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עֵץ (Etz): Tree, Wood, and Life · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. So what if I told you that a
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single three letter ancient word connects the perfection of the
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Garden of Eden, the wood of your kitchen table, and, well, the
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horrifying brutality of capital punishment?
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It is quite a lot for one word to hold.
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It really is. I mean, usually when you sit
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down to read the English translation of the Bible, there
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is an assumption of immediate clarity.
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You expect it to be like looking through a perfectly clean,
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transparent window. You read the word tree and your
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brain instantly conjures up an oak in a Meadow.
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You know, complete with green leaves, a massive root system,
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and a solid trunk. It is a living, breathing
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Organism. Yes, a biological entity.
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But then maybe a few tractors later, you read the word would
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and your brain conjures up a stack of two by fours at a
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hardware store. Or maybe a finely carved dining
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chair. Yeah, harvested material.
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In our modern Western minds, 1 is a lot five and the other is
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dead. It is an absolute binary.
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We do not cross those streams. That is highly accurate
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regarding our modern linguistic habits.
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We prefer our physical reality to be neatly sorted into clear,
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distinct boxes based on its current state of existence.
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We really do. We categorize the world by what
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it's doing right now. If it has SAP flowing through
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it, well, it belongs to botany. If it is run through a sawmill,
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it belongs to carpentry or construction.
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But then you step into the world of biblical Hebrew, and suddenly
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that neat binary categorization completely shatters.
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It shatters completely. We find ourselves looking at an
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ancient linguistic landscape that flat out refuses to make
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that distinction today. The mission of this deep dive is
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to examine a stack of lexical, linguistic, and theological
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dictionary sources surrounding one single Biblical Hebrew.
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Word. And that word is a pronounced A
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or it's. Understanding the single root
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unlocks a massive overarching narrative of scripture.
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I mean, we are talking about a concept that spans from God's
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initial creation mandates to the daily grind of an ancient
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Israelite farmer, all the way to the theology of execution and
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redemption. To set the baseline for you.
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This specific word appears over 330 times in the Old Testament.
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That is a lot of occurrences. It is a massive sample size for
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us to look at. The linguistic premise we are
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dealing with today is fascinating.
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As you just established, English rigidly differentiates between a
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living tree and the dead material of wood, right?
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But ancient Hebrew uses this single, solitary word for both
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states of being. Whether you are looking at a
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living, majestic cedar growing on the snowy peaks of Mount
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Lebanon OR you are holding a carved wooden spoon in your
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kitchen, the ancient Israelite writer uses the exact same word.
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OK, let's unpack this from our specific theological framework.
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Let's do it. As Protestants.
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Adhering strictly to the Westminster Confession, we hold
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that all aspects of creation fall under God's sovereign
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decree. Amen to that.
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The Confession states that God, the great Creator of all things
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does uphold, direct, dispose and gush and all creatures actions
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and things. Everything from the greatest to
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the least. Yes, from the greatest to the
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least. This seemingly minor linguistic
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detail, using one unified word for the living Organism and the
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harvested material, reflects a massive theological.
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Reality, it really does. Whether it is a living cedar
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providing necessary shade in a harsh climate, or a carved
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wooden idol exposing the total corruption of the human heart,
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it all falls under God's absolute Providence.
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Both the living and the dead timber reveal the human
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condition in our relationship to the Creator.
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To really grasp the weight of this, we have to establish the
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basic meaning and the ancient new Eastern origins of the word
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before we look at how it functions in biblical
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narratives. I agree.
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When linguists examine the etymology, they trace it back to
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a primitive by radical root. In academic circles, it is
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categorized as either EP or N. Let me stop you right there
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because I want to make sure we do not lose anyone in the
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technical weeds. Sure, go ahead.
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When you say a primitive by radical root, I assume most
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people listening do not have a degree in ancient Semitic
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linguistics. That is a fair assumption.
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My understanding is that most Hebrew words are built on a
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system of three consonants. So what makes this two letter
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root so significant? That is a brilliant
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clarification to make. You are correct.
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Most classical Hebrew vocabulary relies on a try radical root 3
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consonants that carry the core meaning, and then vowels are
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added to modify it. Right, like the root for king or
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rule. Yes, but some of the oldest,
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most elemental words in human language.
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Words for family members, basic body parts, or fundamental
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features of nature like water and trees often go back to an
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even older by radical or two consonant structure.
