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In the past ten messages we have seen clearly from the holy Word that God's eternal purpose is to express Himself through man and to commit His authority to man that man may exercise His dominion on the earth. We have also seen that God's way to fulfill His purpose is by life. As the first step in the accomplishment of His purpose, God created mankind in a very specific way, forming them as vessels to contain Himself, not as instruments to work for Him. Romans 9 declares definitely that God made man out of clay as vessels of mercy unto honor and glory to contain God Himself. Thus, God created man with a special organ — the human spirit. We should never forget Zechariah 12:1 which says that God stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him. In this universe three things are necessary for the fulfillment of God's purpose: the heavens, the earth, and the spirit of man. Our spirit is extremely important; it is just as vital for the accomplishment of God's purpose as are the heavens and the earth. Although the spirit of man is not spacious as the heavens or large as the earth, it is nevertheless the most crucial aspect of our being.
Job 32:8 says, "There is a spirit in man." Everyone knows that man has a heart, mind, will, and conscience, but few people realize that man has a spirit. By this we do not mean the Holy Spirit of God; we refer to the human spirit of man. We have such an organ created by God.
Consider the organs of our physical body: we have hearing organs, seeing organs, smelling, tasting, and touching organs. With my eyes I can see many different colors. If I were blind, I would be unable to substantiate the existence of these colors. Although colors would continue to exist, I would have no way to substantiate them, for a certain object can only be substantiated by the organ specifically designed for that purpose. As I am speaking, your ears substantiate the sound of my voice. If you had no ears, it would seem as if my voice did not exist. The same is true for our sense of smell. Although there may be a fragrant aroma in this room, we need the sense of smell to substantiate it.
God has not only created our physical organs, but also our psychological organs. How can we verify the existence of thought? We substantiate thought by the function of our mind. Likewise, by the emotional organ of joy in our soul, we can sense happiness. We substantiate the existence of thought and joy by the appropriate psychological organs in our soul.
In addition to our physical and psychological organs, God has created a spiritual organ — the human spirit. Although it is difficult to understand our spirit, we can know something about it through the function of our conscience. Although few people understand the human spirit, everybody knows the meaning of conscience. According to the Bible, the conscience is the main organ of our human spirit. Where is our conscience located? It is not easy to determine. In fact, it is also difficult to locate our emotion, mind, and heart. Actually, we have two hearts, a physical heart and a psychological heart. It is easy to locate our physical heart, but difficult to find our psychological heart. We cannot deny that we have such a heart, but we are unable to locate it. The same is true for our conscience. Although we are unable to locate it, we know it exists because it constantly accuses or excuses us. Our conscience continually protests against our reasoning and our emotions. For example, some young people in school are tempted to steal when they think of others as being rich and having everything and of themselves as poor. Thus, they decide to steal from others, making some flimsy excuse to justify their action. The mind agrees, the emotions approve, and the will decides. However, as the young person is about to steal something, his conscience protests, "Don't do this; it is not right." Even if he should ignore the feeling of his conscience and steal something, the voice of his conscience will condemn him for many days. This inner voice is not from the mind, emotion, or heart; it is from the conscience, and the conscience is the main part of our spirit.
Now we must relate this to a very important matter about God. What is God? God is a spiritual substance. In John 4:24 Jesus says that God is Spirit. This table next to me is made of wood; wood is its substance. Likewise, God is Spirit; the substance of the divine being of God is Spirit. The organ by which we can substantiate such a divine being is our human spirit. If we try to experience God without exercising our spirit, it will be like attempting to substantiate colors without exercising our sight. If we use the wrong organ, it is impossible to substantiate God. We praise God that in His creation He formed a spirit within us. Since we were made as vessels to contain God, we do need our spirit as the proper receiver.
The receiver in our physical body is our stomach. If we had a mouth without a stomach, it would be impossible to receive food for the supply of the whole body. The stomach is not only a receiver but also a digestive organ which assimilates food and dispenses it into the blood cells. Eventually, the substance of the digested and assimilated food becomes our very organic tissues. God has the intention of dispensing Himself into us. How can He do this? He does it by being food to us. The Lord Jesus Himself told us that He came as the bread of life (John 6:35). He also said, "He who eats Me shall also live because of Me" (John 6:57). This means that Jesus is not only our Savior, Redeemer, and life, but also our life supply. He is the bread of life. God desires to dispense Himself into us by being food for us to receive. What organ do we use to take God into us? Our human spirit.
