Gen 2v9: 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 in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Gen 2v16-17: And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 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.

Here we have the first mention of the tree of life. It had a prominent position in the centre of the garden. The Lord God gave the man permission to eat of every tree of the garden including this one, but not the tree of knoweldge.

Gen 3v22: 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.
Gen 3v24: 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.

God in His mercy, seperates man from the tree of life. God does not want man to live for ever in his sins, as he would have done if he could have eaten of the tree of life. So man is protected from the tree of life by a flaming sword and Cherubims (angelic creatures).

Rev 2v4: Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Rev 2v7: 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.

Here in Revelation we are reading the letter to the church of Ephesus. The church had left their first love and perhaps had become ritualistic in their ways. They are commended for their good works, their labour, their patience, for not bearing evil, but it seems that in focusing on this they had lost that first love for Christ. Oh how easy it is for us, ourselves to do this. To focus on making sure we are doing the right things and lose that love for Christ we first had. It is too easy for our eyes to be earthward, focusing on what is going on around us, and not to lift up our eyes to Heaven, to end up going through the motions and not truly worshipping God. There would have been a lack of life to their worship and so it is appropriate that here, he that overcomes is promised the priviledge of eating of the tree of life. This time not in the garden of Eden but in the paradise of God.

Rev 22v2: In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Here we have gone on to the eternal state and the New Jerusalem. It seems that the tree of life here is a type of tree of which many grew on both sides of the river. Each one would yield fruit not just a few months a year but indeed every month of the year all year round. Medics today often use leaves for medicine, however, in the New Jerusalem there will be no disease, that may be because the leaves of this tree are not a cure for symptoms of disease but grant immunity from all disease.

Rev 22v14: Blessed are they that do His [Jesus'] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Who are they that do His commandments? and indeed what are His commandments? We read [in Matthew 25v36-40) that we are to love our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and to love our neighbours as ourselves. We know man is sinful, rebellious creature and the only way man can do this is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This first phrase is sometimes translated: "Blessed are they that have wash their robes" and this is perhaps a better way to convey the message that it is a blessing to us who have washed ourselves in the blood of the lamb. The blessing is the right to eat of the tree of life.

Now read What saith the Scriptures
about Rahab	on the promise to he that overcometh
on the Certainity of Salvation by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ	Back to topics menu