Life Walk Bible Lesson 97 -- God is Wisdom — the Tree of Life
22 “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’ —
23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.”
John 3:15-16
15 “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
John 17:3
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent.”
1Corinthians 1:24
“but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
1Corinthians 1:30-31
“But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, Who became for us wisdom from God — and righteousness and sanctification and redemption —
31 that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’”
Jeremiah 9:24
“‘But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,’ says the Lord.”
Proverbs 3:18
“She [wisdom] is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who retain her.”
In Genesis 1, the Hebrew word for the Holy Spirit, Who hovered over the deep, recorded in verse two, is “rûaḥ”, a feminine noun meaning “spirit” or “breath”. Therefore, sometimes the wisdom of God is seen as feminine, but the fulfillment is in Christ, as the Wisdom of God, for God is Spirit.
Proverbs 11:30
“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise”
Proverbs 13:12
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.”
Haggai calls the coming Messiah, Jesus, “the Desire of all nations”. [Haggai 2:7]
Proverbs 15:4
“A wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.”
To know good and evil is to now have a choice to decide for one’s self and then choose between, rather than just obeying God. The Israelites who were younger than twenty years of age were allowed to enter the Promised Land because they did not yet know good from evil. They just obeyed God.
Adam set death in motion when he chose incorrectly at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He no longer had the opportunity for eternal life — to get to know God by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Without the indwelling Holy Spirit, we too are just as susceptible to making incorrect choices. This is why the coming of Jesus to live on earth, be born of a woman, to crush Satan and defeat him in the wilderness, at the cross, and in hell itself, is so important to humanity. Eternal life was once again a possibility, for it was God’s original intent to give it to His children.
The fruit of the Tree of Life are the attributes and characteristics of God, which we find articulated in Galatians 5:22-23 [KJV]
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness temperance; against such things there is no law.”
It is important, as believers who have come to know God by the indwelling Holy Spirit, with Christ Jesus the Tree of Life within us, that we feed others that fruit, and nourish, sustain and deliver them from all sicknesses, and oppression, just as it is written in the Book of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 47:12 [NKJV]
“Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
John 7:38 [KJV]
“He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” [Isaiah 58:11; John 4:14]
Isaiah 58:11
“The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.”
John 4:14
“but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
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.
2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