We need to pray. Praying is not simply asking God to do things for us. This understanding of prayer is too shallow. Prayer is breathing. Whenever we pray, "O Father in heaven," or call, "O Lord Jesus," that is breathing. As we breathe, we take breath into us. Likewise, whenever we pray to God by exercising our spirit, we receive His divine being into our spirit. Within our spirit we contain Him and, in a sense, we assimilate Him and dispense His divine elements into our whole being. In this way God comes into us as life. As human beings, we were made by God in a very specific manner: we were made as vessels with a receiver, our human spirit. This was the first step God took to accomplish His purpose.
Now we come to the second step. Most people cannot accomplish anything in a single step. Thus, after God created man as vessels with a human spirit to receive Him and to contain Him, He took another step by placing man in front of the tree of life.
As I mentioned in the last message, when I was a young Christian I was troubled by Genesis 2 because it did not seem to be a classical piece of writing as I felt the Bible ought to be. It reminded me of the play of some little boys who made images out of clay and put them before certain objects. Nevertheless, according to Genesis 2, God placed man in front of the tree of life. What is life? Life is mysterious. Not even medical doctors or biologists are able to define life. Although life is mysterious, it is presented in Genesis 2 in a solid and substantial way as the tree of life. We may be eager to know the meaning of the tree of life, but we cannot afford to be hasty. We should not approach something as mysterious as life in a quick and superficial way. It is easy to talk about this blackboard, but very difficult to speak about life. For the time being we simply need to see that God put man in front of this tree of life.
When I was young and read the first two chapters of Genesis, I wondered why God did not command Adam to worship Him as the Creator. I thought God should have told Adam, "I am your Creator. You must worship Me every morning, noon, and evening. You must worship Me at least seven times a day. You must bow down, kneel down, and prostrate yourself before Me. I will write some praises for you so you may practice how to worship Me." That was my concept. As far as I was concerned, it was foolish of God to place man in front of the tree of life with nothing to do. Furthermore, I felt that after God had created Eve, He should have given both Adam and Eve a wedding sermon, saying, "Adam, you must thank Me for giving you such a dear wife. You must promise Me that you will love her forever. Eve, I command you, as his wife, to submit to him." It seemed to me entirely logical for God to make such demands. Under the influence of Christianity, especially the conduct of wedding ceremonies, I assumed that God would have delivered a wedding sermon to the first couple. However, God gave them no such word. He only seemed to tell them, "Be careful about your eating. You must eat correctly. I don't care whether or not you love your wife or submit yourself to your husband. I don't care very much about worship. I care about your eating. If you eat wrongly, you will be wrong. If you eat the wrong tree, you will die. Adam, you must realize that it is not a matter of what you do; it is a matter of what you are. You will be what you eat. If you eat death, you will become death. If you eat life, you will become life. It is not a question of doing, but of being. Take care of your eating." In my early days as a Christian, I was bothered by this. To tell you the truth, during that period I did not like Genesis 2. I liked chapter 1 which described God's work of creation, but I felt that chapter 2 resembled a children's cartoon.
After God created man, He put him in front of a tree. God did not charge him to obey ten laws and requirements. There were no commandments, but there was a placement. God placed man in front of the tree of life; He wanted man to eat this tree. Later in this message we will see the meaning of the tree of life.
According to Genesis 2:8, this placement was "eastward." As we read Genesis 2, we must realize that this record is written in figurative language and that these figures need to be allegorized. In message ten I said that it is not wrong to allegorize the Bible, for even the apostle Paul allegorized Sarah and Hagar (Gal. 4:22-26). Thus, we need to allegorize Genesis 2. In the Bible "eastward" signifies the direction of shining glory because the rising of the glorious sunshine occurs in the east (Ezek. 43:2). This is very meaningful. Whenever we come together and have the presence of the Lord, we immediately sense deep within that this meeting is glorious. After such a meeting, you will go home and tell your wife about the glory you experienced.
God put man in Eden. The word Eden in Hebrew means pleasure. Thus, Eden is a place of pleasure, enjoyment, and amusement. Do not think that having amusements is wrong. Today's sinful, worldly entertainments are certainly wrong, but amusement in God is undoubtedly right.
