Scripture Reading: Rev. 1:1b; Gen. 2:9; Psa. 36:9a; Gen. 2:17; Matt. 19:17a; Gen. 3:3, 6; 4:4-5; Heb. 11:39-40; Matt. 25:41; Jude 1:11; Gen. 4:16-24; 10:6-12; 2 Pet. 2:15; Rev. 20:15; 21:2, 11, 23; 22:1-2, 14; John 16:11; Rev. 21:8, 27; 22:15
In these messages we have been considering the significance of the book of Job according to the Bible as a whole. In the divine revelation in the holy Scriptures there are two trees, two sources, two lines, two principles, and two ends. These are the matters that we will cover in this message.
In Genesis 2 there are two trees — the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, in Revelation 21 and 22 we see only one tree — the tree of life — in a holy city. In the center of this city is the throne of God and of the Lamb (22:1), indicating God's administration. God and the Lamb are not sitting side by side on the throne; rather, God is in the Lamb much like light is in a lamp. The Lamb is the lamp (21:23), and God is the light in the lamp. This indicates that God and the Lamb, the light and the lamp, are one. Out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, that is, out of the one God, flows a river, and on the two sides of this river grows the tree of life (22:2a). According to the principle, if the tree of life ends in the city of water, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil must end in the lake of fire. All the evil things in Revelation 22 are involved with the lake of fire. Thus, the two ends are the city of water and the lake of fire. Between the two sources and the two ends are two lines, which become two ways. Each source issues in a line that becomes a way consummating in an end.
The Bible, as a full record of the divine revelation, is a book of signs (Rev. 1:1b). In the book of Revelation, for example, there are many signs, such as the golden lampstands (1:12), the stars (v. 20), the Lion of the tribe of Judah (5:5), the Lamb (v. 6), the four horses (6:1-8), and the universal woman (12:1). The last and the greatest sign in Revelation is the New Jerusalem.
The two most striking in the first group of signs in Genesis 1 and 2 are the two trees (Gen. 2:9).
The first of these signs is the tree of life, as the highest sign, signifying God, even the Triune God, as life to man in man's relationship with Him (Psa. 36:9a). God created man, breathing into him the breath of life (Gen. 2:7), which became man's spirit; but at that time, He did not put Himself into man as man's life.
The second of these signs is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as the highest negative sign, signifying Satan the devil, even the evil one, as death to man in man's fall before God (Gen. 2:17).
Both of these signs, as the most striking ones, signify persons — God and Satan — not things or matters.
The first tree signifies God only as life, with no implications of other elements.
The second tree signifies Satan as death, with the implications of knowledge, good, and evil. Whereas God is simple, Satan is very complicated.
Good and evil are not signified by two trees but by one tree — the second tree. Thus, seeking good other than God belongs to Satan.
According to the divine revelation, knowledge is Satan, good is Satan, and evil is Satan. Today the world is in an age that worships knowledge. Before eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve were ignorant, not knowing, so they had no sin. After they ate of the tree of knowledge, their eyes were opened, and they became knowledgeable. That was sin. We all consider that to commit sin is sin, but we may not consider that knowing sin is sin.
The genuine good is God Himself (Matt. 19:17a); hence, gaining God equals gaining the genuine good. When the rich young ruler came to the Lord Jesus and called Him, "Good Teacher," the Lord Jesus said, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except One — God" (Mark 10:17-18). If besides God we gain any other good, that is terrible. If we touch the good things outside of God, this means that we touch Satan. The Bible teaches us that knowledge, good, and evil all are Satan. In the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, therefore, evil and good are equal.
The two trees are not for producing materials but for man to eat their fruit (Gen. 3:3, 6b), the fruit of the tree of life becoming food to man for nourishing, for the dispensing of life, and the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil becoming poison to man for killing. To eat means to take in something that is outside of us and then digest and assimilate it. We must be careful concerning what we eat. Surely, today's television and so many different kinds of newspapers and magazines are branches of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The two trees are two sources.
