Trees of the Lord

Trees of the Lord

By Rev. Lonnie C.  Crowe

The Lord has much to say about trees.  In Eden, He planted two trees.  One led to life and the other to death.  Adam chose the latter. 

Adam, in a desire for greatness, ate the fruit, sealed a covenant with the enemy, and opened the door to sin, disease, despair and death.  In the Old Testament economy, when two parties entered into a covenant, they exchanged possessions.  Adam ceded his dominion of the earth in that covenant and received all that the enemy had.  Nothing of which was good.

God, in His mercy, sacrificed an animal, clothed the man and the woman, and began the journey to closing the door on Adam’s poor choice and opening another into newness of life and victory for believers. 

Every prophetic word, every promise, every person chosen from that moment on has been a step forward in the journey from the Garden of Eden, through the Garden of Gethsemane, to the tree of Calvary and onto the Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem.

It began in the beginning.

Genesis 3: 22-24: “Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever''.  Therefore, the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”

In Gethsemane beneath the olives trees, Jesus sweat drops of blood as He faced the agony of the tree of Calvary.  He sweat drops of blood as He prayed for His followers, and not just those at that time, but for us as well. 

John 17: 20-23: "I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; "that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. "And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: "I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

Jesus prayed for you and me in Gethsemane.

Jesus’ sacrifice on the tree of Calvary gives us access again to the tree of life which was restricted when sin entered Eden.

The New Testament uses the word tree five times to refer to Christ’s crucifixion on a cross:

Acts 5:30: 30.  "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.

Acts 10:39: "And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree.

Acts 13:29. "Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.

Galatians 3:13: Christ has 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''), (Deuteronomy 21:23)

1 Peter 2:24: who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.

The result of Gethsemane and Calvary is the restoration of the Tree of Life: 

Rev. 2: 7.  "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.''

Revelation 22:1-2: And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:14: Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

We, too, can become trees of life in the world. Isaiah 61:3b promises, “they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.''