God set man in a garden, not in a factory, school, or cathedral. He put him in a garden, a place that is not only lovely and pleasant, but also a place for growing things. A garden is not a playground where people play, a factory where they work, a school where they study, a hospital where they are cured, or a cathedral where they worship: a garden is a place for growing things, a place to produce life. Life is the central thought of Genesis 1 and 2. God does not care very much for learning or even for worship. He cares for growth. Therefore, He put man in a garden. The church life should not be like a school or a cathedral; the church life must be a garden. In 1 Corinthians 3:9 Paul says, "You are God's farm." Paul's thought in 1 Corinthians 3 is the same as God's thought in Genesis 2, for a farm is a place for growth. Because it produces life, a garden displays many beautiful things. On the contrary, it is difficult to find beauty in a factory. The most lovely, pleasant, and beautiful place is a garden with colorful plants growing there. Praise the Lord that man was put into a garden!
The most important item in the garden is the trees. In the Scriptures the concept concerning the tree is crucial. When the Scripture mentions man, both in the beginning and at the end, it also mentions the tree. Whether man shall have life or shall die, shall live everlastingly or shall perish, all depends on how man deals with the tree (cf. Gen. 2:16-17; 3:1-3, 22, 24; Ezek. 47:12; Rev. 22:2, 14, 19). The concept of the tree is absolutely vital to man's destiny.
The fact that the Lord God made every tree which is pleasant to the sight (Gen. 2:9) means that God wanted to please man and to make him happy. God's intention was not that man should work, but that man should be completely pleased and satisfied. This is contrary to our religious concept, which is to worship God. When I was a young Christian, I saw many long-faced worshipers of God. However, God does not care for that kind of worship. He cares about our happiness. This is why the Psalms tell us in several places, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord" (Psa. 95:1; 100:1). God enjoys our smiling faces. He likes to see that we are pleased with Him and satisfied with Him. Do not think about what you have done for God or about what you should do for Him. You need to consider whether or not you are joyful in the Lord. Romans 14:17 says that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. You should be joyful in the presence of God. If you are not joyful in His presence and if you are not happy, it means that you are wrong with God. Everything you do for God will become a heavy burden to you if you have no joy. You do not need such a burden; you need joy. You need to be joyful, pleasant, and fully satisfied by God and with God.
Genesis 2:9 says that the trees were good for food. Notice that the Bible does not say that the trees were good for producing materials, for the concept of Genesis is not that of human labor or achievement. Thus, no manufacturing materials are mentioned. The concept of Genesis 2 is fully focused on life. Thus, it says that the trees were good for food because food is related to life. Without food, we cannot live. Food maintains our life and satisfies us.
The tree of life was in the midst of the garden. If we study the record of Genesis 2, we will realize that, apart from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, no tree is mentioned by name except the tree of life. We do not know the names of the other trees, but we do know that there was a tree called the tree of life. This shows that the tree of life was the center.
The tree of life is the center of the universe. According to the purpose of God, the earth is the center of the universe, the garden of Eden is the center of the earth, and the tree of life is the center of the garden of Eden. We must realize that the whole universe is centered on this tree of life: nothing is more central and crucial to both God and man than this tree. It is very meaningful to see man in the garden standing before the tree of life.
This tree enables man to receive God as life. How can we prove this? The following books of the Bible reveal that God is life. Therefore, the tree of life in the garden was the indicator that God intends to be our life in the form of food. One day, according to the Gospel of John, God came in the flesh (John 1:1, 14). In Him was life (John 1:4). The life displayed by the tree of life in Genesis 2 was the life incarnated in Jesus, God in the flesh. Jesus told us that He Himself is life (John 14:6). Furthermore, John 15 tells us that Christ is a tree, the vine tree. On the one hand, He is a tree; on the other hand, He is life. When we put together all these portions from John, we see that Jesus is the tree of life. Jesus said that He is the bread of life, meaning that He has come to us as the tree of life in the form of food.
It is not easy to understand the Bible. Let me ask you a question: how tall was the tree of life? If you turn the question to me, I will answer that it was not taller than I. I answer this way because Adam, who had been placed before the tree of life, probably was not much taller than I. If the tree of life had been of a great height, its fruit would have been out of reach. Adam and Eve had no ladder or other instrument to use in plucking the fruit of this tree. Therefore, I believe the tree of life was not very tall.
