Preparation #19 (The Two Trees)
Brian Kocourek
This evening we will again take our message from
paragraph 17 of Brother Branham's sermon Preparation
where he said, In the garden of Eden there were two trees: one was Life, one was knowledge. Man left the Tree of Life to eat off the
tree of knowledge. Tonight, I would like to examine these words in more
detail. Therefore if you will open your Bibles to the Book of Genesis chapter
one, we will begin by reading verse 11.
GENESIS 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the
fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose
seed [is] in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12
And the earth brought forth grass, [and] herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding
fruit, whose seed [was] in itself, after his kind: and God saw that [it was]
good.
In verse 11 and 12 we see the law of reproduction.
Every seed must bring forth after it's kind. This word kind spoken of in verse
12 is a Hebrew word miyn and is pronounced meen. The word means specie and refers
to nature. "Let every seed bring
forth after it's own specie or nature". Therefore, God's Law of
reproduction speaks totally against hybreeding. For hybreeding would bring
together two different specie or natures and produce a life that is not natural. Then we can see that God's Law of
reproduction is meant to be a protective law that would preserve the specie or
nature that He placed in the seed.
Now, up to this point we also see in these two verses
of scripture that God has placed these seeds upon the earth at this time by His spoken Word. They are not yet
planted in the earth but the
scripture plainly says they are upon (up - on) the earth.
Now, we know that you can not see Life, you can only
see the attributes of life, such as the color, or scent, or other attributes
such the texture, growth rate etc. Therefore life is a spirit. It is invisible,
and can only be seen by it's many attributes which it displays. When God spoke
these words, the seeds that He placed upon the earth were yet in spirit form.
There were no manifestation of these seeds at this time. But God's Word laid
out the ordained path in which they were to multiply. And God said, Let the earth
bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, [and] the fruit tree yielding
fruit after his kind, whose seed [is] in
itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth
grass, [and] herb yielding seed after
his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed [was] in itself, after
his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.
Now, it would appear here that the reproduction is
already taking place, but it is not. At least not in the visible sense of the
word, for we will see later in verse 14-15 that the sun is not yet created, and
if no light of the sun, no life can manifest itself upon the earth. GENESIS 1:14 ¶ And God said, Let there be lights in the
firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for
signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15
And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light
upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater
light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the
stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the
heaven to give light upon the earth
18 And to rule over the day and
over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that [it
was] good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the
fourth day.
Further more, we will also see in verse that these seeds are to be planted in the
earth and when they are planted in the earth, then they will grow up out of the
earth as God's law dictates in verse 12.
Notice in verse 12 that the earth is to bring
forth. That means that they would have to
come forth out from the earth, but to this point the seeds are only up and on
the earth. They have yet to be planted. But we see in verse 12 the order in
which they are to come forth.
Thus, #1) In verse 11 we see the spoken Word seed going
forth and producing seeds. #2) These
seeds are placed up and on the earth #3) they are awaiting there planting in
order to spring forth into manifestation out from the earth. This then is the order in which they are to
come forth.
Then if we carefully read on in chapter 1 we see all
the animals and all the creatures of the sea being spoken into existence and
finally man. GENESIS
24 ¶
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind,
cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was
so. 25
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after
their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and
God saw that [it was] good. 26 ¶
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his [own] image, in
the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon
the earth. 29 ¶
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which
[is] upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which [is] the
fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to
every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein [there is] life, [I have
given] every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31
¶ And God saw every thing that he
had made, and, behold, [it was] very good. And the evening and the morning were
the sixth day.
Now, if we continue reading in chapter 2 we shall find
that this is not another account of creation, but a continuation of the same
creation account. In chapter One we see only God's spoken Word going forth and
speaking into existence spirit beings. But in chapter 2, we see God clothing
these spirit beings with the dust of the earth.
GENESIS 2:1 ¶
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of
them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work
which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he
had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and
sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God
created and made.
4
¶ These [are] the generations of
the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD
God made the earth and the heavens, Notice
this word generations is used. It is a Hebrew word, towldah pronounced to led
aw, and means the proceedings, or the account of or the results of the creation.
5
And every plant of the field before
it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the
earth, and [there was] not a man to till the ground.
Now, I want you to notice then, that we are only given an account of the
creation up to this point, as the spoken word life, (the spirit life) of each
seed and animal. We know this to be true because we are told that this account
of the proceedings is before it was in the earth. 5 And
every plant of the field before it was
in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew
6 But
there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the
ground. 7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust
of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living soul. Now, in chapter 1:26-27 we see that God had already
created man in His Own Image.
Now, notice here that up to this point God had created
man in His Image. And we know that, "God
is a spirit, and they that Worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and Truth",
because that is what Jesus told us Himself in John 4:24.
