The Two Trees and Their Fruit

by Jesma O'Hara

The Bible is a book of pictures that portray spiritual truths. God uses things we can see, touch, taste, smell and hear to cement His truths in our hearts.

Blessed to live on the Sunshine Coast with its mountains and beaches and rivers – and greenery. Mountains covered in yellow sunflowers at the moment.

Want to focus on two trees that are found in the bible today – the almond and the fig - representative of two cities – Jerusalem & Babylon – that also represent two world systems or kingdoms – The Kingdom of Light or God & the Kingdom of Darkness or Satan.

Trees bear fruit true to type – James 3:12 – Can a fig tree yield olives, my brothers? Or a grapevine figs?

Yeshua had a lot to say about fruit trees and their fruit.

Matthew 7: 15-20 – Beware the false prophets! They come wearing sheep’s clothing but underneath they are hungry wolves! You will recognise them by their fruit. Can people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise every healthy tree produces good fruit but a poor tree produces bad fruit. Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire! So you will recognise them by their fruit. 

 Matthew 12:33 – If you make a tree good, its fruit will be good, and if you make a tree bad, its fruit will be bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.

Mark 4:20 – But those sown on rich good soil hear the message, accept it and bear fruit – thirty, sixty or a hundred fold.

John 15:8 – This is how my Father is glorified – in your bearing much fruit; this is how you will prove to be my disciples.

• Both trees have their beginnings in the Garden of Eden  -
  
  

  First Tree the Tree of Life – believed by Jewish sages to be the almond tree – represents God’s Kingdom

• – pictured in the menorah – the 7 branched candlestick found in the Holy of Holies in the Temple in Jerusalem  - Exodus 37:17 – He made the menorah of pure gold. He made it of hammered work; its base, shaft, cups, rings of outer leaves and flowers were a single unit. There were six branches extending from its sides, three branches of the menorah on one side of it and three on the other. On one branch the three cups shaped like almond blossoms, a ring of outer leaves and petals; likewise the opposite branch three cups shaped like almond blossoms, a ring of outer leaves and petals and similarly for all six branches extending from the menorah. On the central shaft of the menorah were four cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with its ring of outer leaves and petals…
  
  
• Characteristics of this tree –
  
  
• God is central – Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth – ‘Elohim’ = ‘Creator, Lawgiver, King’ – Genesis 2:4 – ‘The Lord God – Yahweh Elohim – God of Grace

A fruitful tree – Genesis 1:26 – 28 – Let us make humankind [adam – Elohim/dam – blood] in our image, in the likeness of ourselves; and let them rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the animals and over all the earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the earth. So God created humankind in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them: God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.  Benevolent fruit bearing caretakers.

H ish; ishah = fire – creative fire of God at work in them & through them.

God placed the tree of life in the midst of the garden [Genesis 2:9]

Holiness – kadosh = ‘be hallowed, sanctified, to consecrate, prepare, dedicate,involves a separation of the sacred and the profane

A Holy God – the ONLY God - comes down to man – Genesis 3:9 – Yahweh Elohim called to the man, ‘Where are you?’

Chooses One Holy People – Exodus 19: 5 – You will be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation – Jewish people [segulah] – treasured possession of a King – given the job of reminding the world that we are all called to be holy, treasured possessions of the Lord.

Gives the People One Holy Book to show them how to live – 10 Commandments – Exodus 20 – Proclamation of Kingship – I am Yahweh your God – next 2 deal with God’s sovereignty – Shabbat – a  holy day to remember the creator God – last 6 – a holy lifestyle.

A Holy Land – Leviticus 25:23 – The land is Mine – kadosh to the Lord
A Holy City – The City where God has chosen to place His Name – Foundation of Shalom

Climaxes in One Unique Holy Person – Yeshua himself who dies on a tree that becomes the tree of life for you and me – early church tradition said that Yeshua crucified on the tree of life. Philo called the almond tree an emblem of the priesthood. 
Melito of Sardis – ‘Just as from a tree cam sin, so also from a tree came salvation.’

Jerome – ‘the tree is his cross’.

‘stauros’ – stake – not cross [ 1 Peter 2:24 ] Galatians 3:13 quotes Deuteronomy 21:22 – If someone has committed a capital crime and is put to death, then hung on a tree, his body is not to remain all night on the tree but you must bury him the same day because a person who has been hanged has been cursed by God – so that you will not defile your land which Yahweh your God is giving you to inherit.

Acts 5:30; 10:39; 13:29 – hanged on a stake

here was the Lord crucified and why to does it matter – early church had only one tradition for 3 centuries – Yeshua crucified, buried, resurrected & went back to heaven  from the Mount of Olives – called the Mountain of Light or Anointing by the Jews because it was the mountain from which the Sanhedrin lit the first fire to proclaim the beginning of the feasts, Shabbats and new moons – Yeshua the fulfilment of the feasts; also the place where sin offering and red heifer sacrifice made outside the camp – sacrifices led over the priests bridge over the Kidron Brook & up the mountain – salvation had to come from the east – only place where Holy of Holies visible to Yeshua [the offering] and the centurion [curtain 8 stories high, 24’ wide, 1 foot thick]. People carrying their Passover lambs brought them through the eastern gate to the Temple – had to pass by Yeshua nailed to the tree.

