Freedom is Good News Part 170

In Psalm 1 we learn that if a person does not walk with the wicked, stand in the way of sinners or sit with mockers; if his delight is in the law of the LORD and meditates upon it day and night then, “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers” (Psalm 1:1-3)

I believe all of us understand what a simile is: a comparison between two things by using the words “like or as”; an individual can be like a tree which yields fruit. 

John the Baptist confronts the Pharisees and Sadducees when he says this in Matthew 3:10, “The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”  Be careful Pharisees and Sadducees your fruit is not looking so good!!

Why tell you all this?  In our previous article we talked about a tree and its fruit in the Garden of Eden – actually there were many trees in Genesis 2:9.  Most of them were good for food and free to eat from, but at the center of the garden there were only two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  In our lessons as children, we may have been taught that Eve partook of an apple from this tree.  Ah, such a wonderful fruit bearing such a heavy burden!!

But really, what are we to learn here?  There are only two ways to walk in this world; the way of life or the way of death.  God’s way is, of course, the way of life!  Jesus Himself said that He was the way, the truth and the life (John14:6).  He also told Martha before they went to her Brother Lazarus’ grave that “I am the resurrection and the life”.

God gave Adam and Eve only one commandment, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  They broke that one commandment and so were banished from the Garden of Eden.  And so the curse, the curse of death, has been placed upon all of their descendants – i.e. us!!

In believing the lie of Satan, these two original parents of ours, told God that they wanted to be able to choose for themselves what is good and what is evil.  And so we, today, desire to follow in their footsteps and decide for ourselves what is good and what is evil – what is right and what is wrong.  As I pondered the direction of our previous article I see that I made this statement, “As I take a look around me and at our society and yes, even at the entirety of the world, I have to wonder where we have gone wrong.  The things of God seem to be far from us.”

You do remember that mankind went so far astray from God’s way of life 1650 years after Adam was created, that He brought a flood upon the earth and except for God’s grace with Noah all of creation would have been wiped out. 

Yes, God is a gracious God.  Noah and family, by being in the ark, were saved through water.  And that is the good news – we’ll consider this topic again next time.