Now, we see in Genesis
1:26 God speak it, ¶
And God said, Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness: And
in verse 27 God performs what He spoke… 27 So God created man in his [own] image, in
the image of God created he him;. Then
in chapter 2 we see God cloth man in dust, giving him manifestation 7
And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Before we go any further, let's just clear up a few
things right here. God is speaking and God
said, Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness: Now, who is He talking to here? He says, Let us! And then He says our Image! Who is the Image of God in
the first place?
Hebrews 1: 1-3 ¶ God, who at sundry times and in divers
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by [his] Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person,
(The expressed image... or the out-raying or etching of God.) and upholding all
things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
4 ¶ Being made so much better
than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than
they. 5 For unto which of the angels said he at any
time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to
him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
And the AMPLIFIED
version says of Him, "He
is the sole expression of the Glory of God, - the Light-being, the out-raying
of the Divine, - and He is the perfect imprint and very image of God's nature,"
129
HEBREWS.CHAPTER.1 -- JEFF.IN -- HEB 1-32 -- 57-0821 Now,
here's what happened. Oh! (excuse me),
This just gets me right where I love it. See? The Logos, and this Great
Fountain; this Great Fountain of Spirit
which had no beginning or no end. This Great Spirit began to form in the
creation, and the Logos that went out
from It was the Son of God. It was the only visible form that the Spirit
had. And It was a theophany, which
means a body, and the body was like a man.
From the Sermon, QA
ON GENESIS 53-0729 010 "out
of God came the Logos, which was the Son of God; then out of the Logos,
which was the Word ("In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us."), out of the Logos came forth the man. 012 Now, "No man has seen the Father at
anytime." No man can see God in the
bodily form, because God is not in body form; God is a Spirit. See? All
right. "No man has seen the Father, but the only begotten of the Father
hath declared Him," I John... See? Now, but notice now, there's nothing; there's just space. There's no light;
there's no dark; there's no nothing; it's just seems nothing. But in there is a
great supernatural Being, Jehovah God, …013 And now, the next thing we
begin to see, by eyes of supernatural looking, we see a little white Light forming out there. What is that? That was
called, by Bible readers, "Logos,"
or "the anointed," or "the anointing," or as I was going to
say, the part of God begin to develop
into something so human beings could have some type of an idea what It was: it
was a little, a little Light moving. That
was the Word of God. Now, God gave
Himself birth to this Son which was before there was even an atom in the, or
air to make an atom. That was... See, Jesus said, "Glorify Me, Father,
with the glory that We had before the foundation of the world." See, way
back in yonder... 018 And then He asked
this question now. "Let us (Who? Father and Son) make man in Our own
image." Now, if a man was made something like that little sacred Light
yonder, or something like that, It could not be seen (which is a spiritual
Being). … And here was God, unfolded Himself now, down into "let us make
man (which was His son, an offspring from Him) man in Our own image (He was a
supernatural being.), and let him have dominion over the cattles of the field,
and so forth." Now, the man led the cattle and everything, just like the
Holy Spirit leads a real true believer today. The voice of man, would speak and say... call the cattle this
way, call the sheep over to this pasture, call the fishes to this water. See,
he had dominion; everything obeyed him. 019
Now, but then there was no man to till the soil (Genesis 2), no man to
till the soil. "And then God formed man (Genesis 2:7) out of the dust of
the earth." Now, we follow it; He formed man out of the dust of the earth,
and put this supernatural Spirit...
Now, in getting back to this creation scene, we pick
up in chapter 2 and verse 8 ¶
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the
man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to
grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; Now, let's stop here just for a
moment, and I would like for you to notice that God is now planting. The
Scripture tells us that God plants, and then out from the ground comes forth
every tree that is good for food and pleasant tot he sight. I can just imagine all the color and aroma
and beautiful fruit coming forth from this garden.
But if you carefully notice all the trees that were
planted in the ground by God were good for food or the sight. But let's read
on, because we find that there are two other trees which are found also in this
garden but we do not know how they got there, because these two are not said to
be planted. . 9
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight, and good for food;
the tree of life also (is) in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge
of good and evil.
Now, let's skip ahead to verse 15… 15
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to
dress it and to keep it. 16 ¶
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die. 18 ¶
And the LORD God said, [It is] not good that the man should be alone; I
will make him an help meet for him.
19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and
every fowl of the air; and brought [them] unto Adam to see what he would call
them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that [was] the name
thereof. 20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to
the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was
not found an help meet for him.
