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Summary: AI-assisted (Claude) from transcripts

Summary

Trees in the Story of Salvation

God is rightly pictured as a Gardener. From Eden to the New Jerusalem, He plants trees and uses wood as instruments of His saving will, weaving them into the great drama of creation, fall, and redemption. The ancient prayer of the Lenten preface captures this beautifully: God "on the tree of the cross did give salvation unto humankind, that whence death arose, thence life also might rise again, and that he who by a tree once overcame might likewise by a tree be overcome." Tracing these trees through Scripture is a way of tracing the gospel itself.

The Two Trees of Eden

In the middle of the garden God planted two trees: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil Genesis 2:8-17. The Tree of Life — better rendered "the tree that gives life" — was set apart by God's own Word to bestow life on those who ate of it. Already here we glimpse the pattern of the sacraments: God joins His Word to a tangible, even edible thing, and through it gives what He promises. The other tree, with its solemn prohibition, was a good command, like a parent warning a child away from danger.

The fall came when the serpent — revealed in Revelation 12:9 to be the devil himself — drew Eve into dialogue, twisted God's Word, and called God's goodness into question. Eve added to the command ("nor shall you touch it"), and Satan flatly contradicted it ("you will not die"). Where Jesus would later answer every temptation with "It is written," our first parents abandoned the pure Word and rationalized disobedience. Expelled from the garden lest they eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in the corruption of sin, they nevertheless received the first promise of the gospel: the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head Genesis 3:15 — a prophecy hinting already at the virgin birth. And at the end of Scripture, the Tree of Life appears again, growing on the banks of the river of life in the paradise restored Revelation 22:1-2. For more, see Trees- Lesson 1 (4-25-21).

The Burning Bush

The God of Scripture is no distant deist watchmaker. He acts, speaks, and draws near. The clearest sign of this in Israel's early history is a humble desert bush blazing with fire yet not consumed Exodus 3:1-7. The "angel of the Lord" who speaks from the bush is identified as the Lord Himself — the pre-incarnate Son, who likewise appeared to Hagar Genesis 16:7-13 and to Joshua before Jericho Joshua 5:13-15.

The Church has long seen the burning bush as an icon of the Incarnation. That which was of the earth — a common bush — was filled with the fire of divinity, and was not consumed. So also when the eternal Son took on our human nature (Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 2:14-17), divinity did not destroy humanity. From this little tree God revealed Himself as the One who hears, comes down, and delivers. See "Trees" - Lesson 2.

The Bronze Serpent on the Pole

After their rebellion in the wilderness, the Israelites complained against God and Moses, and the Lord sent fiery serpents among them Numbers 21:4-9. When death surrounded them, the survivors confessed their sin. Both the wound and the cure came from God: Moses fashioned a bronze serpent, set it on a pole, and all who looked at it in faith lived. Scripture speaks of three deaths — spiritual Ephesians 2:1-3, physical, and everlasting Revelation 20:14-15 — and in the wilderness God's Word attached to that bronze serpent rescued His people from physical death and called them to faith.

Jesus claims this very image: "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up" John 3:14-15. What God accomplished through that wooden pole prefigures the cross. Looking to Christ — the only escape from death — we are healed of the bite of sin, death, and the devil. See "Trees" - Lesson 3.

The Root and Shoot of Jesse

The Bible is also a forest of family trees. Out of all of Jacob's sons, the promise narrows to Judah: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah… until tribute comes to him" Genesis 49:8-12. Judah was no saint — he was the brother who proposed selling Joseph Genesis 37:19-28 — yet God chose his line. Jacob's words point past the man Judah to a Messianic Judah: the Lion of the tribe of Judah who is also the Lamb that was slain Revelation 5:5-6, before whom every knee will bow Philippians 2:9-11.

The promise narrows further to David, to whom God pledges an everlasting throne (2 Samuel 7). Isaiah then sings, "A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse" Isaiah 11:1-3. Christ is both the shoot of Jesse — David's descendant in the flesh, born of Mary Luke 1:26-33 — and the root of Jesse — the eternal Creator from whom the family itself springs. So Jesus testifies: "I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star" Revelation 22:16. See "Trees" - Lesson 4.

The Tree of Trees: The Cross

Above every other tree in Scripture stands the cross. Jesus was born to bear it. "For the sake of the joy that was set before him," He endured the cross Hebrews 12:2 — the joy of winning our salvation. Isaiah even says, "It was the will of the Lord to crush him" Isaiah 53:10 — pleased not in His Son's pain, but in the redemption His pain accomplished.

The pattern of Eden returns with a saving reversal. In a garden surrounded by trees, the first Adam fell into sin and brought death to all. In the Garden of Gethsemane, surrounded by olive trees, the second Adam knelt in prayer and gave Himself up for us Matthew 26:36-46. Where the first Adam yielded to temptation, Christ — God's beloved Son Luke 3:22 — answered Satan with "It is written" Luke 4:1-13 and obeyed unto death. "As all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ" Romans 5:14-19.

Carrying the very wood that His blood would soon stain, Jesus walked to Golgotha John 19:16-18. Luther called Him the new serpent of salvation, lifted up so that all who look to Him may live John 3:14-15. And the empty tomb on Easter morning Luke 24:1-7 is God's public validation that the sacrifice was accepted; without it, our faith would be in vain 1 Corinthians 15:12-22. From Eden's two trees, to a burning bush, to a serpent on a pole, to the family tree of Jesse, to the cross itself, our heavenly Gardener has used trees to bless His people — and on the tree of trees, paradise is regained. See "Trees" - Lesson 5.

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