As the Almighty God, Jesus is high, but when He came to us as food He was lowly. He was a loaf of bread. He was even the crumbs under the table (Matt. 15:21-27). The very Jesus who came to us as life in the form of food was not tall and great; He was small and lowly. Anything we eat must be smaller than we are; if it is not, we cannot take it into us. Even if our food is larger than we are, it must be cut into pieces small enough to eat. Thus, Jesus came to us as life in the form of food. He said, "I am the bread of life," and, "He who eats Me shall also live because of Me." God in the Son is the tree of life that is good for food. Day after day we can feed on Him. We can eat Him.
The tree of life typifies Christ who imparts life to man and who pleases and satisfies man (cf. John 15:1; Exo. 15:25). Christ imparts divine life into us, pleases us, and satisfies us. Many of us can testify of this. We can say, "Hallelujah! Jesus has imparted life to me. He satisfies me all the time." This is the tree of life.
Along with the tree there is a river (Gen. 2:10). Since the tree is a tree of life, the river must also be related to life. At the end of the Bible we also see a river of life flowing and a tree of life growing (Rev. 22:1-2). At the beginning and the end of the Bible we find the tree of life and a river flowing with living water. In the Scriptures the concept of the river is also crucial. When the Scripture mentions man, both in the beginning and at the end, it also mentions the river. For man to receive God as life, to enjoy the fatness of God, to quench thirst, to be watered, to grow, and to rejoice, all depends on the river (cf. Psa. 36:8-9; 46:4; 65:9; Exo. 17:1-7; Joel 3:18; Zech. 14:8; John 4:14; 7:37-38; Rev. 22:1-2).
If you take in the Lord Jesus, you immediately have the deep sensation of something watering you from within. Something is flowing within you. Have you not had such an experience? Whenever you say, "Lord Jesus, I love You," or whenever you pray to the Lord — this means that you receive Him into you once again — you sense something flowing within you. Every morning you should take Christ as your breakfast, every noon you should take Him as your lunch, and every evening you should eat Him as your dinner. You need to feed on Christ at least three times a day. If you do this, the water of life will water you inwardly. You will never be dry. Perhaps you work at an office all day and arrive home from work tired and worn, feeling quite dry. If you take Jesus as your dinner, living water will flow within you. "A river went out of Eden to water the garden." This flow will discharge many old things out of your being. Both our experience and the divine record in the Bible tell us that this river is necessary.
Although Genesis 2 appears to be a record of creation, it was actually written according to the experience of life. The tree of life and the flowing river indicate this: whenever we take Jesus into us as food, that food will impart divine life, a life that is a watering and flowing life. In Revelation 22:1-2 we see that the river of life with the tree of life growing in it proceeds out of the throne of God. This picture is a further proof that the tree of life and the river of life represent the genuine experience of life. Whenever we take God in Christ as our life, we will have this river flowing within us to water us and work many things within us.
This river was made to water the garden that the garden might grow things of life. Surely it also quenched man's thirst that he might survive. All this means that this river caused life to flow. In our physical life we must drink enough water to maintain the circulation of our blood. The flow of our physical life depends on water. Likewise, day by day we must take the water of life to maintain the flow of the divine life within us. This gives us the spiritual circulation of the divine life.
The river flows out of Eden, meaning that it flows out of God. In Revelation 22, the river of the water of life proceeds out of the throne of God. It is also a flow out of God Himself. God as the very life is the source of the living water, flowing into us for our enjoyment.
This river is one river. Do you have two rivers? Although the believers here may number a thousand, we still have one river because we all are of the same source — God the Creator. Since the source is one, the course also must be one.
This one river was parted and became four heads (Gen. 2:10-14). What does this mean? This means that the river flows out of God as the source and the center to reach men in every direction. In the Bible the number one is the number of God, the Creator, for He is unique. The number four signifies man, the creature. Because men live in each of the four directions, the one river flows out of God in every direction to reach them.
The name of the first head is Pison, which means "flowing free" (cf. Isa. 55:1; Rev. 22:17). This river flows without price; it is free. It flows to the land of Havilah which means "to cause to grow." This branch of the river flows freely to cause everything of life to grow (cf. Ezek. 47:9, 12).
