FROM THE TREE TO THE CROSS

Man who is born of woman,
is few of days and full of trouble.
He comes forth like a flower
and fades away like a shadow
Job 14:1-2

God created the universe, and all that is in it to be inhabited, he did not create them in vain. Isaiah 45:18

He spoke the words, “Let Light Be” and the words became vibrations of light, matter, and energy that created all that we see when we look up into the heavens and see the milky way, the galaxies and the stars.
The heavens at night are breathtaking, the stars shine as bright as the angels because they probably are the angels in their still and resting forms.
The galaxies look like the breath of God swirling like the vapor of breath in the cold still air. Yet the heavens seem frozen in time, lifeless and cold, almost as if they are waiting for something.

           Let there be Division?

In the beginning, God created division. The book of Genesis is a book of division.
When God created the earth he separated everything so that there would be division and a difference between one and the other, so that every aspect of life and reality could be tested, tried and experienced in a spectrum of light and varying environments so that we could experience the difference between hot and cold, good and bad.
He divided the light from the dark, the waters in the sky from the waters on the earth, and the water on the earth from the dry land beneath.

A garden is placed in Eden, and God took from the dust of the earth and put his spirit into it to form a man like his Image with his goodness and character and to be the administrator over all the earth.
But the man was not content to be alone and without a partner.            God knowing his creation, did one last final division, he divided man from himself, he took the feminine side of Adam and formed a woman with it so that individualy they would be the opposite and incomplete, but when they found each other and joined together they would compliment each other to form a whole, and become one again.
With silent reverence, all watched this moment of the creation and union of man and woman but there were some watching that had evil growing in their hearts at this scene.
A serpent became prideful and jealous of this man that would have dominion over him, so the prideful serpent set out to do his own division and decided to divide man from God by first dividing him from the woman God had created for him named Eve.
“Did God say to you, do not eat from the tree? the serpent asked Eve with a smile.
Eve replied, “God said we may eat from all of the trees, but from the tree in the middle of the garden we can not eat from it, God said we can not even touch it or we will die.”
But God did not tell Eve not to touch it. She added to the word of God and distorted it.
Adam had not explained to Eve the word of God and this allowed the serpent a weakness to exploit.
So as he climbs up the tree the serpent says to Eve why would God say that you would die, he did not say that to you but to Adam and he did not mean to death he would die, but only that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods and no longer men, your ignorance would die because you will know of the choice of good and evil just as God does.
Eve ponders this new information and possibility and because the fruit does not look like something that would kill her and because she is younger and less experienced then Adam she to would like to be wise.
As she reaches out to take a fruit from the tree, the serpent smiles and revels in his accomplishment, in a mere moment he will have succeeded in his goal which was to show to God the inferiority of man and he will do so by getting man to kill himself by eating the fruit that God told him would kill him.
He became the first murderer even though he thought he was clever enough and deceitful enough to have hidden the murder in this trick of man killing himself.

After eve ate of the fruit her eyes were indeed opened and she did see and understand more then she had before. Suddenly the whole world before her was no longer simple and easy but complicated and filled with choices and decisions and with these choices came voices, so many voices pulling her this way and that until she felt overwhelmed with it all and thats when she finally realized, her connection with God and his spirit had been severed, she was instantly filled with anxiety and doubt, she felt immediate panic and loneliness, in fear she fled to Adam he would know what to do, “it was only a mistake the serpent tricked her yes that’s it It’s the serpents fault”, when she finds Adam not far from her she immediately begins weeping out of fear and shame.
As she tells Adam the events and shows Him the fruit still in her hand, his heart drops he knows what has transpired.
Only a short while ago his heart was filled with joy and a sense of purpose and belonging that was unshakable because the living God who had created everything was his friend and had made him a mate to spend his life with.
He could think of nothing that would add to his happiness, but now everything has changed, now what God has told him not to do Eve has done and she will die, there is no way around it because God can not lie.
Even if Adam were to beg for her life and even though God loved Adam enough to grant him his request, allowing Eve to live would have made what he said a lie when he said in the day that you eat from it you will die.
He feels the loss of Eve even before this event takes place, and immediately, his mind goes back to how he felt before God made Eve.
He was complete in the love of God yet alone when God was not in his presence,
He decided to join Eve in her fate and to eat also from the fruit. He would rather die with her than be alone again without his other half. In a way, he knew that the Love of God would triumph no matter how this turned out, but he knew that either way, death would be required of it. So he took the fruit from her hand and looked in her eyes as he also took a bite
Eve gasped at seeing Adam do this.
Her knees grew weak as she began to fall like water being poured out on the ground.
A vision began to play before his eyes, the tree of life vanished from sight and Eve transformed into the tree of the knowledge of good and evil with its large spreading branches and beautiful green leaves that began to wither away and dry out until all the leaves had fallen off.
The branches began to crack and splinter until even they began to fall to the ground. All that was left was the trunk and two branches that formed the shape of a T.
Lightning flashed and thunder cracked and a great storm appeared out of nowhere causing a darkness to cover the garden, suddenly the tree now held a man suspended from his hands by the branches writhing in pain and a crown of thorns on his head, as Adam tried to see who the man was he fell back in shock when a flash of lightning lit up the face of the man who appeared as both his own and the fathers.
Blood begins to drip down the tree from a wound in his chest and the nails in his hands and feet, holding him firmly to the trunk.
The blood drips upon a golden box at the base of the tree,
It has the appearance of both a throne with two angels on either side and an altar with handles in the base.
As the blood drips and slowly covers the mercy seat, the storm begins to calm the lightning slows its flashes until the sun begins to shine, the blood ceases to flow when the two angels on either side of the throne suddenly become alive and fly up to the man to remove the nails out of his hands and feet and gently place him on his throne that used to be an altar.
They remove the crown of thorns, and on his head, they place a golden crown as the angels bow down and praise him for redeeming the world by giving up his life to pay the debt of death from sin.
A trickle of water begins to flow from the base of the throne that turns into a stream and then a river. The garden springs back to life, and the tree of life grows from a vine that shoots out from the back of the throne and covers the trunk where the tree of sin stood.
Adam is amazed at this vision but does not understand it
He is a creature of time and is not capable of understanding that God is a spirit outside of time because he created time.
God knew that Adam would make the choice he made to give up and sacrifice his life and partake of sin to be with Eve. Just as he knew that the  serpent would become prideful and deceive Eve in order to kill man. But he allowed it to happen so that he could come down in the form of a man and give his life for Adam’s and redeem him by proving his love for him because just as Jesus said
“Greater love has no one than this:
to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

