This is part 2 of a series; The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good is part 1.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil had the potential of life or death. Because no one knows what your choices will be, until you make them. Otherwise, they aren’t really choices at all. And when Adam and Eve ate the almond, they chose a bitter one, which fatally poisoned them.

But they had time to find an antidote. After all, they clearly had time enough to sew fig leaves together before God’s judgment. But that was the wrong antidote. The tree of life could have given them life again – God clearly said so (Genesis 3:22).

Eating the almond tree gave our first ancestors cyanide poisoning. So they needed salvation from the other tree, which was specifically said to have leaves which were “for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2).

The only reason the nations are sick in the first place, in every sense of the word, was because of their poor choices when eating from the other tree (1 Corinthians 11:29-31, Romans 5:12). Which means that in every sense of the word, the tree of life exists as the antidote to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Which begs the question… if the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is indeed a real-life almond tree… what is the real-life tree of life?

And as always, the answer is quite obvious if we just look for it. What must the tree of life do? Obviously, it must give life. And we know it must give life to sinners, for even after Adam and Eve’s sin, had they been allowed to eat it, it would have given them life again.

So the obvious question is, how do sinners get life again? Obviously from Jesus, who said He was “the life” (John 11:25, John 1:4, etc). Which means the tree of life must have represented Jesus and His ability to give us life; and how do we receive life from Jesus?

John 6:53-54 (WEB) Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

The life we receive from Him, we receive specifically by drinking his blood! And it is only through blood that we can be forgiven (Hebrews 9:22). So what sort of tree gives a fruit which is plausibly called “blood”?

Deuteronomy 32:14 (WEB) …Of the blood of the grape you drank wine.

At the last Passover service before His sacrifice, Jesus gave us His blood to drink in the form of wine (Matthew 26:28). Thus, Jesus considered His blood which forgave our sins to be aptly represented by the blood of the grape. By the fruit of the grapevine! Which is why Jesus said…

John 15:5 (WEB) I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Jesus himself said He was pictured as a grape vine! And the fruits of that vine were like blood – His blood! And that blood gave mankind life! What other fruit has the power to make a sinner well again?

Proverbs 31:6-7 (WEB) Give strong drink to him who is ready to perish; and wine to the bitter in soul: Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

Which means the tree of life can only have been a grapevine! For it is the only tree that gives blood to forgive sins!

But remember I said the tree of life – hence the grape – must be the antidote to the cyanide in almonds in every sense? Science agrees!

“No more than minute traces of cyanide are likely to be found within a few hours of cyanide ion injection into grapes. Free cyanide ion in grape juice is quickly converted to ammonia.” ^[1]

Thus the Bible is true on every level. The fruit of the tree of life would have cured the poisoning from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil even in the most literal sense!

…

Oh, and you know what else? What is the fundamental job of a grapevine? On the most basic, natural level, what do they do? They take up water… and they make grapes, which in turn make wine. They literally turn water into wine.

Just like Jesus’ very first miracle. (John 2:1-11).

I think that deserves a mic drop.

VINE TREES

You might say “but a grapevine isn’t a tree!” True… by your definition of the word “tree”. But by our definition, an almond isn’t a fruit tree, either… it’s a nut tree. Don’t get me started on whether a tomato is a vegetable or a fruit!

So obviously our groupings of things are not universal, however well reasoned they may be. The word tree in Genesis is the Hebrew ets. It means, generally, “wood”; not a tree, necessarily; just wood. There is actually no Hebrew word for “living tree” in the way we use the term.

The word “tree” to them, meant something like “wooden thing”. It could be used for almost anything made of wood – be it a plank, a stick, a pole, a tree; all of these have a single word in Hebrew, ets. The word was even used for stalks of flax (a small flowering plant) in Joshua 2:6; so clearly, ets has some flexibility in interpretation, and Strong’s says the word is based in the idea of “firmness”. Which, if you’ve ever tried to break a grapevine, they certainly have.

