In the previous two posts, I have argued that the prohibition on the Tree of Knowledge was temporary. That God did not intend the human race to run around naked in a garden eating from fruit trees forever and avoiding only the one.
Genesis 1:29 tells us that “God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.”
It was after this announcement that God told Adam not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. From this we can understand that they would eventually be allowed to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, but not yet. The prohibition was temporary.
From the post “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Part I”
If what I am saying is true, this should bring a question to your mind… didn’t God say that in the day he eats of the Tree of Knowledge, Adam would surely die?
Was that God’s plan? For Adam to eventually mature to the point of eating the forbidden fruit and dying.
I believe that the answer is yes, sort of. In the day Adam was to be allowed by God to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, he would have died. But he would have died a “good death.”
Consider this:
a. By the time of the temptation, Adam had already “died” once. The Bible says that God put him into a “deep sleep.” The Hebrew word means to be put into a state as close to death as possible without actually dying physical death.
Adam was put to “death” and “resurrected” and he woke up to find a wife. This was a good thing, a good death. It also serves for us as a symbolic or literary death.
This happens to us when we get married, we lay down our lives for our future spouse to get married. On the day I was married, “single Shawn” died and I came out with a beautiful wife and that was a very good thing!
I believe that something similar would have happened to Adam when he ate of the Tree of Knowledge. Adam would have “died” a “good death” when God allowed him to eat when he was mature and ready. He then would have been robed with authority as a King under God.
The death and resurrection theme is all throughout the Scriptures
This kind of symbolic or literary death and resurrection pattern resulting in kingship occurs throughout all of Scripture and finds its complete fulfillment in Christ’s actual death and resurrection.
Here are some examples of death/resurrection/kingship patterns:
1. Noah and the world dies and is resurrected through the Flood. Noah is established as King with the new power of the death penalty.
2. Jacob goes through a death/resurrection in his nighttime wrestling with the Angel. He comes through with a limp and a new name. It is directly after this experience that God tells him “kings shall come from your body.” (Gen 35:11)
2. Joseph goes through two death and resurrection experiences. Once in the pit (buried in the earth), elevated to rule Potiphar’s house. Secondly in the prison, then he is finally resurrected and exalted to kingship at the last.
3. David’s trials under Saul constitute a death/resurrection experience for him resulting in kingship. David is a New Adam, notice how he refused to grasp the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge before his time by killing Saul. Psalm 18 was written during this time of his life and talks about his “death” experience.
4. Daniel goes through a death/resurrection in Daniel chapter 2 and he is exalted to the Chief of the Magi. The fiery furnace is a death/resurrection experience for Daniel’s three friends that resulted in their exaltation to rule (Dan 3:30). The lion’s den is another death/resurrection experience for Daniel, the result is that he’s the only ruler left under Darius.
5. Daniel 4, the conversion of Nebuchadnezzar, is very illuminating to subject of my post. In his dream, King Nebuchadnezzar is pictured as a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
At this point in Neb’s life, God has made him into a Tree of Knowledge. He was food and splendor and rule for the Babylonian Empire (which was God’s empire by the way, read Daniel 2).
But he did not believe he received his kingship from God but by his own power (Jer. 27:6; God says Neb is "my servant").
Thus it was removed from him and he “died”, until he confessed that rule and authority comes from God alone. (Rom 13:1);
“Nebuchadnezzar had to undergo death and resurrection to become a true king under God. Nebuchadnezzar’s passage from old kingship, through “death,” to new kingship, anticipates Jesus’ drinking wine, fasting from it during His crucifixion, and then drinking it anew in the New Kingdom (Matthew 26:29; 27:34)”
6. Of course, Jesus’ death and resurrection results in His ascending to be seated at the right hand of the Father, receiving the Kingdom and becoming the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Like Adam’s deep sleep resulting in his wife, Jesus dies and his side is pierced and the Church, His Bride is born.
One Life Many Deaths
These all serve as examples for our lives. Christ is the Head of the Body. Where the Head goes, we go. We live one life, but experience many death/resurrection experiences before we have our actual one. We will experience times of death in our lives. These death experiences are the Spirit’s sanctifying work and how God grows us, matures us, and prepares us for service, for leadership and for rule.
This takes time, suffering, and patient faith, it is why they call the office of elder “elder” because only old guys who have been through this should be put in that office.
Passing through death and resurrection is essential in making a man into a Tree of Knowledge with true Godly kingly authority.
We can be certain that the valley of the shadow of death we are passing through right now is for our good and will end up in a resurrection to a better life on the other side of the experience. We will be more useful for advancing Christ’s kingdom here on earth as a result and be able to comfort others that we see passing through the same kind of thing.
Other Thoughts and Notes
In one sense, the Tree of Knowledge is a mature Tree of Life. It is both trees together. It has food as well as glory and authority.
When you eat of the tree, you become the Tree itself.
a. eating of the Tree of Life makes you a Tree of Life (others find life in Christ through you).
b. eating of the Tree of Knowledge makes you a Tree of Knowledge (your wisdom now guides those under your authority).
Forms of the Tree of Knowledge
Moses’ staff is a picture of the rule of God.
Aarons rod that budded is a picture of his rule over the house of God.
Trees are associated with Thrones
Deborah set up chair of judgment at Palm tree. Jud 4:4-5;
Abiezrite held court and false worship at an oak. Jud 6:11-32;
Saul held court at a pomegranate tree (1Sa 14:2) and at a tamarisk tree (1Sa 22:6);
During Old Covenant, God gave His people to eat of the Tree of Life the festivals and meals picture this.
But priests were never allowed to drink the wine, in the priestly rituals it was poured out (Num 15), this is because wine is the Omega Food, the Tree of Knowledge and God’s people were not mature enough to drink wine in His direct presence yet.
The Tree of Life corresponds to bread, the Alpha food. (You eat bread in the morning to obtain strength for the day, you drink wine in the evening at the end of your work to rest. Alpha and Omega.)
When we get to the New Covenant, Jesus passes from the bread to the wine, from the Tree of Life to the Tree of Knowledge.
Now in the New Covenant, His people are allowed to consume both bread and wine in His direct presence. What a privilege! As a redeemed race, we have matured (Gal. 4).
Bread and Wine in the Lord’s Supper means that we are given to eat of both trees, for both are in Christ.
But in our experience, we still have to grow to maturity. As new believers, we start out as Bread and then we are “broken” and pass through a death/resurrection experience and mature into Wine.
“We start out feeding on Christ the Tree of Life until we “have our senses exercised to discern good and evil,” and we become more mature. Then we are ready to engage in some aspects of ruling— over small things at first—having “become teachers” and leaders, able to help others move through the pilgrimage of this life (Hebrews 5:11–14, in the context of the pilgrimage theme of Hebrews 4).”
James B. Jordan, “The Handwriting on the Wall”
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