His name is Yeshua, he is the YHWH yod hey vav hey, the unspeakable name of the LORD in the bible, which literally means hand behold nail behold.  He is the Aleph and the Tav, the first and the last.  He is the light that was created by God and his Word in the very beginning because God knew that we would leave him at a tree and that at a tree he would die for us so that  we would have one more chance to go back to him but only if we choose him instead of us

His name is Jesus, and he showed the true darkness and intentions of their hearts by letting them put him to death on the cross.
He then proved that he is the Son of God when he conquered death and rose from the grave the very same day that Noah’s ark rested on the mountainside.
One day very soon he will return once more but this time he will not be the kind and gentle person of the Gospels but will reap the earth of what fruit of his remains and will flood the earth with fire and punish the seed of the serpent once and for all.

We can choose to ignore God and his calling for us to find him but one day in the end he will hold you in his hand to see you, the real you that can not hide. So now is the time for you to ask yourself

What kind of fruit are you?

I don’t know when or in what way there will be a judgment day for us

Jesus said no one knows the day or the hour, so don’t let anyone ever tell you when it will happen

But I do know that it is coming for Lucifer and those who have embraced sin into their hearts

I know that I will never be foolish enough to live a life that ends with me going to hell with them

But I can imagine that if there is a judgment day for me , the scales of justice will be calibrated

and the witnesses brought forward
to give testimony of my sins and mistakes

I can imagine Lucifer is the prosecutor

his suit is as black as his heart

and he has carefully crafted his case against me

to show without a shadow of a doubt
That I have sinned

and have fallen short of the Glory of God

And as he closes with his last witness
and rests his case

the scale is tipped against me.

My heart is found wanting

My soul begins to feel weak

my public defender stands up

his name is Jesus

his suit is Light

and as he walks up to the stand

and approaches the scale

a drop of blood falls from his hand 

the scale slams to the ground

and shatters to pieces

as he looks to me and says

this one is mine. I paid for him

Lucifer weeps as the gavel is slammed,

and God says case dismissed on account of the cross

So bring on my court date Lucifer

“I AM” ready for it.

only, and I mean only because of Jesus

There is Nothing I did. Nothing I said.

Nothing I gave away, and Nothing I paid for

that made me forgiven and worthy but for Jesus

Genesis 18:3-4
My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.

Did Abraham know and understand the significance of these two verses when he spoke them?
Did he know that 2000 years later Jesus would return the gesture of his friend and humble servant Abraham by washing the feet of men at the passover supper before he would be hung on a tree and rest for three days

John 13:6-7
Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?”
Jesus answered and said to him, 
“What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

John 8:56
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”

Genesis 18:17   And the  Lord said,  “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing“

It’s possible that Abraham did understand that this simple act of kindness to wash the LORD’S feet and provide a meal while they rested was ordained and meant to happen and that the symbolism of his humbleness and kindness would reverberate across time and space until it’s eventual fullfilment in the last supper and the cross.

The wording of the scriptures throughout chapter 18 of Genesis seems to call attention to the parallels that would happen first in Exodus 12 with the passover Lamb, and then later in all four of the gospels in the fullfilment of the passover ritual when Jesus became the passover Lamb whose blood would cause the wrath of God to pass over us.

