace with God.

 

The Ark Was Made of…

God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. (Genesis 6:12-15)

As the population of the world increased, evil increased along with it. God’s heart was broken. His indictment upon humanity was that “every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time” (Gen. 6:5). Mankind’s sin was universal, and God prepared for a universal judgment – a worldwide flood. 

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). God would deliver Noah and his family from the flood through the building of a boat, an ark. We don’t even need to know the story to guess what Noah used to build the ark.

The ark was made from wood. Wood comes from trees, more trees of the Bible. We’re only six chapters into the first book of the Bible and trees have told us most of the story.  These trees in Genesis 6 carried Noah and his family safely through God’s righteous, divine judgment of sin.

God command to Noah was specific. The ark was to be made of cypress wood (Gen. 6:14). Older Bibles (KJV & NASB) used the term “gopher” wood here.

I think the gopher wood came from Minnesota. 

Maybe not. But Noah’s salvation came through trees.

Thousands of years later, our salvation would come through another tree.

But first, trees still have another role to play in the telling of the flood story. We’ll look at that next time.

 

Paradise Lost

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 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. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:21-24)

The introduction of sin resulted in the broken world in which we now live, a domain red in tooth and claw.

Adam and Eve’s sin erased their innocence. Nakedness became a human problem which must be resolved. None of the trees in the Garden of Eden could provide a remedy for Adam and Eve’s sin, so God sacrificed animals to make garments of skin to cover their nakedness. Continuous animal sacrifices became a temporary remedy to cover sin until the appointed time when Jesus’ blood on the tree of salvation would permanently remove sin, something that animal sacrifices could not do.

In the meantime, death reigned. The path back to the tree of life was blocked by cherubim with flaming swords. God drove Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The long, dark sorrow of the knowledge of good and evil had begun its sordid history in the human race.

If future hope had depended upon the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve to rescue themselves from this disaster, all would have been lost. But God had a plan. Not surprisingly, his idea for rescue involved trees. A lot of trees! That’s where we’ll resume our walk among the Trees of the Bible next time.

Two Special Trees

In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:9)

All the trees throughout the Garden of Eden blur out of focus for the reader when the creation narrative moves on to highlight two special trees in the middle of the garden: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Like other trees in the garden, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were pleasing to the eye and good for food. This will be confirmed later in the narrative when Eve is tempted by the serpent.

The importance of these two trees is not immediately revealed in the next. The narrator diverts to describe four rivers and the vocation of the man whom God had placed in the garden. Yet even before the tree story resumes several verses down the page, our eye lingers on these two trees with strange titles.

A few observations:

First, the fact that these two trees were planted in the middle of the garden made it impossible for Adam to miss them. His first vacation didn’t require a road trip to a remote destination to visit these two wonders. God intended that Adam live near these trees, work among these trees, walk past these trees, and look upon these trees on a daily basis. It was not necessary (or practical) to avert his eyes. He lived in a sinless, pre-fall world. The dynamics of temptation were much different than they are for us today.

Second, the titles of the two trees – the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – indicate that the two trees were incompatible with each other. Adam could eat from either tree, but not from both. Eating from one tree would preempt eating from the other tree. God has not yet issued a command to Adam about the trees, but already the framework for a moral choice is in view.

Third, the name of the first tree – the tree of life – designated a quality which Adam already possessed in innocence. He was fully alive. He communed with God. In contrast, the name of the second tree – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – designated a quality which Adam did not possess. Hence, even before the narrator fills in the gap, we can see the outline of an inevitable contest between these two unique trees.

God created trees in the garden so Adam could enjoy their beauty and taste their delicious food. In particular, two trees in the middle of the garden would draw his attention. No command has yet been given. Eve has not yet been created. Two tantalizing trees await their future fulfillment in a purpose yet to be revealed as the narrator pauses.