The Tree of Life

When Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden, I am certain that the Garden was also kicked out of them.  Life in the Garden was filled with unique attributes.  Life outside….well, let’s look.

After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:24

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”  Matthew 4:17

We first must understand that all of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew.  It has been translated through the generations to give us the English Bibles we have today.  Translation is a tricky process, as you cannot take the translator out of the process.  Translators have their own perceptions that affect the process.  Kind of like human communication in every arena.  Teaching in other nations, when my own interpreter does not understand the concept I am conveying, they cannot accurately convey the meanings embedded in a teaching.

Let’s look at the verse above through different eyes.  Anytime our eyes view God as mean, or rigid, we must assume we are viewing Him incorrectly.  I fear verses like those above could lend us to viewing God incorrectly.

First, the story.  Adam and Eve have just sinned, and God has come to describe what comes next after their mess-up.  They took into themselves the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  This changed everything, and God began to adjust some things to go with this new circumstance.  His last adjustment is described in the verse above.

He set a cherubim with a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life.  Darn that cherubim.  Stupid sword…we should be able to get to the tree of life.  Shouldn’t we?

What if the english here is not an accurate picture of what God set in motion. We picture a vigilant guard, standing in protection mode to prevent access.

The “Flaming” sword does not imply flames for intimidation or destruction, rather the Hebrew word here, “lahat” means “enwrappping” or magic, covertness, and is sometimes translated as enchantment.  The word implies then, that whatever is happening with this sword has an effect on perception.  Add to this the word “haphak” which we translate “flashing back and forth” and is more accurately understood as changing or distorting, and we see that this cherubim is using his sword to disguise or hide the WAY through distorting or disrupting our perception. 

Now, what is he guarding through this method of disguise, the tree?  No, even the English says he is guarding, or distorting the way to the tree.  So our mind pictures him blocking a path.  But the Hebrew word is “derek”, which can mean a literal path, but more strongly indicates a mode of living , or a course of life.  I might say a way of thinking.

Put it all together and we see that God has placed this angelic creature here with a mechanism which will confuse our perceptions, so that the way we might try to locate the Tree of life will not actually locate it.  In other words, we cannot access the Tree of Life through our way of perceiving…through the knowledge of good and evil.  Trying to access the Tree of Life through our knowledge of good and evil is a bit like trying to know love through quantum physics.

There is a way to get to the tree.  Humans knowing good stuff and bad stuff is not that way.

Not only did we leave the Garden, but the way we perceived reality in the Garden left us.  It had to.

So how do we access the Tree?

The second verse listed above is the answer to this question.

Jesus tells us, “repent, for the Kingdomof Heaven is near”.

Because we have tried to access the Tree of Life through the Knowledge of Good and Evil we read that verse like this…

“Straighten up, God is coming soon”

But the word “REPENT” is not at all what we think.  This word is all about perceptions. Specifically it is about changing our mode of perceptions.   Sound familiar?  The word repent means “think differently”.  Not just different.  Differently.  Change the way you take in the world around you.  Becuase the Kingdom of God, the reality of His Spirit, the Source of Life…is NEAR.

You cannot access it by doing good, and avoiding bad, you must change the frequency on which you are receiving.  Apparently I will have to write more about this in the days ahead…for now, begin to think differently.  Could the Tree be near right now, but hidden from your eyes?