The two trees, as signs of God and Satan, are the two sources of two categories of men. The first tree is the source of men who seek God as life for their supply and enjoyment, of whom Abel is the leading one (Gen. 4:4). The second tree is the source of men who follow Satan as their poison unto death and eternal perdition, of whom Cain is the leading one (v. 5).
The outcome of the two sources becomes two kingdoms on the earth. The first is the kingdom of God, which was first the kingdom of Israel according to God's Old Testament economy and then the church according to God's New Testament economy (Matt. 21:43). The second is the kingdom of Satan (cf. Matt. 12:26; Col. 1:13).
Every source has an issue. These two sources issue in two lines.
Each line is also a way. Thus, the two lines are the two ways.
The two lines, as the two ways, originate from the two sources.
The first way is the way of life, the constricted way (Matt. 7:14), the Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:22), the straight way (2 Pet. 2:15), the way of righteousness (2 Pet. 2:21), the way of salvation (Acts 16:17), the way of God (Matt. 22:16; Acts 18:26), and the way of the Lord (Acts 18:25), for men to seek God, to gain God, and to enjoy God in His eternal life as the supply and unto His eternal life as the goal, that they may be born of God in His life and nature (John 1:12-13), transformed and conformed into His glorious image (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29), and glorified in Him as glory (Rom. 8:30; 1 Pet. 5:10a; Heb. 2:10a) to gain Him and participate in Him to the fullest extent. In this way of life are Abel, Seth, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Samuel, all the Old Testament prophets, and all the New Testament believers (Heb. 11:39-40). God's purpose in dealing with Job was to turn him from the way of good and evil to this way of life that he might gain God to the fullest extent.
The second way is the way of good and evil, the way of death, the broad way (Matt. 7:13), for men to follow Satan to be his children (1 John 3:10a) unto death and his companions in his eternal perdition (Matt. 25:41). In this way of death and of good and evil are Cain, Lamech, Jabal, Jubal, Tubal-cain (Jude 1:11a; Gen. 4:16-24), Ham, Cush, Nimrod (Gen. 10:6-12), Korah, Balaam (2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 1:11b), Saul, Absalom, Antichrist and his followers (Rev. 19:19-21), and all unbelievers (Rev. 20:15).
These two ways, the way of life and the way of death, lead men to the two God-ordained ends — the New Jerusalem and the lake of fire — respectively.
The two ways, the way of life and the way of death and of good and evil, constitute the two controlling, ruling, and regulating principles by which men have their relationship with God.
The first principle is the principle of life, according to which all men in the way of life keep their contact with God, and by which they seek God, gain God, possess God, and enjoy God, step by step, until they reach the fullest extent.
The second principle is the principle of death and of good and evil, in which all men in the way of death follow Satan either consciously or unconsciously, and through which they reject God and His way of life to be Satan's companions unto death and eternal perdition.
God's purpose in dealing with Job severely was to adjust his logic concerning his relationship with God from the principle of good and evil according to ethics to the principle of life according to God, that he might be one who gained God and participated in God for the fulfillment of God's eternal economy.
The two ends are the two destinations of the two ways men take in their relationship with God.
The destination of God's way of life is a city of water of life, the New Jerusalem, God's eternal dwelling (Rev. 21:2, 11, 23; 22:1-2, 14), as the best and most glorious goal for all the men who walk in the way of life according to God's desire and for God's pleasure, that they may participate with God in all the blessings of God as the eternal life for eternity.
The destination of the way of death and of good and evil is a lake of fire of brimstone, the Gehenna of fire (Matt. 5:22), Satan's eternal prison, as the worst and most miserable end for all the men who take the way of death according to Satan's evil device, that they may share with Satan the eternal judgment and eternal perdition (John 16:11; Matt. 25:41; Rev. 21:8, 27; 22:15).
The New Jerusalem, as the best and most glorious end of God's way of life, is a dynamic incentive for us to seek God until we gain Him to the fullest extent according to His love and grace; and the lake of fire, as the worst and most miserable end of Satan's way of death and of good and evil, should be a solemn warning to the men who follow Satan in his way against God's economy, to turn from his way of death to God's way of life that they may escape Satan's eternal judgment and eternal perdition, according to God's righteousness and justice.