Some might still argue that Hebrew had a specific word for “vine”, which is sort of true – actually there are several, and the meanings aren’t quite what we would call specific – loosely translated, they are words like “bendy thing” and “source of effervescence”. Not one word that means, exclusively, what “vine” means to us.

So the Hebrew word translated as tree of life can mean a lot of things. The question is, did the Bible ever specifically call a grapevine a tree?

Luke 6:43-44 (WEB) For there is no good tree that brings forth rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that brings forth good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit. For people don’t gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush.

So in a list of “trees”, Jesus used as examples figs, blackberries, and grapes! Grapes, in particular, were considered a “good tree” based on their use in this metaphor! Which means that He considered all of them “trees”!

But an even clearer proof is found in Judges 9:8-15. In this parable these “trees” clearly considered the vine – and the blackberry as well, incidentally – to be one of their own! And if that’s the case, then any of these could have been one of the trees in the garden of Eden!

God could certainly have been more clear; He could have plainly said in Genesis “there was a tree, and there was a vine”. But Hebrew doesn’t see them as two different things!

Then again, God could have simply said grape and almond in Genesis! Why wouldn’t He? Proverbs 25:2. God wanted us to work for it – He wanted it to be easy for those who trusted His words, but only possible if we cared enough to put in the effort!

FALSE GRAPEVINE

So the tree of life was in fact the grapevine of life. And knowing that, a lot of things suddenly make sense that never did before. We think of the two trees, naturally enough, as two separate trees in the garden, side by side, separated by some little distance. But the Bible never really says that (Genesis 2:9).

In fact, if you read it closely without preconceptions, it kind of suggests the opposite “the tree of life in the midst of the garden and [also] the tree of knowledge of good and evil [alongside it]”.

If you really didn’t have a mental image in your mind already, this the easiest one to picture. And what’s more, we know it has to be true; because if the tree of life was a grapevine… think about it… what was the grapevine growing on?

It is in the nature of grapevines to wrap themselves around other trees. To hang on them; it’s just what they do. So when Jesus said “I am the vine”, you have to ask what was that vine hanging on? Because vines ALWAYS hang on something!

So either God built a trellis… or the tree of life hung on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! There was simply nowhere else for a grapevine to go! And knowing that the tree of life, representing Jesus, was growing up, hanging upon, a tree… well, now this verse looks very different, doesn’t it?

Galatians 3:13 (WEB) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,”

Everyone knows this… but no one realizes the tree He hung on was symbolic of, and in the garden literally was, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! The only tree which had both a blessing or a curse in its fruits!

Which means that the grapevine was hung on the ALMOND tree to take away the curse of that tree! Jesus, the true vine (John 15:1) hung on the other tree and died… but in the dying, took away the bitterness of the other tree (1 Corinthians 15:55-56). The bitterness of death, caused by poisonous almonds – bad judgments!

How would a grapevine do that? Well, remember the quote from Basil I cited in the article on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; he said you could purify an almond’s poisonous fruit by driving a stake into the heart of the trunk. Scientists think that this sweetened the fruit by stressing the almond tree, which prevented it from creating the poisonous amygdalin in the nuts.

A similar effect would have been achieved by a grapevine wrapping around the tree and strangling it; to survive, the plant would have to focus on its own survival, and not on making its fruit toxic to defend against “unworthy” predators.

Thus, the tree of life would have purified the other tree, had Adam and Eve given it time; on every possible level and in every sense of the word (think of verses like Genesis 3:15).

THE FALSE VINE

Given the fact that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil kills us, there is certainly a temptation (get it?) to see it as a symbol of the devil. But you literally couldn’t be more wrong. Remember, this tree is not evil; this tree judges you according to your works; giving you what you deserve dispassionately and without compassion, just as God Himself does.

Exactly as God Himself does.

