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When we open the Bible and read at the very beginning in the book of Genesis, we see a very striking item—the tree of life. When we read through to the end of the Bible, in the book of Revelation we once again see the tree of life. In the beginning of the Bible the tree of life is present, in the middle there are stories of life, and at the end the tree of life is still present. From this we should realize that the biblical revelation regards life as its center and its line. Now we will briefly touch the key points on the line of life in the Bible.
The more we read the record of God’s creation in Genesis 1 and 2, the more we should realize that the center of God’s creation is life. Although it seems like many things should be mentioned concerning God’s creation, the account in Genesis 1 and 2 is very simple; it simply speaks of the aspects of God’s creation that pertain to life. All the criticism by scientists about the book of Genesis is really misplaced because the account in Genesis is not a complete record of God’s creation but merely a record of the portion concerning life.
Now let us speak briefly about Genesis 1 and 2. Genesis 1:2 describes the earth, prior to God’s further creation, as being “waste and emptiness, and darkness was on the surface of the deep.” These words fully convey a scene of death. Waste is related to death; darkness is related to death; even the deep water is related to death. In other words, initially everything there was related to death. In this situation, God began His work of re-creation.
The Spirit of God brooded upon the surface of the waters. According to the principle in the Bible, whenever the Spirit comes, it is for created beings to receive life.
Whenever the Bible speaks of light shining, it is for man to receive God’s life into him.
In order to have life, light must be separated from darkness.
In order to have life, the things which are above must also be separated from the things which are under.
The dry land was separated from the waters in order that the dry land could bring forth life.
At this point all kinds of life were brought forth from the earth. The bringing forth of different kinds of life involved a definite sequence, and all these kinds of life have symbolic meanings.
Plants were the first things that grew on the earth. Plant life is without consciousness. A leaf of grass, a tree, or a flower contains life, but this life is without consciousness; it can neither think nor feel.
After the plant life came forth, the light bearers came—the sun, the moon, and the stars. The appearance of these stronger lights was not for producing life but for strengthening life so that life could grow. Hence, immediately after these lights came forth, a higher life appeared. The stronger the light, the more life grows.
Next, the living creatures in the water were produced. This kind of living creature has some consciousness, but it is the lowest consciousness. Even though this life is a little higher than the plant life, it is still a relatively lower life.
Gradually, living creatures in the air came into existence. Their life is higher than the life of the living creatures in the water, but the consciousness of this life is still relatively low.
Next, cattle and beasts on the earth came into existence. As the consciousness of the life increases step by step, the level of life also increases step by step.
Last, man was created as the center of the universe. Among all the creatures man has the highest life with the highest consciousness, a consciousness that is higher than all other creatures. However, in the whole universe man does not have the highest consciousness nor the highest life; God has the highest life with the highest consciousness.
In summary, we can see clearly that the center of God’s creation is life. God first created inanimate things and then living creatures. Then, with regard to the living creatures, He began by creating the lowest living creatures, going up level by level to the highest living creatures.
After God created man, He placed Himself as the tree of life and Satan as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in front of man, who had the highest life of all His creatures, so that man would choose according to his own will. Man could choose God and receive life, or choose Satan and receive death. The tree of life signifies God, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies Satan. God put these two trees in front of the man whom He created, allowing man to choose.
Although man has the highest life in God’s creation, he does not have the highest life in the universe. The highest life in the universe is God. In His creation God did not put Himself into man; the created man did not have the uncreated life of God within him. Instead, God placed Himself in front of man as the tree of life in order to be received by man. God, however, also warned man that there was a third party in the universe besides God and man—Satan, as signified by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He also warned man that if he ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. God placed these two trees in front of man because He wanted man to receive Him as life; He did not want man to touch Satan and receive death.
Genesis 3 shows us that man was deceived by Satan and partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thus fell into death. From this point on, the entire account of the Old Testament speaks of man turning away from the tree of life to touch the things outside of God, as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We usually divide the Old Testament into three parts: the section on history from Genesis to Esther, the section on experience from Job to Song of Songs, and the section on prophecy from Isaiah to Malachi. Let us look at the line of life in these three sections.