4 th c – important to our story – Helena, mother of Constantine comes to the Holy land and, by means of dreams and visions, proclaims that the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the spot – previously a Temple to Venus – important to our story about trees.

Root of this tree is the Sovereignty of the Holy God of all the earth

The Fruit is God’s plan of redemption brought to completion – the Tree of Life in Jerusalem with all the nations coming there – Revelation 21:1-22:6

 

The Second Tree – Babylon –Kingdom of Darkness – The fig

Characteristics of the Tree –

Back to the Garden of Eden  - Genesis 2:9 – Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil – Genesis 3:1- birth of humanism – an assault on the sovereignty of God – many ways/` not just one way/ many gods/ not just one God.

Man central – trying to get to God by his own efforts – Genesis 11:1-4

– Individuality the way – MY salvation,

Graeco Roman Empire – spreads across Europe and Asia – absorbing many gods – Jews & later Christians believed to be heathens guilty of treason – well being of empire depended on keeping all the gods happy. Religion and politics hand in hand. Emperors gods [pharaohs/Alexander son of god] 

Christianity spread  through this world – popes said that anything that could be absorbed should be to bring the people in – worship of many gods became saint worship/ worship of Diana/Astarte/ Isis became worship of Mary [Ephesus]/ statues depicting Mary & Jesus identical to Semiramis & Tammuz. Ancient Germans also worshipped the ‘Mother of God’.

Preoccupation with demons and demonic activity rooted in Greek thinking entered Christian art & literature/ stories of Greek heroes or who fort demons and dragons set the stage for Christian literature that told stories of monks fighting demons in the desert – took away from God’s sovereignty.

Dualism vs absolutes – secular/sacred       good/evil      heaven/earth        visible/invisible        asceticism & celibacy vs family & community Cross becomes a ‘holy symbol’[tau – Babylonian symbol 312 Edict of Milan] – relics, icons, bread & wine become holy – church becomes a building you go to instead of a people going out to change the world.

Mary dressed as a Roman empress; Yeshua & disciples emperor and senate [Last Supper] Yeshua then began to be represented as a Greek God – Zeus – blonde curls

Churches foundations no longer Hebraic but pagan [Babylon] – Islam swept through the Middle east  & into Europe taking advantage of a watered down faith – same as today

God’s Holy people rejected
Holy Book not read
Holy City replaced first by Constantinople then Rome
Holy land becomes Holy Roman Empire

Islam enters golden age Church enters Dark Age – wrong root – bad fruit
Crusades
Inquisition
Pogroms
Holocaust
Many Jews and Christians slaughtered in the name of Yeshua

Today – fruit – many ways to god/ many books/ Man is King – not God –

Europe that accepted a Christianity with the wrong root being set up for a revived

Roman Empire – EU symbols – woman on beast of Rev 17:1-6 – prostitution in bible = false religion

Climax – an UNHOLY PERSON – Jesus said He came to show the way to the Father – this man wants to bring the worship to himself – Rev 13:11

Back to the Mount of Olives and our tree – The Talmud suggests that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil a fig tree – c.f God sewed fig leaves for Adam & Eve to cover their nakedness –

Last week of Yeshua’s Life – Mark 11:12-22 – Mount of Olives – fig tree – represents tree of knowledge of good and evil – he would die nearby on the tree of life that you and I might have life through him.

The cursing of the fig tree a picture that his death would destroy the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and` evil  - Rev 22:14 How blessed are those who wash their robes so that they have the right to eat from the Tree of Life and go through the gates of the city.  

 

Introducing John & Jesma O'Hara John, a businessman & Jesma have five children, and two grandchildren, Isabella and Asher. Both serve on the Eldership of Hesed Fellowship and are board members of International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem, Australian Branch and Jesma has also been the Editor of their magazine for the past 12 years. Hesed Ministries is involved in supporting a number of projects : Field workers in Israel, Orr Shalom Children's Homes, Kesher Friends of WIZO and Mercy International in Thailand. They also support orphanages and schools for AIDS affected children in Malawi and Kenya. Jesma is Chairman of the Board of Nambour Christian College, co-educational inter-denominational college of over 1200 students, from preschool to year 12. They are also the Australian Representatives of Orr Shalom Children’s Homes. Jesma's Qualifications Masters in Early Judaism and Early Christianity. B A major in Religious Studies Studied in Jerusalem at AMI Jerusalem Centre For Biblical Studies and Research and Educator’s From Abroad Study Course at Yad VaShem.