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Oh wow, so it is incredibly ancient.
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It shows just how ancient this concept is, and we see this
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specific by radical route scattered across almost all
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ancient Semitic languages. It was not isolated to Israel.
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Let's see it in Acadian, the language of the ancient
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Assyrians and Babylonians, where they use the word D to refer to
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both tree and wood. So they shared that unified
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concept. They did.
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If you look at the Ugaritic texts, which are ancient
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Canaanite records written on clay tablets, they use the
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consonants. In Ethiopic it shows up as A and
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in Arabic it is a. All of these neighboring
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cultures possessed a unified concept for this aspect of the
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plant world. I am looking at the historical
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progression of this language family and I want to push back
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on something here. Please do the.
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Historical linguistic records show a major shift happening
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later on. By the time we get to the books
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of Daniel and Ezra, which contain large sections written
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in biblical Aramaic, the language splits the concept
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entirely. Yes, Aramaic handles it
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differently. Aramaic uses the word strictly
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for the material, like a structural wood beam used in a
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building. Then it uses a totally different
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word, Zelen for a living growing tree.
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That is a very distinct split. So here is my question.
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I look at that Aramaic split and it seems like Aramaic is simply
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a smarter, more evolved language.
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I could see why you would think that.
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I mean, it finally developed the precision to distinguish between
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a tree and a piece of lumber. Is Hebrew just linguistically
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primitive here because it failed to innovate?
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That is the natural assumption of modern one reader makes
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assuming that hyper categorization equals a superior
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language. Right, but what you are calling
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primitive, I would argue, is a deliberate, highly theological
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retention of meaning. OK, unpack that for me.
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Aramaic, certainly innovative, A separation for the sake of
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administrative and commercial precision.
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It was the trade language of the Empire, after all.
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True, they needed exact inventories, but Hebrew?
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Maintained the ancient unity of the concept throughout the
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entire Old Testament period because of what it communicated
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about reality. It is not a lack of vocabulary,
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it is a worldview. I think I can illustrate that
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Hebrew worldview with a modern analogy for anyone listening.
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I would love to hear. It think about how we use the
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word glass in English. OK, you use the word glass to
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describe the transparent molten sand material making up the
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window you look through. Right, the raw material.
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But you also use the exact same word glass to describe the
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specific object you drink, like water from.
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Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense.
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The raw material and the fashioned object are
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inextricably LinkedIn our vocabulary.
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You cannot talk about the drinking vessel without
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simultaneously naming what it is made of.
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You're forced to acknowledge the substance.
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Yes, in Hebrew, the living tree is inextricably linked to the
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material it produces. This linguistic reality forces
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the reader and the ancient speaker to consider the origin
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of the object they hold in their hand.
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That is a really helpful way to frame it.
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When an Israelite picked up a wooden farming tool, the
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language itself pointed them back to the living Organism that
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God caused to grow from the dirt.
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That analogy perfectly captures the dynamic, and it points
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directly to the reformed view of the material world.
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Which is so crucial here. Matter is not inherently evil.
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The physical world is good because God spoke it into
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existence. We completely reject the ancient
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Gnostic idea that the spiritual realm is pure and the physical
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realm is dirty. That is a huge distinction.
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The living tree standing in the forest and the severed timber
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cut and plain by a Craftsman both belong to the Creator.
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They are part of the physical reality that God governs.
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So the word itself carries that theological weight, yes.
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The unified word D captures that unbroken line of Providence from
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the soil of the forest floor all the way to the carpenter's
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bench. Since we have established that
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baseline definition, I want to pivot.
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Let us look at how the ancient Israelites actually interacted
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with the Living 8 in their daily environment.
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That is where it gets really practical.
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When you read the lexical entries, you realize that the
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Bible categorizes trees very differently than a modern
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botanist would. Oh, absolutely.
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Modern science categorizes everything by the Linnean
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taxonomy. You have the genus, the species,
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the genetic makeup. It is entirely biological.
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Very clinical. But the biblical text
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categorizes trees primarily by their function in human life and
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divine Providence. Yes, the functional
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categorization is highly practical and observant of God's
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vision. You see this immediately in
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Genesis 1.11, which talks specifically about fruit bearing
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trees. The focus is entirely on
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agricultural sustenance. Right.
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Then you move to poetry like Job 40.22, which mentions trees
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specifically for their shade. Which is vital in that region.