The historical record from Genesis 3 to Esther shows how man turned away from the tree of life to touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When man turned away from God, he lived according to evil. In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve rebelled against God; they were short of love and even spoke lies. In Genesis 4 a person killed his own brother. At the end of Genesis 4 evil things, such as taking many wives, having multiple marriages, indulging in the flesh, and brutal murders were occurring. The earth was filled with violence prior to the flood. At the tower of Babel mankind collectively rebelled against God and worshipped idols. This continued with Sodom’s evil and fornication and Egypt’s rebellion against God. Even the children of Israel worshipped idols, and in their midst there was an abundance of wickedness. From 1 and 2 Samuel through Esther sin is present among all the people. The seventeen books of history are a record of man leaving the tree of life and touching the evil aspect of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; man left God and lived in sin.
In this period of history there was a small number of godly men like Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and some among the children of Israel, who were shown God’s mercy and saved by God from the evil of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They learned to live in the principle of the tree of life, which was to turn away from sin and to live before God. However, this was only a small number of people.
The books of experience portray the experiences of the godly saints. With them God encountered another kind of problem. Although they knew the difference between the evil of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the life of the tree of life, they could not discern the difference between the good of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the life of the tree of life. They knew that evil was not life, but they did not know that good was not life. They renounced evil and desired to draw near to God by doing good, supposing that evil was enmity with God but that good was not. They believed that evil was not of the tree of life but that good was of the tree of life. Therefore, while these ones renounced evil, they kept their own goodness.
The book of Job begins with a man who feared God and turned away from evil, who was blameless, perfect, and upright. However, God struck him and consumed him; God wanted to rid him of his goodness. When I was newly saved, I was puzzled when I read the book of Job. I asked, “O God, why would You strike such a good man? Even You testified that Job turned away from evil, feared You, and was perfect and upright. Even Satan could not accuse him of anything. Why would You strike such a good man?” At that time I really defended Job’s case. I felt that it was fitting to punish a person such as myself, but it was a great injustice to punish Job. Some said that all of God’s discipline is for our benefit and that Job was being disciplined by God. When I heard this, I was even less convinced. Discipline is given because someone has done something wrong; but Job had not done anything wrong. So why was he being disciplined? Gradually, God opened my eyes, and I realized that God struck Job, not because he was bad but because he was too good. God did not want to deal with Job’s evil but with his good; Job’s good had replaced God. Job was full of good, but he lacked God; he had the good of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but he lacked the life of the tree of life.
Even Job’s three friends were as confused as Job. They thought that since God could do no wrong and would never be unjust, then surely those who had been struck by God must be at fault. The more they spoke, the more defiant Job became. Job seemed to say, “Surely that is not true! I will find the Almighty and argue with Him in order to see where I am at fault. You are more at fault than I am; yet you are not being punished. Why is this happening?”
More than ten years ago God put me through a very severe trial. At that time I was confused, so I deeply examined my conscience; I truly desired God, loved God, and was willing to live for God, yet the situation was unbearable. In the midst of the trial I was weak and short of faith, and nothing happened no matter how earnestly I prayed. Like Job’s friends, a few brothers and sisters came to see me and said, “God is never wrong; we should always examine ourselves before God.” I said to myself, “I have been lying sick for a few months, and every day I examine my faults and confess them thousands of times. But the more I confess, the weaker I become. What should I do?”
These friends of Job were truly physicians of no value, waterless clouds who could only speak groundless accusations that were of no help to anyone. None of Job’s three friends could help him. In the end these men’s words ran out; even Job himself stopped speaking. Then God came in a whirlwind and asked Job many questions. These questions had nothing to do with evil or good, and they could be answered only when God Himself was the answer. After the last question was asked, Job could only prostrate himself in the dust, saying, “I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, / But now my eye has seen You; / Therefore I abhor myself” (42:5-6). He abhorred not his sin but his good self. Here at last was a good man defeated by God, a perfect man fallen to the ground, and a good man bankrupted. He understood that God does not want man to receive either the evil or the good of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; rather, He wants man to receive the life of the tree of life.