The devil’s job isn’t to judge you for your works. The devil’s job is to tempt you to commit works you shouldn’t (Matthew 4:3). To tempt you to out of your depth and over your head. To tempt you to judge for yourself when you’re not ready!

Which is why, in the garden, Satan appeared as a serpent. Because a serpent wrapped around a tree looks like a vine wrapped around a tree!! And you’ll recall, this very first appearance mentioned his subtlety and deception (Genesis 3:1). Because he was pretending to be the tree (vine) of life!

Which gives new depth to Eve’s statement in verse 13. Further, if the serpent was, say, a viper, consider God’s punishment in verse 14. Why that punishment, to “eat dust” and “go on your belly”? Because it had been climbing a tree, pretending to be the tree of life!

Vipers, at least today, rarely climb trees, unlike many other species of snakes. They are found under rocks, in the dust, under the bushes. Lest they deceive man again, the poisonous serpents were cast out of the tree of God, cast down to the EARTH (Luke 10:18, Ezekiel 28:16).

So the devil was not the tree of knowledge of good and evil… he was the false grapevine who tempted us to eat from it too soon (Ezekiel 18:2-3). The serpent who, twining around the branches of the almond tree, appeared as if the grapevine itself had come to life!

This is how God’s symbols work; they’re true on every conceivable level, from the most literal to the most symbolic; and they’re always formed of intuitive, obvious connections any child would make and which, usually, we already know – we just don’t put the pieces together.

You already knew Jesus was the vine; you knew vines climbed trees; and you knew they looked just like snakes. You just didn’t add them all up. Now you have.

THE SERPENT ON A STICK

So the almond tree does not represent the devil; on the contrary, it represented the Judge of all (Hebrews 12:23). God the Father, Himself. And the tree of life doesn’t represent the cross, but rather Jesus.

Knowing all these things, we can finally answer some odd anecdotes in the Bible that make no sense without these facts. For example, the story of the brass serpent of Moses (Numbers 21:5-9). Now this is a very odd story, one which borders on (and widely is used to justify) idolatry.

Try to imagine, for a moment, what Moses’ statue looked like. No one would carve or cast a straight serpent onto a pole; to be a recognizable serpent, it would have to be wavy, or coiled. And how would you represent a serpent on a pole if not coiled around it, the way a snake naturally would climb it?

So the serpent was no doubt wrapped around the pole, because that’s what a snake on a stick looks like. Thus, it would have looked something like this symbol; the rod of Aesclepius, Greek god of healing whose symbol is used even today to symbolize the healing arts, just as God commanded Moses in Numbers!

This symbol has survived for thousands of years – granted, most of the time wrongly worshipped as an idol (2 Kings 18:4); but rooted in a very real truth, dimly groped at by the world (Acts 17:27).

Remember: a serpent hanging on a tree is what deceived Eve in the first place. It deceived her by being a counterfeit of the tree of life hanging on that same tree. It seemed, in effect, to be one of the vine’s own branches! (John 15:1, compared to 2 Corinthians 11:3, 14). Which is why Jesus compared Himself to that serpent in…

John 3:14-15 (WEB) As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

So Jesus dying on the stake and a brass serpent hanging on a pole, in Jesus’ own words were related symbols. Let that sink in for a moment.

And Jesus said He had to die in the same way the serpent had deceived mankind because His sacrifice was meant to undo that deception.

So that as the devil pretended to be Jesus, and drew all the Earth into his snare on that holy tree… so Jesus had to pretend to be us, and take away our sins by hanging and dying on that same tree!

1 Peter 2:24 (WEB) who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree [of knowledge of good and evil!], that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.

And so when the Israelites looked on Moses’ brass serpent and were healed, it was to remind God of the very first symbol of salvation Mankind ever saw – a grapevine strangling a bitter almond to provide salvation for His people!

Further, it was to remind them that the devil had deceived them by pretending to be that vine, and that these people had been lied to and “knew not what they did”; and that allowed God to forgive them.

