Job 14: 7-14 “Tree of Life”

 Overview 

“”If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come(v.14)”.

Here the Holy Spirit is setting a parable where the tree is a tag connecting the Garden of Eden to the Holy City of God under the new heaven and the earth. What was the Garden but a microcosm of the earth? “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.(Ge.2:14). When God set bounds for man it was the law and disobeying it was tantamount to a curse.”But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.(Ge.2:17)”.

Thus we have blessing and curse symbolized in the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil(2:9)”. This Law however is pendent on the Law as with all other laws, including the Law of Moses.

Compare this blessing and curse with what Moses set to the Israelites. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;(De.30:15)” And he exhorted them “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live (30:19).” This is what the tree of life signified. Choose life was what God desired from Adam and Eve. As with the tag we already discussed about the crooked serpent this tree serves for the Spirit to instruct us. At the end of the last book we are told that there shall be no more curse. “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb./ In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations./And there shall be no more curse: (Re.22:1-3)”

The tree of life makes the episode of the Garden connect with the Holy City of God as two ends of Alpha and Omega aspect of God. The river at one end flowed with four heads has become straight as an arrow flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb at the other end. This river we comes across in the Book of Psalms. A man blessed of God is characterized as a tree.”And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper(Ps.1:3)”. He brings forth his fruit in season which in the eternity yields fruit every month. Here we are reading of the righteousness of God. He is planted by the river which is none other than ‘pure river of water of life’. This is what Jesus Christ promised to whoever believed in him.”But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life(John 4:14).

For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

⁸ Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

⁹ Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

¹⁰ But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

¹¹ As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:

¹² So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

¹³ O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!

¹⁴ If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.