“The Tree of Healing” Genesis 2:8-10, Revelation 22:1-5
Introduction
Today, as we continue our examination of the Second Coming of Christ, we will look at a Scriptural motif which has long arrested my attention in study and my heart in worship of the Triune God of all glory and grace. We will consider the
Tree of healing found in the book of Revelation chapter 22. It is my aim here this morning, to make clear the case that it is the very same tree which is found in Genesis 2:8-10; the Tree of Life. The primary purpose of Christ’s return is not destruction, but restoration. The primary cause of His come is not to destroy the earth or its life, but to usher in the eternal reign of Christ and His Kingdom.
The flood of Noah’s day purged the world of human sin, but that purgation did not last, because Satan and his influence on this world were allowed by God to continue, though not unabated by the Holy Spirit. When Christ shall return to establish His Kingdom, however, Satan’s influence shall cease and unlike in Noah’s day where sin eventually, and not long after, returned, upon the return of Christ all death and sorrow, all suffering and mourning, shall be washed away.
It shall be washed away in the flood judgment of God where His judgment shall rest not primarily upon mortal man but upon that great ailment of mankind, sin, pain, sorrow, suffering and death. Our great hope hangs upon the branches of a great tree. The fullness of our joy resides in the healing power of that same tree and the greatest gift of God is the restoration of our access to it; the Tree of Life.
In the garden we lost access to the tree of life because of sin; grace is the cure.
Consider, for a moment, the eucalyptus tree. It seems especially adapted to antidote the gaseous effects of a polluted atmosphere. It is the loftiest timber tree of Australia; it grows especially in malarious districts, sometimes to a height of five hundred feet. It absorbs moisture to a very remarkable extent, and grows with extraordinary rapidity, covering vast barren districts with a huge forest in a few years. And you may enclose seed enough in an envelope to plant an acre. How like the blessed Gospel, making the tree of life to grow in the worst moral marshes, rapidly, beautifully, gloriously covering the deserts with the foliage and fragrance of heaven! And you may distribute the seed so easily and cheaply.
Transition
In the Garden humanity had received the beauty of the gift of perfect connection with God. The Bibles tells us that Adam and Eve walked with God, spoke with Him, and fellowship with the creator of the universe; perfectly, in wholeness.
Sin was the decision of man to turn its back on God’ law and thus, His perfect provision as well. The tree of life, the tree of eternal connection and eternal life was removed from humanity. Adam’ choice to taste of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was more than simply the choice to taste of the fruit of a particular tree, but it was his choice, on behalf of all humanity to choose self-will over God’s will, to choose his own way rather than God’s perfect way.
In the Garden, after the great fall of man into sin and self-will, one of a couple of themes we will focus on today, the tree of life was removed from our access. In the new heaven and new earth, the age which is yet to come when our Lord shall return to this earth to destroy sin, pain, and death, the tree of life shall be given to us; access restored according to the divine sovereign-will of God.
Our two major themes this morning will the self-will of man and what it has wrought and how it continues to plague humanity corporately and every person individually and sovereign-will of God who, according to His divine purpose has chosen to redeem His elect, those called according to His purpose, those who hear the call of God and sense the movement of the Holy Spirit in their hearts and respond rightly, according to the gift of faith.
Exposition
Mankind has long suffered from the consequences of self-will, the wretched self-seeking self-exalting self-serving will of man. Upon the examination of the first of today’s passages of Scripture we find a clear and precise definition with regard to the current state of affairs on planet earth, humanity, and within my very heart.
The Genesis account of the creation of the universe and the fall of humanity into sin provides the most legitimate, harmonized, trustworthy, clear, and honest account and explanation of man’s design, purpose, problem, and future available on this planet. When taken at face value, the description of man’s creation, fall into sin, and God’s offer of redemption has the “ring of truth.” In philosophical terms, it corresponds well with reality. It makes sense. It jives with experience.
Modern anthropology, the scientific study of humanity, human culture, and generally what it means to human, points to observable facts as often as it points to absurdities which are passed off as foregone conclusions and proven truth.
Anthropology has the ability to examine data through historical and archeological endeavor, but while it can explain the approximate time in history when mankind developed the ability to smelt copper and arsenic and later copper and tin to make bronze weapons, anthropology cannot speak to the heart of the human condition which causes him to wage war.
Anthropology further has the ability to shine significant light on the places where mankind has lived, when he has lived there, what major geological or environmental catastrophes affected his civilization, but it cannot shine any light on the purpose of His existence or the manner of His ethic.
Purely evolutionary, modern, perspectives on humanity and his social ethic are self-contradictory, even ludicrous. If man evolved from the animal kingdom and is a product of his environment then why should he be expected to exhibit anything other than the ideals found in the animal kingdom? Why should people be expected to behave well in society and look out for one another?
This is not what happens in the animal kingdom at all. In the animal kingdom it is the survival of the fittest. That which is most strong and violent is rewarded with the success. At least that it is the way that it is since the fall of humanity and the curse upon all of creation which is brought with it.
Proceeding from the presupposition or assumption of a humanity which evolved from the animal kingdom no social ethic may be found. Surely, no explanation for the inherent desire for a social ethic, in spite of the evil and brokenness we see all around us, can be explained. If man evolved from the animal kingdom by chance with no direct intervention from God, then the very notion of a social ethic must naturally be cast aside.