Now, remember, in chapter one everything God spoke
forth, all life forms that God spoke forth did come forth in a spirit form
only. But now, God is bringing them also into manifestation by clothing them of
the dust of the earth. Therefore, just
remember this…The Spoken word is the original seed. Now, we promised that we would examine where
these two other trees came from. As you have seen in chapter two, God planted
every tree in the garden except two of them. These two trees are different from
all other trees, because all the other trees were planted, but these two trees
were not planted. So, where did these two trees come from, and what or shall we
say who were these two trees.
In order to be able to distinguish between two of
anything, we must have a way to categorize them. Since the Law of reproduction
was that every seed must bring forth only after it's own kind, then we have a
principle laid down. And that is this, if every seed has a life within it, and
every seed can bring forth only after it's own kind or nature, then we must
look at the nature of these two trees which were not planted and see what their
nature tells us about them.
After all, in any field of science we designate
differences based upon what we can see. This is called empirical data which is
observable data. We can tell the
difference between a maple tree and an oak tree by empirical data. The shape of
the leaves, the nature of the bark, the shape of the tree, etc. This form of
science is called Botany, which is a branch of Biology that deals with plants,
their life, their structures, their growth, their characteristics, and thus
their classifications. Therefore, if we
are to understand the differences between these two trees which were in the
garden but were not planted there, we must begin by examining there characteristics
in order to be able to define their nature.
The first one we shall examine is this tree of Life.
Notice it's name speaks of life. It is
the Tree of Life. Now, if we are to find anything out about this Tree we
must go to the Source of Life, which is
God Himself, and He since he is the Word, then if we are to find out about this
tree of Life, we must go tot he Word of God.
We already know that God is the Source of all Life. In
the beginning God was a great fountain of Life as we see in PSALMS
36:9 "For with thee [is] the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see
light.' We also found that John
recognized this attribute of God as well. John
1: 1 ¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning
with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him
was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the
life was the light of men.
God was alone in the beginning, and in Him was Life. And as He began to bring
forth this Life, it first went into His Son. So we see, God, the great Fountain
of Life, began to bring forth His great plan to fulfill Himself, and He began
this fulfillment by bringing forth first a Son. We find in JOHN 5:26 "For
as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in
himself;"
Now, one thing that we must not forget, Adam was not
forbidden to eat from the Tree of Life. He was only forbidden to eat from the
tree of knowledge. In the Book of REVELATION 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life,
which is in the midst of the paradise of God. So we see that God wanted man
to eat from the tree of Life, but before he could, he had already partook from
the tree of Knowledge, and when he did this, he had to reap the promise,
"The day you eat thereof, that day you shall surely die."
GENESIS 2:16 ¶ And
the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die. Therefore, man could have eaten from the tree of Life.
But notice what happened after he had eaten from the forbidden tree of
knowledge. GENESIS 3:22-24 ¶
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know
good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree
of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from
the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at
the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned
every way, to keep the way of the tree of life..
Therefore, God sent forth a fiery sword in the hands
of the cherubims to keep, protect and guard the way of the tree of Life. Man
could not eat from the Tree of life in his fallen condition.
Now, so far we haven't seen too much concerning this
Tree of Life. We know that in it are the essential characteristics of Life and
this Life came from God who is the fountain of Life. But why is it described as
a tree. That is what throws men off in their search for the truth. God uses
types and shadows and men then are left to themselves to decipher what is not
meant for them to know. Remember in Matthew 13 Jesus said "it is for you to know the mysteries of the
Kingdom, but for those on the outside it is not meant for them to know,
therefore, He speaks to us in parables." Therefore we must know what the symbolism
of this Tree represents.
PSALMS 1:1-3 PSALMS
1:1 ¶
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. 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.
Now, there is
no doubt that the scripture metaphorically speaks of men as trees. We found
this in the first Psalm, where a righteous man is likened to a tree that is
planted by the river of water, and we find it also in the Book of Jude where it
refers to the natural man.
JUDE 1:10
But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they
know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 11
Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily
after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of
Core. 12 These are spots in your feasts of charity,
when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds [they are]
without water, carried about of winds; trees
whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
And we see trees represent men in general as we see
in MARK
8:22 ¶ And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a
blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. 23
And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and
when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he
saw ought. 24 And he looked up, and said, I see men as
trees, walking.
But Who then is this tree of Life? We find our answer
in the Book of ISAIAH 53:1
¶ Who hath believed our report?
and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a
dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him,
[there is] no beauty that we should desire him.