Finally, Jesus dying in the same way allowed God to forgive us all because Jesus died in the place of all of us who deserve to be hung and cursed by that same tree because of the deception of that same serpent.

Which incidentally tells us that the stake Jesus bore to Golgotha, the tree used to crucify Him… would have had to be made of almond wood!

CLOSED EYES

The word tree is the Hebrew word ets. That word in turn derives from the root word atsah, which means “to shut”; specifically, to shut the eyes (as it was used in Proverbs 16:30). Now that’s interesting, because it means that the very idea of tree, in Hebrew, signifies “closed eyes”! Particularly, people with eyes closed!

Which means if you translated the word “tree” a second time, into its own root meaning, then in the midst of the garden there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – which would, in its basest meaning, be called:

“the closed eyes being opened”

Likewise, the tree of life, if we translate “tree” into “closed eyes”, would be called:

“life for those with closed eyes”.

When you fully understand their names, these trees fully reveal their purpose; for the tree of life’s purpose was to give of life to those who are in darkness! Those, like Adam and Eve, whose eyes were still closed! Compare to John 8:12. In other words, this is the tree of grace.

This tree gives grace to those who have a cloak for their sin (John 15:22); those who are blind (John 9:41). This tree says, as this same tree would say 4,000 years later, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Those whose sin God ignores because of their ignorance (Acts 17:30).

But it follows that this tree cannot give life to those with open eyes, for it is life only for the closed eyes! That’s literally its name!

Now the other tree, “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, fully translated, meant “opening of closed eyes”.

This tree was against the other tree, working at cross purposes with it, for by opening their eyes they lost the right to eat from the other tree! Which is why after eating of it, God promptly cast them out of the garden, specifically so they couldn’t eat of that tree anymore! (Genesis 3:22-23).

So the tree of knowledge of good and evil made the other tree unable to give them life! (Colossians 2:14). Which was the curse, that when you ate of it, the other tree’s grace could no longer keep you alive! Because you would no longer be blind, for your eyes were opened!

And yet, to have our sins forgiven, we must drink of the fruit of the tree of life; Jesus’ blood, the wine, which pictures the forgiveness of internal sins (Matthew 26:28). But how can we, if our ancestors ate of the tree and opened their, and our, eyes?

John 9:41 (WEB) Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.”

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they said “we see”, and they did – sort of. For as Paul said, at best, we see “in part” for we are not yet fully grown (1 Corinthians 13:12). We see ourselves as in a foggy mirror. So we are responsible for our sins – but also, kind of not.

Luke 23:34 (WEB) Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Dividing his garments among them, they cast lots.

And so we do not have a right to the tree of life, which is only for those with closed eyes; but since our eyes are not fully open either, Jesus can decide, in each case, whether to give us His wine or not.

UNLESS we say “we see!”, in which case… you’ve made the choice for Him and can bear your own sin!

TREE OF JUDGMENT

Thus, a better word for the tree of knowledge of good and evil would be the tree of judging – and of judgment. The tree that judges us, and the tree by which we judge ourselves and others.

But as I said, this was not a bad thing. Not really; for this tree awakened the slumbering souls of Adam and Eve; far too soon, but nonetheless a thing that every adult must deal with. For without our eyes open, are we truly alive? Isaiah 42:7, 16

God must give to every man according to his choices (Matthew 16:27). And He cannot do that until we are old enough to make our own choices! But some of those will be bad; we must risk that death, trusting in God to heal us as needed, in order to ever truly live (John 12:25).

We have to gamble on God’s willingness to lead us, on Jesus’ willingness to shine a light for us. But most of all, gamble on our soul’s ability to chart a path; because once we eat of the wrong fruit, we can’t eat of the other tree again. Because there can be no sacrifice for a sin committed with open eyes (Hebrews 10:26).

