Fig(urative) Trees

or . . . “not seeing the forest for the trees”

In my last Post, I tried to lay the groundwork that the “fruit” of Genesis 3 is not a literal piece of food that Eve consumed and then Adam helped himself, also.

If there was a tree in the Garden, and its fruit provided anyone who consumed it “knowledge of good and evil”, what was to stop the animals in the Garden from eating of it and becoming wise?  The same question can be asked of the “tree of life” in Genesis 3:22.

I believe it is safe to assume that the story is figurative in significant ways.  I want to examine some of the specifics and then retell the story in a way that makes sense and agrees with the context of the Word.

I thought this was going to be a two-part blog, but the volume of information mandated that I break it up into three (possibly four?) blogs so as not to overwhelm the reader.  Failure to understand what is being conveyed in the ‘Fall of Man’ can be a deterrent to understanding what actually happened and how we may be repeating the ‘fall’ of Adam and Eve today.

I defined “fruit” in the last blog (it is a quick read . . . I’ll wait for you to check it out and come back).  I now want to expose the word “tree” so that we can understand that this is probably figurative, also.  But what these two words are conveying is powerful!

Tree is the Hebrew word, ‘ets (meaning tree, wood, plank, staff, stick, etc.).  We’ve all seen trees and we understand the physical nature of them – trees have stages of growth, just like humans (my thanks to arborday.org for the following analogies):

1.  Trees begin as a seed like humans, and like us, if they are watered and fed, they will grow and mature

2.  A tree that sinks good roots in good soil will be able to whether most storms.  Children who are taught well and have a basis in something ‘bigger’ than themselves (hopefully that something bigger is the Word of God – parable of the good seed in four different soils and the seed and tares (Matthew 13)) will be able to face opposition and stand despite it.

3.  A good tree will produce ‘good fruit’ (e.g., apples, pears, bananas, etc.) while a ‘bad tree’ will produce poisonous fruit (e.g., elderberries, apricot pits, ackee fruit, etc.).  Trees have no choice, but man can choose to produce good ‘fruit’ (i.e., works) or bad fruit.  The definition of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ fruit is vital, also.  Stay tuned for that.

4.  Once a tree reaches middle age, its branches thicken and they sag more.  Its roots (lower limbs) weaken and it becomes more susceptible to insects and disease.

A person may be compared to a tree:

¹ Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. ² But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. ³ And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Psalm 1:1-3

¹² The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. ¹³ Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God. ¹⁴ They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;

Psalm 92:12-14

• Nebuchadnezzar was compared to a ‘tall, strong, and fair’ tree (Daniel 4)
• David compares himself to a cedar tree (Psalm 52)

As well as a nation:

• The tribe of Judah is spoken of as a cedar tree (Ezekiel 17)
• The nation of Israel is compared to the fig tree, having both good and bad fruit (Jeremiah 24; Hosea 9:10)
• Yeshua curses the fig tree that has leaves, but no fruit (Matthew 24).  Israel looked good, but they were not doing unto Yahweh as they should.

The Olive Tree:

Olive trees denote beauty (Jer. 11:16, Hosea 14:6), abundance, and peace.  The dove returns to Noah’s Ark (Genesis 8:11) with an olive branch signifying the promise of the end of the great deluge.  Even today, the expression, “extending the olive branch”, means a promise to end hostilities between people and nations.

The oil of the olive is used in anointing, cooking, and lamps to provide light.

When an olive tree gets very old (often hundreds of years old) and has reached its maximum production, farmers usually cut it down to improve its future growth. Soon, new shoots grow from the old stump, and the tree begins producing olives again.

This aspect of the olive tree provides an image of Isaiah’s prophecy:

¹ And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: ² And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

Isa. 11:1-2

As a descendant of David, Yeshua was the shoot from the stump of Jesse (David’s father).