Now, all Bible readers know that this speaks of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see then that He is the tree of Life that was in
the Garden. Then who was this other tree,
the tree of knowledge. Well, we have
already seen in the Book of Jude that those who are called brute beasts are
also called trees. but what they know
naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 11
Woe unto them! for they are trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by
the roots;
Therefore, if the scripture speaks of men, both the
righteous and the unrighteous, as trees. Then if they are trees, they would
have to be descended from trees, for every seed must bring forth after it's
kind. Now, don't think it strange that
men are likened to trees, after all men are also likened to wheat and tares,
and as the grass of the field. But for
this study we will look only at the metaphorical view as trees, since we are
dealing with these two individuals in the Garden of Eden that were not planted
there. Now, Brother Branham taught us
that these two trees were Christ and Satan. From the Church Age Book, he said, "We
start with the fact that there were TWO trees in the midst of the garden. The
Tree of Life was Jesus. The other tree is definitely Satan because of what came
forth of the fruit of that tree. Now then, we know that both of those trees had
a relationship to man or they would never have been placed there."
Another thing we must understand is if one tree was
the Tree of Life, then the other called the tree of Knowledge was also the tree
of death, "for in the day you eat thereof, that day you die" is what
God said. We hear brother Branham tell
us the same in the message, The Pool
Of Bethesda 50-0811 "In the garden of Eden, there were two trees. One of them was the Tree of Life. When man eat from that tree, he'd
lived forever. And the other was the
tree of knowledge, which was the tree of death, which was the tree of
sickness."
FAITH ONCE DELIVERED TO SAINTS
53-1129A Now, the Tree of Life, I believe, was Jesus Christ. "He that eats
My flesh and drinks My Blood has Everlasting Life." He is the Tree of
Life.
97-4 EPHESIAN CHURCH AGE -
CHURCH AGE BOOK CPT 3 But
what is the Tree Of Life? Well, first of all we would have to know what the
tree itself stands for. In Numbers 24:6, as Balaam described Israel, he said
they were "trees of lign aloes (perfume trees) which the Lord hath
planted." Trees throughout the Scriptures refer to persons, as in Psalms
1. Thus the Tree Of Life must be the
Person of Life, and that is Jesus. Now in the Garden of Eden there were two
trees standing in the midst of it. One was the Tree Of Life, the other was the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man was to live by the Tree Of Life;
but he was not to touch the other tree or he would die. But man did partake of
the other tree, and when he did, death entered into him by his sin, and he
became separated from God. Now that Tree back there in Eden, that Tree which
was the source of life, was Jesus. In John, chapters six through eight, Jesus
sets Himself forth as the source of eternal life. He called Himself the Bread
from heaven. He spoke of giving Himself and that if a man ate of Him he would
never die. He proclaimed that He knew Abraham, and that before Abraham, He WAS.
He prophesied that He Himself would give them living waters that if man drank
he would never thirst again, but would live eternally. He showed Himself as the
GREAT I AM. He is the Bread Of Life, the Well Of Life, the Eternal One, the
TREE OF LIFE. He was back there in Eden in the midst of the garden even as He
will be in the midst of the paradise of God. Some have an idea that the two
trees in the garden were just two more trees like unto the rest of those that
God had placed there. But careful students know that this is not so. When John
the Baptist cried that the axe was laid to the root of all trees, he was not
talking of simply natural trees, but of spiritual principles. Now in I John
5:11 it says, "And this is the RECORD, that God hath given to us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son." Jesus said in John 5:40, "And ye
will not come to Me, that ye might have life." Thus the record, God's
Word, states plainly and clearly that LIFE, ETERNAL LIFE, is in the Son. It is
no other place. I John 5:12, "He that hath the Son hath LIFE; and he that
hath not the Son of God hath NOT Life." Now since the record cannot
change, be taken from or added thereunto, then the record stands that THE LIFE
IS IN THE SON... Since this is so, THE TREE IN THE GARDEN HAS TO BE JESUS. All
right. If the Tree Of Life is a person, then the Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil is a person ALSO. It can't be otherwise. Thus the Righteous One and
the Wicked One stood side by side there in the midst of the Garden of Eden.
Ezekiel
28:12b- Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou
sealest up the sum,( though sealest up the Token, the pattern) full
of wisdom,( fullness of Wisdom) and perfect
in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;
every precious stone [was] thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond,
the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the
carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was
prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14
Thou [art] the anointed cherub
that covereth; and I have set thee [so]: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down
in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou [wast] perfect in thy ways from
the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.( the
word iniquity here is a Hebrew word evel and it speaks of un-right-wise-ness
and having a wrong word in his mouth) 16
By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee
with violence, and thou hast sinned:
therefore I will cast thee as profane ( or polluted) out of the mountain of
God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones
of fire. 17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy
beauty, thou hast corrupted (perverted)
thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I
will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may
behold thee. 18 Thou
hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the
iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of
thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in
the sight of all them that behold thee.
19 All they that know thee
among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never [shalt] thou [be] any more.