This flowing also brings in gold, which typifies the divine nature (cf. 2 Pet. 1:4). If you have had no experience, you will not understand what this means; if you have had some experience you will say, "Amen." Whenever the life of God flows within us, it brings in gold, the divine nature. In the previous message I said that I do not like to be a man of gold but a man of dust because gold does not grow life. In the sense of growing life, it is very good to be a man of dust. However, we need the element of gold to be added to us. Eventually, we will be men of gold. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul warns us to be careful about our building work, telling us to use the proper materials, the first of which is gold. Furthermore, in Revelation 1 we are told that the churches are golden lampstands. The lampstands are not built with clay, but with gold. In Romans 9 we are dust; in Revelation 1 we are gold. How can dust be replaced by gold? The divine life must flow within us to bring gold into us. This is even true of physical gold which frequently is found at or in a river. Before we experienced Christ as the flowing life, we had no divine nature, no gold. Now through the flowing of the divine life we have some gold within us. Something precious and weighty, the very divine nature, has been brought into us.
The flowing of the river also produces pearl. At present, we do not have time to cover the definition of pearl except to say that it is a transformed substance. It typifies the regenerated new man (cf. Matt. 13:45) because pearl is not a created element but a transformed substance.
Furthermore, the flowing of the river brings forth onyx stone, which typifies the transformed man expressing God's glorious image (cf. Rev. 4:3; 2 Cor. 3:18). We will see more of this in the following message.
The first head, Pison, means that the river of life flows freely, making everything grow and bringing in three kinds of precious material — gold, pearl, and precious stone. If we read through the entire Bible, we will see that these materials are all found in the building of the New Jerusalem. The materials brought in through the flow of the river of life are for the building of God's habitation. They can only be brought in by the flow of the divine life. In other words, the divine life flowing within us makes us the materials for God's building. This is the meaning and significance of the first head of the river.
The name of the second head is Gihon, which means turbulence of waters. Turbulence implies fullness (cf. John 4:14; 7:38). This river rushes like a mighty tide. Suppose we have a few drops of water. That amount of water cannot generate turbulence. In order to have a turbulence like Niagara Falls we need a great quantity of water. The turbulence of the river indicates its fullness.
This river flows to Cush. Cush, the ancient Hebrew name for Ethiopia, means black face, typifying the unchangeable evil nature of sinners (cf. Jer. 13:23; Rom. 7:18). I was a Cushite before I was saved: I was black, sinful, and evil. In fact, we were all Cushites; we were more than black, and our nature was evil. Humanly speaking, such a nature can never change. Praise the Lord that the turbulence of the divine waters will regenerate us and transform us into another person. The flowing of the divine river is so rich and strong that it can change our evil nature and even glorify us. Although the Cushite cannot change his skin, we have the way by which our black skin, our evil nature, can be fully transformed: it is by the rushing turbulence of the flow of the divine life.
The third head is Hiddekel (the Hebrew name of Tigris) which means rapid, implying power (cf. Phil. 3:10; Eph. 1:19-20). Water that flows rapidly has power. Hiddekel flows toward Assyria, which means plain, the inhabited place. This tells us that the flow of living water reaches the place where people dwell (cf. John 10:10b; 7:37).
The fourth head is called Perath (the Hebrew name of Euphrates) which means sweet, making fertile, or fruitful (cf. 2 Cor. 2:14; 2 Pet. 1:3-8, 11; Gal. 5:22-23). Praise the Lord! The last head of the flow of living water makes us sweet, fertile, and fruitful. Recently, we have been talking about fruit bearing. How can we bear fruit? We can bear fruit only by the flow of the river of life within us. As long as the life flows within, it will make us sweet, fertile, and fruitful. This is wonderful!
If we put all four heads of the one river together, we have a full picture of the New Testament. We need the whole New Testament to define the four heads of the one river of the divine life.
Once again I say that everything found in the book of Genesis is a seed, the growth of the seed is in the New Testament, and the harvest is in the book of Revelation. The seed of the flowing river is sown in Genesis 2, the growth occurs in the following books of the Bible, and the harvest is in the book of Revelation. We need the whole Bible to give us the true meaning of the picture in Genesis 2. God in His Son Jesus Christ is life to us in the form of food. If we take Him in, we not only have satisfaction, but this life will become a watering river within us. This water will be a torrent flowing within us to regenerate us, transform us, and to make us sweet and fruitful. By this flow we will become gold, pearl, and precious stones for the building of God's habitation, the New Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! This is God's way to fulfill His eternal purpose. However, this is just the second step. We will cover the third step in the next message.
