Homestead Trees

So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord…. The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. (Genesis 13:18, 18:1-2)

 

After Abram separated from his nephew Lot, he pitched his tents near the great oaks of Mamre at Hebron. The trees provided him with shade and firewood. Perhaps Abram also used wood for construction, although he and his servants continued to live in tents. Abram entertained guests at the oaks of Mamre for several years.

 

This is the place where Abram went to war to rescue Lot. This probably is the place where God cut the Abrahamic Covenant. This is where Abram’s son Ishmael was born. Perhaps Isaac was born here. And this is where Abram pleaded with the Lord to deliver Sodom for Lot’s sake.

 

The Oaks of Mamre were home for Abram. Trees can provide a temporary home for us when we go camping. Trees can help turn a desert into a home. Just as trees helped establish Abram’s homestead, trees improve my property today. Perhaps you benefit from trees, too. How often do we thank God for something so simple as the trees in our yard?

 

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 we turned west and drove two miles toward that highway, we could see three tall trees standing in the distance near the intersection six 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 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.

Trees of the Bible

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day. (Genesis 1:11-13)

 

According to the 8 Billion Trees website, there are over 3 trillion trees in the world, comprised of 65,000 to 73,000 different species. The number is uncertain because scientists are still discovering new species of trees. Forests occupy about 30% of the world’s land area. Russia plays host to more trees than any other nation by a large margin. Canada has more forests than any other nation. The oldest tree in the world is generally recognized to be the Methuselah tree in eastern California. Tree ring data indicates Methuselah is 4,855 years old. The world’s oldest tree is appropriately named!

 

Life as we know it could not exist without trees. Beyond the obvious necessities which trees provide humanity – food, shelter, and clothing – are essential processes which maintain the air we breathe, and land on which we stand, and the water we drink. Chlorophyll, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration are terms we may have learned in middle school, reminding us that trees are complex living organisms.

 

Trees made their earthly appearance in God’s second creative word on the third day of creation. Have you ever noticed that Day 3 and Day 6 each include two unique and separate creative words? God’s creation of trees on Day 3 stands out as a significant parallel to the creation of mankind on Day 6. 

 

J.R.R. Tolkien famously personified trees in his Lord of the Rings trilogy. The tree-like Ents could both walk and talk like people (and Hobbits). Similarly, C.S. Lewis humanized trees in The Chronicles of Narnia series. In both mythical fantasies, trees played a crucial role in the redemptive climax. So in Scripture, trees play a major role in our redemption and the healing of the nations.

 

It all begins on Day 3 of creation. The trees created in Genesis 1:11-12 utilized the light of Day 1, the sky and water of Day 2, and the dry land of Day 3 to perform their “magic” in beginning what would become the cycle of life. The work of trees continues to this day in our daily sustenance, in our redemption from the fall, and in the future restoration of God’s creation.

 

An Unimpressive Title

Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day. (Genesis 1:11-13)

Long ago, back in the days when “media” ministry denoted devotional literature delivered by the postal service, I used to receive periodic booklets from Radio Bible Class (now known as Our Daily Bread Ministries). They were best known for their daily devotional series, but RBC also published a large number of topical booklets and sent them out to anyone who requested them. I eagerly read everything that landed in my mailbox.

One little booklet piqued my interest the first time I saw it. It surprised me and I never forgot it. The pamphlet still stands out in my mind decades later. In fact, it’s sitting on the desk in front of me right now. It was written by Richard W. De Haan and published in 1976.

The title of the devotional booklet? Well, it won’t impress you. And that’s exactly what impressed me so long ago. The title was unimpressive. This wasn’t a book about salvation or heaven or hell or marriage or children or church or prayer or evangelism. In my mailbox was a package with 32 pages addressing a subject I had never considered before, even though it is referenced over 300 times in the Bible, including 19 times in the first three chapters of Genesis and four times in the last chapter of Revelation.

When I opened the booklet and began to read, I was captivated by the subject. I’m still intrigued by it today. So in my next post, I will begin to survey the Trees of the Bible.