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In the brutal, relentless heat of the Middle Eastern sun, a
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massive shade tree was a matter of survival, not just a nice
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aesthetic feature. It was life or death, honestly.
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The texts also show trees acting as crucial geographical
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landmarks for orientation. A prime example is First Samuel
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14.2, where King Saul is described as sitting under the
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pomegranate tree in Micron. So it acts almost like Agps
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coordinate. In an arid landscape without
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street signs, a massive solitary tree becomes a fixed point of
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reference. It anchors human events.
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Kings hold court under them. Judges settle disputes under
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them. We do see specific species
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listed though, which adds incredible color to the text.
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We definitely do. We see the cedar, which is Arez
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in Hebrew. The cedar was the absolute
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pinnacle of trees, representing unmatched strength, massive
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height and royal majesty. The Cedars of Lebanon.
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Then there is the Cypress, the Barreau.
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You have the Grapevine, the chippen and the olive tree, the
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zait. Those last two were the absolute
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life lines for the ancient agrarian economy.
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They really were. They provided the wine, the
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cooking oil, the fuel for lamps and the daily food.
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But what fascinates me is that the text refuses to treat them
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only as economic resources or biological machines.
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There is a highly poetic usage in scripture that treats the
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forest almost like a congregation.
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A congregation of trees. Yeah, Psalm 104.16 mentions the
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trees of the Lord and it anthropomorphizes them, saying
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they drink their fill of the rain.
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That is beautiful imagery. Then you have those surreal
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ancient fables. Judges 9 contains a massive
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fable where the trees actually talk to each other.
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Oh, the fable of Jotham. Yes, they try to elect a king
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over the forest, asking the olive tree, the fig tree, and
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the vine to rule over them. It sounds like something
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straight out of Lord of the Rings with walking talking ants.
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It does have that mythic resonance for sure, but in the
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ancient Near Eastern literary context, attributing voice to
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nature was a way of demonstrating that all of
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creation is caught up in the moral universe governed by God.
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It is not random biology. The lexical data reveals
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something else interesting here. The word AH can be collective,
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meaning a massive forest or a thick cops of timber, or it can
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be individual, referring to one specific tree.
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OK, so it's tails up and down, yes.
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But in both the collective and individual sense, the physical
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environment provided a constant daily testimony to God's
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sustaining grace. I love that point.
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When the psalmist calls them the trees of the Lord, he's
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aggressively assigning ownership.
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The cedar of Lebanon does not belong to the Phoenician king
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who cuts it down, nor does the olive tree belong to the farmer
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who harvests it. It belongs entirely to the God
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who watered it precisely. I want you to stop and consider
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how those ancient people viewed their environment compared to
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how we view ours today. It is a massive paradigm shift.
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They saw the physical world as an active, breathing participant
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in God's covenant with them. It was not just passive scenery
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or a green background decoration for human drama.
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The trees were involved. The living tree functions as a
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tangible daily witness to God's Providence.
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When the seasonal rains fell and the olive tree produced a
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massive yield, it was viewed as a direct fulfillment of God's
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covenantal promise to sustain his obedient people.
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And the reverse is true as well. Right when a brutal drought came
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and the fig tree withered and dropped its fruit, it was
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understood in the context of covenantal discipline.
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The living vary was a daily theological lesson growing right
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in their own backyard. And that leads us to a
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fascinating transition in the life cycle of the bear.
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We move from the living forest into the calloused hands of
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human Craftsman. From the soil to the workshop.
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The linguistic data details how this living entity becomes
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morally neutral material, utilized for both the most
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mundane daily chores and the most sacred religious duties.
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OK, give us some examples from the texts.
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We see harvested lumber used for building regular everyday houses
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as mentioned in Epicup 2.11. We see Noah's massive ark
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constructed out of Gopher wood in Genesis 6.1 fee.
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That is a massive construction project.
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Jeremiah 28.13 talks about the wooden parts of an agricultural
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yolk used to steer oxen. Leviticus 11.32 mentions common
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wooden vessels or bowls used for eating, and Deuteronomy 19.5
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describes the wooden helve, or the handle of a basic iron axe
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used by a laborer in the woods. I want to make sure the weight
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of this hits home. What does this all mean for you
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as you read the Old Testament? It is a vital question.