Exodus 12:13
And when I see the blood, I will pass over you

The Bread of Abraham

Genesis 18:5-6
I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by,
They said, “Do as you have said.”
So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.

Bread or cakes can not be made quickly with yeast because it would have needed hours to rise, so this would have been unleavened bread that Sarah prepared and cooked for this meal in a hurry
Which is paralleled again in

Exodus 12:39 
And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they had brought out of Egypt; for it was not leavened, because they were driven out of Egypt and could not wait

Jesus gave a reference that paralleled Sarah and this moment of her making bread in
Matthew 13:33
“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.”

But leaven or yeast is always a symbolic reference to sin in the bible.

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Just as the washing of the feet of the LORD by Abraham was returned in kind by the LORD washing the feet of his disciples
So to was the offering of bread by Abraham returned with the offering of the true bread given to men which is the Word of God made flesh in the man who was Jesus.

Luke 22:19
He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

John 6:48-58 
I Am the bread of life, which I shall give for the life of the world
“This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead.
He who eats this bread will live forever.”

John 6:4-13 Now the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was near. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward Him

Then Jesus said, “Make the people sit down.” And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.  So when they were filled, He said to His disciples, “Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.” Therefore they gathered  them up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten. 

Jesus is the same LORD who appeared to Abraham beneath the oak tree where he washed his feet and ate what would become the symbol of the passover meal of unleavened bread and passover Lamb that was sacrificed in order to spare God’s people from death and bring them out of slavery.

John 8:57-58
Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

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So why is all of this symbolism of the passover in this one chapter of Genesis 18 but not the passover lamb?
After all, Abraham prepared a calf for the meal, not a lamb

It’s because Isaac, the promised son soon to be born who would later symbolically represent the sacrifice of Jesus and the passover lamb, had finally been conceived in the womb of Sarah.

Genesis 18:14
At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

“The time of life”  is meant to describe in the season of spring, which later became the time of passover.

Isaac became the symbolic representation of Jesus and the passover lamb when Abraham once again obeyed a command of God that seemed like he understood its historical and symbolic significance when God asked him to bring Isaac to Mount Moriah and offer him there as a sacrifice.
Abraham never questioned or doubted this unusual command because he understood that God always has a plan and that his faith in the promise of God to make Isaac into more offspring then the stars was a part of that plan. 

Genesis 22:6  So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. 

John 19:17 And Jesus, bearing His cross, went up to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified Him.

When Isaac asked Abraham,
Father, where is the lamb?
Abraham replied  “My Son, God will provide for Himself the Lamb.

when John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him he said     “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  John 1:29

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God stopped Abraham before he could complete his command because this was only a display of Abraham’s faith and a testament pointing to the future when Mount Moriah would later become Jerusalem where Solomon would build the temple and Jesus the Son of God would become the Lamb that God provided to be sacrificed on a tree.

The place where Jesus was hung on the tree was directly above the garden tomb of Joseph of Arimathea where Jesus was laid for three days before he rose from his rest.
Pointing once again to that 4th verse in
Genesis 18:4 when Abraham said to the LORD
Wash your feet and rest yourself under the tree.

This may all seem like inference or conjecture on my part and is simply a coincidence, but let me ask one last question, and then I will leave it up to you to decide what it means.

Later, in chapter 18, verses 23-33
Abraham pleads with the LORD to spare Sodom if there is at least 10 righteous people found in the city.

So why did he not ask for 4, which would have accounted for Lot his wife and 2 daughters.
Or 6, which would have added in his 2 sons in law?
why 10?

Once again, this is a symbol pointing towards the passover but not of Sodom or of Egypt because they were both destroyed, but rather the passover on the day of the death of the true passover Lamb that God provided for us all who is Jesus.
And on that day, the wrath of God was kindled towards men because they had denied his son in their hearts and instead hung him on the cross.

Matthew 27:45-54
Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, 
“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, 
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, “This Man is calling for Elijah!” Immediately one of them ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink.

The rest said, “Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.”

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.

Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

God could have destroyed the whole world on that day that they crucified his only son instead of accepting him into their hearts, and he would have been justified in doing so.
But he didn’t for two reasons
One because he already knew that they would do this and that is why the blood of the passover Lamb became a covenant promise to the jews that when God seen the blood of the innocent lamb he would passover them.
And two, because of Abraham’s plea with God to spare them if he found at least 10 righteous in the city.

So how do we know that there were 10 righteous in the city?
Actually, there was one more than 10
There were 12 disciples. One had betrayed Jesus and then killed himself (judas)
The other had denied him three times (peter), but that didn’t stop him from being his disciple.
So there were at least 11 righteous in the city that caused God’s wrath and judgment to passover as Abraham had requested.
But a day is coming when there will be no more righteous to hold back God’s wrath, and the earth will be punished like Sodom and Egypt.
But then on that promised day, we will all get to hear Abraham himself tell us the story of the day that he humbly washed the feet of God beneath a tree.