How then can we hope to have a “right” to the tree of life again, after having our eyes opened by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Revelation 22:14. We must keep His commandments and be incapable of sinning! (1 John 3:9). And none of us are there yet!

In the beginning, Adam and Eve were sinless… yet not perfect. If they had been perfect, they couldn’t have ever sinned (1 John 3:9). Perfect people could have followed the very simple command “do anything you want… except eat that fruit”.

So their lack of sin so far made it possible for them to dwell near the Father, but their still-sleeping soul meant that they might someday sin (as they in fact, did).

God knew this, and kept them at arm’s length for their safety; they were holy enough to dwell with the Father, in His garden… but not to have the Father in them – not holy enough to eat the almond. Which means the prohibition against eating the fruit was similar to the prohibition against approaching the mount (Exodus 19:21).

But just as the “elder” Israelites were able to approach the mount (Exodus 24:1-11), so also when Adam and Eve were older they would have been made holy enough to eat the almonds, by eating the tree of life long enough (John 6:44-45), and giving Jesus time to remove the curse from the other tree.

Then, only then, they could have safely eaten the almonds of God, picturing the very eyes of God – picturing the soul of the Father.

And then they could have had a right to eat freely of the tree of life with open eyes (Revelation 22:14). For at that point their eyes, though opened, would not be able to behold evil, as God’s own eyes are holy (Habakkuk 1:13).

They would be, in effect, blinded to evil – and thus able to eat of the tree of life again which is for the blind!

They would then be able to approach to the throne of grace boldly, without fear, knowing that the tree of life was nailed to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for us…

…killed by the Father’s judgment, made accursed by the Father’s soul (Galatians 3:13), so that we wouldn’t have to be (Isaiah 53:10).

TOO MUCH WINE

The Bible is clear in many places that wine is a good thing (Genesis 49:12, Deuteronomy 14:26, etc.). And we’ve established that wine is the fruit of the tree of life. And like Adam and Eve in the garden, we need to eat of the fruit of that tree daily (1 Timothy 5:23, 1 Corinthians 15:31).

The wine is a direct symbol of the blood of Jesus, beyond all argument. And yet, too much wine is forbidden in the Bible!

Ephesians 5:18 (BBE) And do not take overmuch wine by which one may be overcome, but be full of the Spirit;

But if it symbolizes Jesus’ blood, the veritable fruit of the tree of life… how can wine ever be a bad thing? How can it be a bad thing to have too much Jesus?

Because a little wine, enough to wash away your sins, brings you life. But drinking too much wine brings death. Why? Because wine impairs judgment! (Proverbs 31:4-5). It impairs your ability to choose WISELY from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil!

If you drink wine in excess, it makes you cocky, careless, and so when you then choose a fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you might just choose the wrong one… and die (Proverbs 20:1). Too much wine makes your SOUL fall asleep, in every sense of the word! (Proverbs 23:29-35).

But how does Jesus’ blood, in excess, impair your judgment? Remember, the metaphor must be true on every level. How can we overdose on Jesus’ mercy? Just ask any Protestant if their sins are paid for. “Absolutely!”, they’ll say, “All my sins, past, present, and future are already covered!”

They have such an abundance of forgiveness, they never need to worry about their choices again! Think about that! We are put here to learn to choose wisely from that tree. Jesus came to pay for our sins when we make a mistake… not to allow us to sin with impunity, and not to choose recklessly! (Jude 1:4).

But if we believe that all our mistakes, past, present, and future, are already paid for, and our forgiveness is assured… we have no real pressure to make a good choice, do we? Who worries about the effects of their choices… when they KNOW there will be no consequences for their choices? #NoTomorrow!

Why would a Protestant worry much about sinning, when he knows that all sins he will ever commit are paid for, just by “confessing that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior”?

Which is why it is fair to say that all of Christianity is absolutely HAMMERED on Jesus’ blood.