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It means the very material a common person used to stir a
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boiling pot of lentil Stew, or to yoke a beast of burden for
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plowing a muddy field is the exact same material designated
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by God to build the Holy of Holies.
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That is a staggering thought. The mundane and the holy share a
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physical, tangible foundation. We see the extensive use of
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Acacia wood called shittim in the construction of the
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Wilderness Tabernacle in the book of Exodus.
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God commands them to build the Ark of the Covenant out of it.
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The very seat of God's presence on earth.
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Later on, King Solomon imports massive amounts of cedar wood to
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panel the interior of the Temple in Jerusalem.
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And do not forget the inner sanctuary.
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Right in First Kings, we read about the massive cherubim
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placed inside the inner sanctuary.
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These angelic figures were 15 feet tall, and they were
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completely carved out of solid olive wood, which the Hebrew
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calls a eBay. Furthermore, the entire
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Levitical sacrificial system relied completely on this
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material to function. Genesis 22.3 introduces the
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specific phrase a which translates to the wood for the
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burnt offering. Isaac carried that wood on his
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back up the mountain. Yes, he did.
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Leviticus 14.4 dictates the required use of a piece of cedar
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wood in the purification rituals for a person who has been healed
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of a severe skin disease. So it is woven into every aspect
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of their religion. This brings us squarely to the
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Reformed perspective on the doctrine of vocation and
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worship. The wood itself, the A, is
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morally neutral. There is no inherent magical
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property. Right, There's no magical
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vibrating property in Acacia wood that makes it inherently
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divine or holy, and it's the covenantal instruction of God
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alone that makes the Acacia holy when it is incorporated into the
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Tabernacle. So without God's specific
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sovereign command, it is just common timber.
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That is precisely. Right, that is such a vital
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distinction to make, especially when we look at how prone human
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beings are to superstition. We want everything to be a
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relic. The physical matter is
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consecrated entirely by the Word of God, not by any intrinsic
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mystical quality found in the cellular structure of the wood.
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Exactly, the common Carpenter cutting wood to frame a roof for
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a regular house and the highly skilled Craftsman cutting wood
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to build the Ark of the Covenant are both working with.
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God claims absolute sovereignty over both the ordinary sweat
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inducing labor and the sacred set apart worship.
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However, the moral neutrality of the wood leads us directly into
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the tragic reality of human rebellion.
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It takes a very dark turn. Because the material is neutral,
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fallen humanity can and absolutely does pervert God's
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good creation. The lexical history shows a very
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dark shift in how O is utilized by fallen people.
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We see the phenomenon of illicit Pagan worship occurring
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repeatedly throughout the historical and prophetic books.
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The high places, yes. The specific phrase under every
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green tree, which in Hebrew is 8 EO, is sighted across
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Deuteronomy, first and second kings in Jeremiah.
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It is a recurring indictment. The people of Israel took the
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high places, the beautiful shaded Groves that God
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specifically provided for their physical shelter and enjoyment,
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and turned them into sites for horrific Pagan cult rituals.
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They corrupted the living tree. And as the texts show, they also
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corrupted the dead timber. The prophetic mockery of this
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idolatry is absolutely, absolutely biting.
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The prophets repeatedly use the phrase wood and stone in places
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like Deuteronomy 4.28 and Ezekiel 20.32 to completely
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dismiss the false gods of the surrounding Canaanite and
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Babylonian nations. You do not pull any punches.
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I want to highlight the brilliant, almost dark comedy
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found in Isaiah 44. Well, that passage is
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incredible. The prophet describes a man who
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goes into the forest and cuts down a tree.
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He uses half of the block of wood to build a fire.
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A very practical use. He uses the fire to warm his
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hands because as he's cold and he uses it to bake his daily
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bread, he relies on the physics of the wood burning to survive.
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Right, he needs it for basic sustenance.
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Then the prophet says he takes the exact same piece of timber,
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the other half of the exact same log, hands it to a Carver who
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fashions it into the shape of a God.
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It is absurd. The man then falls flat on his
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face before the remaining block of wood and says, Deliver me,
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for you are my God. When you connect this to the
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broader theological landscape, this is the very essence of the
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Reformed doctrine of total depravity.
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I think a lot of people misunderstand that term.
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Fallen man cannot help but take the good creation, the arm, and
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fashion an idol out of it. We need to be clear about what
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total depravity actually means, yeah.