The word “branch”, here, is nёșer (branch, a family line).  Elsewhere, branch is used when translated from twenty-three (23) different Hebrew words.  Branch is almost always literally an outgrowth from a tree, but, also almost always figuratively used to denote a descendant, a tribe of Israel, or even entire classes of people (e.g., the Gentiles). *

Yeshua compares his Father to a gardener who cares for the plants in his garden:

¹ I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. ² Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth [prunes] it, that it may bring forth more fruit. ³ Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. ⁶ If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

John 15:1-6

Being of Israel is not enough.  Those Hebrew branches that do not produce “good fruit” are pruned from the tree and burned up in the fire.

The Apostle Paul refers to the ‘believing’ Gentiles as a branch that can and will be “grafted” into the native, olive branch (i.e., Israel – Romans 11:11-33).  Also:

² If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: ³ How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, ⁴ Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) ⁵ Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; ⁶ That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: (emphasis added)

Ephesians 3:2-6

This is not a new revelation.  Yahweh tell Moses,

⁴⁸ And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee, and will keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land: for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.  ⁴⁹ One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you [believing Gentile]. (Exodus 12:48-49 – see also, Leviticus 18:26; 24:22; Numbers 9:14; 15:14-16; )

Ruth, a Moabite (a race of people who were enemies of the children of Israel), adopts the faith of her mother-in-law Naomi (Ruth 1:16); becomes the wife of Boaz; and has a son named Obed, the grandfather of David.  This Gentile is in the Christ-line.

Similarly, Rahab, a harlot from Jericho who hid the spies that Joshua sent to search out the promised land and proclaimed that Yahweh was the one, true God (Joshua 2). James tells us that:

Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

James 2:25

Yeshua commanded the Apostles (before his ascension) to “make disciples of all nations”.  He had to give Peter a vision (Acts 10) to remind him that believing Gentiles were part of the kingdom because  they were not reaching out to anyone who was not Jewish.  Tradition had come to regard all Gentiles as ‘dogs’ and unclean – completely nullifying what Yahweh had told Israel dozens of times.

As a side note – if you think the vision of Acts 10 was telling Peter it is okay to eat pork rinds then you have taken the narrative completely out of the context of the Chapter, which begins by telling us of a devout, Roman centurion named Cornelius (a Gentile ‘dog’) and ends with Cornelius and his Gentile family receiving holy spirit and speaking in tongues.

To summarize what we have learned of the act that precipitated the Fall of Man:

1. The “fruit” that Adam and Eve ate of was not an actual apple.
2. The “fruit” of Genesis 3 may not have even been an actual piece of food.
3. The two trees (“Knowledge of Good and Evil” and “Life”) may not have been actual trees
4. Trees are often used figuratively to represent people, nations, or races of people.
5. Yahweh intends to take all the ‘believing’ branches for all the nations and graft them into one tree that bears “good fruit”.
6. The roots of that tree is anchored in the Word of God.

In the next blog(s), we will examine:

1. The “snake” that instructed Eve to eat of the ‘forbidden fruit’;
2. how evil “fruit” from evil “trees” caused Adam and Eve to fall;
3. how it necessitated the Flood;
4. how it is destroying believers (and would-be believers) today; and 
5. The definition of “good fruit”.

  Many before us have atoned for their sins, but recognizing the sin (bad fruit) is an important first step.  A copy of the Book of Enoch will help in the next Installment(s).  Free downloads are available at:

• http://www.markfoster.net/rn/Books_of_Enoch-All_Three.pdf
• https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-books-of-enoch-a-complete-volume-containing-1-enoch-the-ethiopic-book-of-enoch-2-enoch-the-slavonic-secrets-of-enoch-and-3-enoch-the-hebrew-book-of-enoch-e175621818.html
• http://scriptural-truth.com/images/BookOfEnoch.pdf

* – an interesting and very informative word study of the word “branch” comes from the Hebrew word, șemaḥ (growth, the Branch – as a messianic title).  It is used only five times in the OT and each one refers to the different perspectives of the four Gospels and Revelation (e.g., Zechariah 3:8 – ‘servant’.  Mark is written from the perspective of Yeshua as a servant).  I expand upon this in my book, Grafted: Embracing Torah (if I didn’t offer a shameless plug for my book in every blog, you might think I was outsourcing my articles).