“In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the
river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and
yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations.” Revelation 22:2
Trust is a key component in any
relationship. Weather it be a marriage,
courtship, friendship, business, or a once a week encounter with your mailman,
the presence of trust is always beneficial, and the absence of it detrimental.
The leaves of the tree are for the healing of
the nations. When Adam and Eve ate of
the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they broke the covenant with God. The trust and fellowship that God had with
mankind was severed and they were cast out “lest they partake of the tree of
life and live forever.” The healing
and redemption therefore had to come from God, and the leaves of the tree of
life are symbolic of that redemption; that healing. Perhaps one of the most amazing pieces of
scripture in all the Word of God is that God made man “in his likeness.” The Creator chose to create us in his
likeness. He trusted us with that
responsibility, and further still with the husbandry of His creation. We were his prized possession, place in the Garden
and given the ability to choose. Satan
came in and tempted us to break that relationship and betray that trust. To quote a preacher I heard recently: “Satan
wanted to strike a blow to the heart of man, so he could strike a blow to the
heart of God.” The tempter drew away
Adam and Eve by their own lust and they sinned in the Garden. All the evil that follows man today is a
result of that initial betrayal. It is
all because of sin. The issue is
sin. It is not a government issue, it is
not an economic issue, it is not a race issue; it’s a sin issue. That sin nature that lives within mankind is
hateful and selfish. It will drive you
to trust yourself instead of God, and when we stop trusting God and start
trusting ourselves it will only serve to divide us. It will divide us because we will all cling
to self-preservation. The Bible says
the greatest commandment is to: “Love God and love your neighbor.” Self-preservation says, “love yourself, and
those that will help you exalt yourself.”
When we are no longer in the likeness of His image, we take on the
likeness of the world and we reduce ourselves to worldly labels in the interest
of self-preservation so that you are Democrat and I am Republican. You are black person and I am a white person. You are upper class and I am middle class. We cannot be a people of one mind, because we
are devoted to the carnal mind. So
consumed with self, there is no room for anything else. The healing that comes from the tree of life
is a spiritual healing. It is the
destruction of the sin nature within your heart and a rebirth of Christ within
you. You are brought into union with God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. You partake of the tree of life, and in
partaking you are married to Christ and divorced from sin.
God desires us to have fellowship with Him once
more, to be made anew in His likeness and in His image. He desires it so much that he sent His only
Son to pay the debt and pave the way.
Jesus is the answer to the affliction of sin, and when you believe on
Jesus, put your trust in Jesus, he will save you from your sin. He will save you from yourself. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of
the nations. Only when we start trusting
God, will we begin to trust each other, and until we trust each other there can
be no fruitful relationship.
