The Tree part 1
Logan and I were talking about this the other morning before school, so I thought I'd Rant about it and probably do a podcast episode about it too. Because it's interesting, and because I think it's powerful. That's one thing I always try to do with my ministry--Word Without Walls is about making the gospel as available as possible. Just presenting it in a way that is easy to accept, and to use. Making it practical. Giving people something that will actually help them in their daily lives. Not something to choke on, but certainly something to chew on. So, anyway, this discussion started with Logan saying something about the "forbidden fruit." He said it was an apple. Which is what we kind of generally accept. But I told him that I don't think it WAS an apple, and that the Bible doesn't SAY it was an apple. I told him I think it was a fig. He asked why. And we really got into a deep dive. Watch this: "The woman was conviced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. The she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves" (Genesis 3:6-7 NLT). After eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves. See what I'm saying? They were naked... and ashamed... and covered themselves with what was on hand. And before we go any further I want to point out that nakedeness wasn't man's problem. They were naked the day before and nobody cared. Certainly God never cared. It didn't bother Him. But once their eyes were opened and it bothered THEM... that's when it became a problem. Once man felt the need to cover up his nakedness... that's when it became an issue. And watch this, because this is an expression of love that I think is sometimes hard to really even understand: "And the LORD God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife" (Genesis 3:21 NLT). God didn't have a problem with man's nakedness... but He had a problem with man's problem. Or He had a problem with man HAVING a problem. So even though it wasn't something God cared about... He cared about the person who cared about it... and He solved the problem. Covering up your mistake with more mistakes doesn't help. Eating a fig and then covering yourself with fig leaves is almost like wearing it like a scarlet letter. A constant reminder. That's not what God wanted. So He showed Adam and Eve a more excellent way. He covered them with animal skins. And in the same way that I believe Adam and Eve took what was on hand... I believe God did too. I believe He covered them with Lamb skin. Covered them with Jesus. Jesus IS our covering. Our protection. He is out refuge and our hiding place. Our safe place. He is why, and how, we can carry on even though we make mistakes. Even though we don't always listen to God's warning. And that's what we're going to get into tomorrow--the truth that God wasn't saying, "If you eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil I'm going to kill you." That's not what He said at all. But that's kind of how we've presented it. Unfortunately. Tragically. We've presented God as someone who gets mad when He doesn't get His own way. When, in fact, what we see is that He is more than willing to fix our problems--that we create for ourselves--by giving us Himself. And don't worry, by the time we're done with this Rant series we're going to see that it's not the fig tree that mattered at all. That tree couldn't produce any fruit. We're going to see that the tree that matters is the Tree of Life!