In Psalms, the saints’ concept still is not detached from good. Psalm 1:1-2 says, according to the concept of the saint, “Blessed is the man / Who does not walk / In the counsel of the wicked, / Nor stand on the path of sinners, / Nor sit in the seat of mockers; / Rather his delight is in the law of Jehovah, / And in His law he meditates by day and by night.” These words altogether emphasize the matter of good and evil. Immediately after these words in Psalm 1, verses 6 and 12 of Psalm 2 say, “I have installed My King / Upon Zion, My holy mountain. / ...Kiss the Son / ...Blessed are all those who take refuge in Him.” These verses do not say that those who do good, forsake evil, and keep the law are blessed; it says that those who draw near to the Son of God are blessed. These two psalms are the opposite of each other. The saints’ concept was to keep the law and do good; God’s concept is Christ. The entire book of Psalms is structured in this way. It shows us that the concept of the saints is related to good, but the revelation of God is related to Christ. However, because the saints feared God and lived before God, the Spirit of Christ had a position within them. Therefore, when they uttered something about their goodness and merit, the Holy Spirit took the opportunity to speak forth Christ. This kind of situation continues throughout the five books of poetry.
When we come to Song of Songs, however, we see that it has absolutely nothing to do with good and evil. Instead, it is altogether a story of the fellowship between the beloved and his counterpart. Song of Songs is altogether about a girl pursuing her beloved and taking her beloved as the object and the center.
In the Old Testament the books of history show us that most people turned away from God and lived in evil; only a small number of people were saved from evil to live in God, taking God as their life. The books of poetry show us that there was a group of saints who were willing to live in good and focus on good. Nevertheless, they did not understand that God desired to be their unique life. Therefore, God came in to strike them and correct them so that they would abandon their own goodness and live in God, taking Him as their unique life, being united with God, being in fellowship with God, and being joined to God as one. This is the second part of the Old Testament.
The third part of the Old Testament, the section on the prophets, shows us that the prophets were fully released from good as well as from evil to live in the Spirit. In principle, a prophet lives altogether in life. If you could speak with any of the prophets, they would say, “I do not know what good or evil is; I only know the Spirit. When the Spirit of Jehovah comes upon me, I say whatever He wants me to say, and I do whatever He wants me to do.” Therefore, a prophet is free from good and evil to live in God and to walk fully according to the Spirit. This is the tree of life.
The first part of the Old Testament concerns man living in evil; the second part concerns man living in good; and the third part concerns man living in the Spirit. The entire Old Testament shows us how God desires that man would receive Him as life and escape death by staying away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is outside of God. The prophecies spoken by the prophets in the Spirit all emphasize the coming One who is man’s salvation and man’s way before God. Therefore, the prophets usher us into the New Testament.
In the New Testament the One prophesied by the prophets came; He was God manifested in the flesh so that man might receive Him as life. This is seen in the four Gospels.
This is seen at the end of the Gospels.
This is seen in the book of Acts.
This is seen in the Epistles.
This is seen in Revelation.
This is seen at the end of Revelation.
On the one hand, God’s work throughout the ages is to work Himself into man as the tree of life, and on the other hand, to completely eliminate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which denotes Satan, from the universe by casting it into the lake of fire. Of the two trees in the universe, one is wrought into the New Jerusalem as the tree of life for the building up of the New Jerusalem, and the other one is wrought into the lake of fire as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of death, to become the center of the lake of fire. Thus, there are two trees, two spheres, and two destinations. The tree of life has the New Jerusalem as its sphere and destination; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil has the lake of fire as its sphere and destination. All persons and things joined to the tree of life throughout the ages will end up in the New Jerusalem; all persons and things joined to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil will end up in the lake of fire. Life is always with the tree of life; death is always with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