TEN FEET TALL AND BULLETPROOF

A drunk man feels invincible; so his judgment is terrible. A Protestant feels invincible when it comes to sin… so his judgment is equally terrible. And it is only terrible because there is no fear and trembling when they try to work our their own salvation! (Psalms 2:11-12). Because drunks feel no fear!

We are dying of our sins. And we need that wine, desperately, to pay for them. So that we can try again, and make better choices next time. So that we can learn, in time, not to need the daily wine “for our stomach’s sake” (compare to Philippians 3:19).

It is that god of ours, the selfish heart, which causes us to have “oft infirmities” or “frequent weaknesses”; and for those, we need wine daily. Knowing we have that wine to drink cheers us, for we no longer have to die forever; and it cheers God, for the same reason (Ezekiel 18:32).

But if we knew that every sin would be forgiven, whether we repent or not; whether we knew it was a sin or not (1 Peter 2:16), then we would be able to commit sin freely, knowing we would pay no consequences (Jude 1:4, Romans 6:1-2).

Which is exactly what the whore has taught people; that they can eat any fruit from that tree, and that it won’t hurt them because all their sins are already paid for, past, present, and future! The world believes that Jesus is achingly eager to forgive them, awaiting only their permission to do so!

Don’t get me wrong, He does want to forgive them – but only after they realized how wrong they were (Luke 17:3-4). Only after they realize they would rather be a servant of His, than a king on their own. ONLY in that case do they ever have a future in Jesus’ house – and only then will they get His wine.

But by casting Jesus as a needy Savior desperate to save, they have taught the world that He is a bottomless source of free wine. By giving them so MUCH wine, guaranteeing them SO MUCH forgiveness, she has assured them that even if they do evil “good will come” (Romans 3:8)!

Thus, she has made them DRUNKEN with the oldest lie… “thou shalt not surely die”! (Genesis 3:4). Because that’s literally what wine tells every drunk! It is GOOD to drink some wine for our “oft infirmities sake”. But to drink more than that tempts you to be careless with your choices.

It is good to know that God has your back; it is good to make the best judgments you can, without fear of God punishing you for an honest mistake; knowing that if a calculated risk backfires, the Lord will help you up (Psalms 86:2-8), will gladly offer His wine for forgiveness.

But it is very bad to believe that He’ll have your back, no matter what, just because you said “Jesus is Lord!” Because He really, really doesn’t have your back “no matter what” (Ezekiel 18:24). Only for as long as He believes you are really trying!

Jesus didn’t die so we could make hasty choices without worrying about tomorrow; He was hung from the tree of the knowledge of good AND evil so that you could learn the difference between them…

And He will only take away the bitterness of the fruit of your choices if He feels that you CARE which is which!

A HEAVY STAFF

A grapevine and an almond seem to be growing together; but really, they are competing. They are locked into a very slow struggle for survival, to see whether the vine can choke the bitterness out of the almond before the almond starves the grape of sunlight.

With that image in mind, consider Matthew 16:24. This uses the Greek word stauros, which, like ets, means stick or tree or anything made of wood. It is connected, etymologically, to the old English word stave which in modern English is simply staff. That’s why the words all look alike.

So when Jesus said “take up your cross”, it didn’t necessarily mean His instrument of torture; remember, at the time no one knew he was going to be crucified! To His audience, they would have simply heard Him say “pick up your walking stick and follow me”!

Having a staff represents the readiness and willingness to move down the path at a moment’s notice (Exodus 12:11). We wield that stick as we make our choices; if we make good ones, the staff is strong and light. Because our path is short, straight, and easy. But if we make evil choices, the staff seems to grow heavier – as the trail grows long, twisted, and uphill.

Every day, our life is the result of our choices. We can pretend it isn’t, but whether we want to take responsibility for our situation or not, the only way out of it is for us to pick up our almond staff and make better choices.