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Please define it for us. It does not mean human beings
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are as cartoonishly evil as they could possibly be at all times.
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It means that every single faculty of human nature,
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including our intellect, our reason, our emotions, and our
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desire for worship, is corrupted by sin.
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It. Touches every part of us.
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The absurdity of the scenario in Isaiah 44 proves the theological
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point. A person's God-given reason is
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so heavily darkened by sin that they cannot see the blatant
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logical fallacy of worshipping a block of firewood that they were
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just using to cook their dinner. To put that in perspective,
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imagine taking the exact bricks someone used to build your
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family home, the very materials that kept your children warm and
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safe from the elements, and using those same bricks to build
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a prison cell for your own family.
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That is a great modern equivalent.
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Humanity takes the shelter and the fuel God graciously provided
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for human flourishing and weaponizes it into a false
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deity. But the human perversion of O
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goes even further than idolatry. It gets much worse.
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The historical records and legal codes list the word as a primary
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instrument of execution. It becomes the gallows.
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It is the pole used to publicly expose slain criminals to the
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elements. The symbol of utter defeat.
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Genesis 40.1 main mentions it in the terrifying judgment of
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Pharaoh's Baker, whose body is hung on a tree for the birds.
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Joshua 8.29 shows the defeated king of A hanged on a tree until
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evening. We see the massive 50 cubic
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gallows built by the villain Haman in the Book of Esther.
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The legal code found in Deuteronomy 21.2223 establishes
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a chilling reality regarding this practice.
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The law states that if a man commits a crime punishable by
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death and he's put to death and you hang him on a tree, his body
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shall not remain all night on the tree.
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They had to take him down. He must be buried that exact
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same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.
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This represents A horrific, unnatural inversion of the
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tree's original life giving purpose.
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It really is a complete reversal.
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The biological Organism designed by God to yield sweet fruit and
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sustain human life becomes the rigid mechanism for displaying
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the curse of death and the wrath of the law.
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To understand the origin of this massive theological tension,
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this cosmic war between life and death, blessing and curse, all
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centered tightly on this single vocabulary word, we have to take
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you back to the very first mentions of A in the biblical
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text. We have to go back to the
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beginning. We have to rewind the tape all
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the way back to the Garden of Eden because the entire conflict
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of the human race begins with two mythic trees.
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The lexical entries provide a rigorous analysis of these two
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specific trees located in Genesis Chapter 2. 1st we have
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the Tree of Life. The planted right there in the
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garden. Genesis 2.9 places it squarely
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in the midst of the garden. The linguistic source material
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notes that the concept of a tree of life was a widely known motif
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in the broader Ancient Near East.
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It was not an isolated concept. No, it stood as an archetypal
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symbol of immortality and divine vitality.
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We see the concept echo later in Scripture.
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The book of Proverbs uses the Tree of Life allegorically to
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describe divine wisdom. Furthermore, apocalyptic
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literature such as the Thanksgiving hymns recovered
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from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the pseudepigraphal book of For
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Ezra, and the Apollo, John's Book of Revelation, all promise
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future eschatological access to the Tree of Life for the
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righteous. It represents unbroken communion
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with a life giving creator. It does.
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Here is where the text gets incredibly fascinating.
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Right alongside it, we also have the Tree of the Knowledge of
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Good and Evil, the Kuvin. The forbidden tree.
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I want to strongly challenge the common Sunday school narrative
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you might have lodged in your head.
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It was not a magic apple imbued with a spell, Not at all.
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The scholarly sources explicitly reject the older theories that
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this tree represented an awakening of sexual awareness,
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or that it was some kind of pedagogical tool meant to teach
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Adam and Eve basic morality. We need to break down the actual
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Hebrew grammar to understand what was actually happening in
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that garden. Yes, the linguistics give us the
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precise theological meaning of the prohibition.
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The phrase good and evil is a specific literary device called
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Amerism. Amerism.
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The Amerism uses 2 contrasting extremes to encompass the
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entirety of a thing. When we say someone searched
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high and low for their lost keys, we do not mean they only
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looked at the ceiling on the floor.
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We mean they searched absolutely everywhere in between.
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That is a helpful way to grasp it.
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In Hebrew idiom, good and evil means everything.
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It encompasses all reality. Then we have the word knowledge,
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which translates the Hebrew root U&D.
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And what does that mean in this context?
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In this specific covenantal context, knowledge does not just
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mean intellectual awareness or memorizing facts.