This is exactly what the modern culture has done. In having accepted such presupposition thinking, that is the mind’s assumption of reality which is programmed into the mind of modern man without need of intentional thought, modern man has done away with the need for a social ethic.
He has abandoned the need for common moral standards or universal principals of right and wrong in theory, though he clings to it out of sheer desperation for the failure of his inability to shape society for the so-called “common good.”
While he decries religious moralism as an evil which is thrust upon the self-will of man, crushing his freedom of creativity and individuality, inwardly modern man lives a life of quiet desperation, knowing intuitively that what he has built in the post-modern era is a house of folly which is built on a foundation of sand.
The modern world view which assumes evolution, which believes that it is has outlived the usefulness of any defined concept of God, which has placed its trust squarely upon the shoulders of human government, science and technology, and the assumption that man is always and always will move progressively forward through history, has done little more than to re taste of the fruit of the garden.
The modern worldview has restated the words of the serpent in the garden when he temped Eve with the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1 KJV)
This is the same temptation of the modern worldview. Hath God truly said? Hath God truly revealed Himself in His word? Hath God truly come in Jesus Christ? The great lie of the serpent in the garden which caused our removal from the tree of life is the same lie which perpetuates our removal from knowing the intimacy of the presence of God in the here and now of this life!
Our hearts say to us, “Hath God said? Hath God really said?” Has He said that you may fellowship with Him? Has He said that though we toil for a little while now, that though our pain is multiplied in this life by the sorrow of death, pain, disappoint, despair, heartache brought about through things which were out of our control, the sins of others, or the sins of ourselves, has God not said, “Lo I am with you unto the end of the age?”
Modern anthropology and the post-modern worldview which pervades our minds and certainly is the status quo of much of the modern church, is observation without explanation. It is diagnoses without a cure.
Who would go to a doctor whose routine practice it was to offer many sound observations but no remedy? Who would frequent the classroom of the professor who did as the modern culture does, rather than offering any sound teaching on the subject matter, turned to his audience and said, “This semester I not give any lectures, you will not take any exams, and I will offer no instruction. We will simply sit in our seats and search for the answers within ourselves.”
The modern culture has done this very thing and what is more, it has asserted that this is the proper and fitting model of living for an advanced and learned society. The self-will of man which was asserted in the Garden is still being asserted today, but glory be to God Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth because the God who created has also promised to restore.
Genesis 3:22 says “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever” (KJV) God removed us from access to the tree of life lest mankind should eat of it and live forever in his fallen state.
The first few chapters of Genesis provide so rich a theological tradition. They were penned by Moses under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and provide for us the explanation of the evil we see all around us, the cause of the curse of sorrow upon the earth, and at the same time they offer the remedy and ultimate hope of Jesus Christ who would come to conquer sin and death and who will soon return to restore that which the locusts have eaten, to restore the awesome beauty of the holiness of God where presently the stain of sickness remains!
In the Garden there was a tree and a river. In the new heaven and new earth spoken of Revelation chapter 22:1-5 there is a tree and a river. This is sometimes referred to as the “bookends of biblical theology.” That is to say that the crux of the biblical message, the very heart of the Bible’s story is that God is at work restoring that which was lost; that we have not been left forsaken, that we are not alone, and that there is eternal purpose to the live we live!
Dear Saints of God, our hope lies in the resurrection of Jesus Christ as was attested to by His appearing to more than 500, his disciple’s willingness to die for what they knew was the truth that He lives! He reigns! Hallelujah, He is coming again in purity and great glory!
Conclusion
Humanity asserted its self-will and abandoned the plan of God. The sovereign lover of our souls who pursues us furiously according to His divine love has exercised His sovereign will in Christ that He might cover us with Christ righteousness that we might find perfect rest, grace, mercy, and the provision of His live in us through that most precious of Christian doctrines, the adoption whereby God has made us sons and daughters and we cry out Abba! Father!
“Have you ever seen a caged bird with its breast or wing bleeding from blows received by dashing against the wire of its cage? The poor creature dreamed of the forest and of the craggy rock, and, filled with aspirations for most sublime flight, it stretched its wings and flew upward, only to bring itself into sharp contact with its prison. Even thus the new-born nature, stirred in its inmost depths with longings suitable to its celestial origin, aspires after the joys of heaven, stretching all its wings to war toward perfection. But we who are in this body do groan; we find the flesh to be a prison, and so the more we long the more we pine. And pining, we sigh and cry, and wound our hearts with insatiable desires and bleeding discontents. The pangs of strong desire for the presence of the Lord in glory—who among believers has not felt them? Who among us has not found our flight upward brought to a painful pause by the stern facts of flesh and blood, and earth and sin?” – Spurgeon
Our hearts rightly long for the healing of the tree of life when we shall Jesus face to face. O let it never be said that our faith rested on such merits as the content of good deeds, though they be many, but that our faith rested on our complete and total devotion to resting in the sovereign-will of the provision of God!
Today, I implore you, I beseech you, I beg you to lay aside the encumbrances of this, the fear, the hurt, and all that which violently impedes your total surrender and complete acceptance of this most weighty of truth: the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Lamb of God, shall one day place His loving arms around His bride the Church and with His nail-scarred hand in our hand lead us to the tree of healing.
There we will find the rest for which our weary souls long. There we will be reunited with those who have gone to the Lord before us. There His grace shall be known perfectly; even as we are already known. Amen.