Jesus carried the choices of the world on His back to Calvary, and it was heavy. For it was a very old tree, symbolically. It was almost too heavy to bear, alone. Which is why we don’t always have to bear it alone (Luke 23:26).

If we’re tied to His yoke, following His spirit, drinking temperately but daily of the tree of life, He will make sure the burden is light (Isaiah 9:4). And then the staff will not be a burden to us, but a comfort (Psalms 23:4), because we will no longer have to fear the fruit of the knowledge of evil!

Because think about it; every time a child is spanked, it is for his evil choices (Proverbs 22:15). Thus, children fear the rod – as they should. But is the rod really the problem? Is it really the thing to be feared? Or should he fear instead the bad choices, the heavy rod merely being the result of those choices?

He needs to have that correction while he is still young enough to master the art of judging before he becomes accountable (Proverbs 19:18)… because a spanking with an almond branch will not kill you. Eating the wrong fruit will (Proverbs 23:12-14). And that is the thing to truly fear.

And as the child learns how to recognize the good fruit from the evil (Isaiah 7:16), he will realize that there is nothing to fear from that tree if you treat it with respect. For it is only an evil tree if we choose the evil fruit (Jeremiah 4:22).

Those people couldn’t choose good; they had no understanding of that choice. But to do evil, they were wise. Compare to 1 Corinthians 14:20. So if we learn to make good choices while we are children, it will not be the tree of the knowledge of good and evil anymore (1 Peter 3:13).

To us, it will only be the tree of the knowledge of good (Ephesians 4:14). The evil will be gone. But that will only happen if we can say what David said in Psalms 131:1-3.

We take that staff in our hand because we must either wield the staff wisely, or we will be hung upon it. We either make good choices, or the choices kill us. Either we wield it, or it wields us. We either rule over sin, or sin rules over us (Genesis 4:6-7, Romans 6:12-16).

But as long as we’re at least trying to carry our branch from the tree of judgement daily, when we do make bad choices Jesus will hang on that staff for us. And that’s a glass of wine we can all benefit from drinking every day.

PLANTED WITH HIM

Read Revelation 22:1-3. In this passage, we see all the same characters we saw in Eden; we see the Father, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; the Lamb, who is elsewhere pictured as the tree of life; and we see the river of life flowing out from under Their throne.

And yet we also see the tree of life; isn’t that strange? Why is Jesus in this symbol both as a lamb and as the tree of life? He’s not!

Read this passage again, and try to really visualize it this time. There is the throne of God and of Jesus; and from under that throne, flows a river down the middle of the street. And on both sides of the river there are TREES of life!

One tree can’t be on both sides of the river. This MUST be plural! So merge this vision with the same one in Ezekiel 47; this isn’t one tree of life… it’s a BUNCH of them. Because if He is the vine, and we are the branches… then we are also grapevines of life – which is exactly what it says in Psalms 1:1-3!

Then read Romans 6:3-5. Notice that word “planted with Him”. Planted, because we are cuttings from the same vine, bearing the same kind of fruit – trees of life like Him, lining both sides of the river of the Holy City. Genetic clones of the true vine!

The waters grow deeper the farther Ezekiel measured from the Temple, because every tree contributes this water of life to make the river deeper! (John 7:38). According to the promise of Jesus, we will no longer be drinking this water, as we do today; we will be creating it.

And why don’t we see the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Revelation 22? Verses 4-6 give us the answer. The Father is still there, but there is no longer a curse from that tree! So the name would no longer make sense!

God no longer needs to fear that we will make the wrong choice, so men can see His face clearly. He’ll no longer need to hide behind symbols, no longer cloak Himself in the thick darkness, because the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will be gone forever.

Mark 10:18 (WEB) Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except one – God.”

All that will be left is the tree of Good. The one Good tree!

Read more: The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good

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^[1] ^ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2617836/

Thick vine growing around a tree trunk: “Oriental Bittersweet five inches thick” by Jay Cross is licensed under CC BY 2.0