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It means possession, dominion, and authoritative access.
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So putting that grammatical data together, grasping the fruit of
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the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was not Adam and
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Eve innocently trying to get smarter or expand their
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intellect. It was far more sinister.
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It was a hostile grasp for absolute moral autonomy.
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It was an attempt to seize dominion over everything, to
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dictate for themselves what was right and what was wrong,
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completely independent of God's revealed command.
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This anchors perfectly in the Reformed theology of the
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Covenant of Works, specifically the concept of federal headship.
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God established a covenant with Adam as the federal head, or the
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representative of all humanity. I think a modern analogy helps
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clarify federal headship, since it can sound like dry academic
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theology. Please share it.
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Think of Adam like an ambassador or a diplomat representing a
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nation. When an ambassador signs a
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treaty or declares war, the entire nation they represent is
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bound by that action. That is a very accurate picture.
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Or think of a sports team captain calling a play.
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The whole team lives with the outcome acted on behalf of all
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of us. That is an excellent way to
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frame it. The tree of the Knowledge of
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Good and Evil was the designated focal point of their covenantal
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probation. The stipulation was incredibly
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simple, perfect obedience. Regarding this specific key,
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some scholars point out that eating the fruit was actually an
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anti Canaanite polemic written by Moses.
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Oh, how? So in the surrounding Pagan
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cultures of the time, the serpent was a widely recognized
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symbol of life and divine knowledge, often associated with
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fertility cults where humans tried to manipulate the gods to
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get what they wanted. So the Genesis account is
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pushing back against that. The Genesis account completely
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subverts that Pagan worldview. The Serpent's promise you will
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be like God was a damnable lie promoting divine prerogative.
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A grasp for absolute control. Eating the fruit was an attempt
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by Adam and Eve to achieve omnipotence, to forcefully act
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as their own gods, determining reality on their own terms.
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And the immediate consequence of reaching for the up of autonomy
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was losing all access to the up of life.
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God exiled them from the Garden specifically to prevent them
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from eating from the Tree of Life while trapped in their
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fallen rebellious state. That exile set the stage for the
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rest of human history. It really did.
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Every single use of the word of from that point forward in the
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biblical text carries the heavyweight of that original
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rebellion. That brings all the narrative
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threads together beautifully. The historical progression of
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this single word acts as a mirror reflecting the entire
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biblical narrative of redemptive history.
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From Eden to the. Cross.
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We start with the roots planted in Eden, representing perfect
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communion with God and a probationary test of humanity.
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Then, after the devastating fall, we see the wood used to
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construct the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle,
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showing God's gracious, condescending provision of a way
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to dwell with sinful man. God making a way.
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We see the tragic, absurd carving of idols out of leftover
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firewood, demonstrating the absolute corruption of the human
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mind. And we see the rough timber
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fashioned into execution, gallows displaying the
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terrifying curse of the law upon sin.
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All of it tied to that one word. This single word captured the
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staggering glory of creation, the utter devastation of the
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fall, and the desperate, bleeding need for redemption.
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It is a phenomenal summary of the biblical storyline.
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The academic sources we reviewed today stopped their analysis at
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the boundaries of the Old Testament text.
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But as we close this deep dive, I want to leave you with a final
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thought to Mull over, building on everything we just discussed.
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Something for them to think about.
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Consider the long history of human rebellion, A rebellion
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that started at a living tree in a perfect, pristine garden.
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Consider the irony and the staggering grace that the
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resolution for that ancient rebellion was accomplished by
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the Son of God being nailed to a piece of dead timber, the cross.
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Christ willingly bore the curse of the hanging execution pole,
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fulfilling the terrifying legal code of Deuteronomy 21.23 to
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absorb the full wrath of God. He took the instrument of death,
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the ALM fashioned by the hands of fallen men, and used it to
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restore our access to the Tree of Life.
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That's the gospel right there. I want to challenge you to read
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your Bible differently this week.
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Notice every single piece of wood, every living branch, every
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carved idol, and every wooden beam along the way.
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See how they all point inexorably toward the cross?
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It forces us to realize that the physical world, right down to
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the very vocabulary used to describe it, is testifying
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clearly to the sovereign plan of the Creator.
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The next time you walk outside and look at a tree, remember the
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entire scope of the narrative. Until next time, keep reading
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and keep thinking.