Sticks intro sampler - Flipbook - Page 28
about discernment. You and I can’t treat the Bible like our personal decisionmaking handbook, but we can seek God’s wisdom in the Scriptures. And when
we do, we’ll find that God is inviting us to learn from him and his people.
We are about to enter the wild world that is the Torah, or the first five books
of the Bible. Here we will see the first of many mentions of tree imagery in the
Scriptures. Trees planted by God, our Cosmic Gardener, sprout from verses from
the beginning of the Bible to the end, growing to provide life’s necessities. But
two central trees begin the storyline of Scripture: the Tree of Life and the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Embedded in the Genesis Creation narratives are verses we can use to shape
our theology of sin and humanity, our understanding of humanity’s origin, and
many other important subjects. As Reverend Fleming Rutledge would say, “its
depths are inexhaustible.”2 But in our study together, we’re focusing on one particular goal: how the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
can function as literary devices––a thread in the storyline of Scripture.
Navigating the Garden of Eden as Western, modern Christians presents real
challenges, so before we dive in, let’s get a bird’s-eye view. The Torah was written
and edited by Moses to create a single, unified story
with an overarching message: “God’s relationship with
The garden is an act
his people has a future, even though they have proven
of utter graciousness.
faithless in the past.”3 Yes, and amen.
But the trees disclose
It’s important to remember that although the Bible
is for us, it was not written to us. Moses had a specific
the character of that
audience in mind when he wrote Genesis, Exodus,
graciousness. There is no
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy: the Israelites
cheap grace here.5
4
who were about to enter the Promised Land. The
Walter Brueggemann, Genesis: A Bible
Commentary for Teaching and Preaching
Patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph—had all
passed away. The escape from Egypt, through the Red
Sea, was in the distant past. As they emerged from
the wilderness, Moses’ audience faced a critical choice: Would they follow God,
or would they repeat the unfaithfulness of generations past? They were on the
L ES S O N O N E
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