Scripture Reading: Rev. 1:14b, 16b, 20; 2:28; 4:5; 10:1; 12:1; 18:1; 21:10-11, 23-24, 25b; John 1:4; 8:12; 9:5; 1 John 1:6-7; Eph. 5:13-14
The divine revelation in the Scriptures is both progressive and consistent. The last book of the Bible is the consummation of God’s revelation. All the points of God’s revelation were sown as seeds in the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. These seeds continue to grow until all these points reach the harvest of God’s revelation in the last and consummate book. The harvest of God’s revelation includes many important items. One of these is life. The Bible may even be called a book of life.
With life, there is the important item of light. It is hard to say which of these is first. Does life come first, and then light, or does light come first, followed by life? According to Genesis, chapter one, light comes before life. Before God caused the things of life to come into being, He commanded the light to come forth. Then from light the things of life were brought forth. First of all, the light was very vague. Then the lowest things of life came forth. After this, more solid light was needed, so the sun, the moon, and the stars as the light bearers were revealed. Out of this solid light, the higher animal life and even the human life were created. Then God Himself as the highest light appeared on the Sabbath day. Following this highest light, the tree of life as the highest life, the life on the highest plane, was revealed.
According to Genesis, light comes first and then life is produced. But in the Gospel of John the order is reversed. “In him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). According to this verse, life comes first, and then light follows. Christ is the life, and Christ is also the light. In the very beginning of the Bible, light and life are there.
By reading Genesis 1 and 2 carefully, we see that there are at least five levels of life. The lowest level of life is the vegetable life. This is life without any consciousness. The second level of life is the fish in the water and the birds in the air. These are animals, but they are not strong in life. The third level is the higher animal life such as the dog. You can talk to a dog a little, but you cannot talk to a fish. A still higher level is the human life that bears the image of God. This life is for expressing God, so it is made in the image of God. It is not God’s life, but it has the form of God’s life. The container of anything you purchase is always in the form of the content. The human life is the container of the divine life. This divine life is seen in Genesis 2 as the tree of life. The tree of life denotes life on the highest plane, the divine life.
We were made in the image of God with the human life. Our life is much higher that the animal’s. But we still need something. We are higher, but we are not the highest. There is the potential that we can possess life on the highest plane. This highest life is presented to us as food. It is shown as the tree of life, which is good for food. Although it is the life on the highest plane, it is not far from us.
Many times I have tried to discover how high the tree of life was. Of course, the Bible does not tell us. But it could not be so high that we could not reach it. He says that He is the bread of life (John 6:35). There is a type in the Old Testament called manna (Exo. 16:15). Manna was just a small round thing, yet we know from John 6 that manna is a picture of Jesus as the bread of life. The tree of life must be very available and convenient so that we can take this life in as our food.
Yet there is the possibility that man will take the tree of knowledge instead of the tree of life. The religious concept is of the tree of knowledge, thinking that we must know all the doctrines and teachings. But the divine concept is eating the tree of life. These two concepts were in the beginning in Genesis 2. The Bible is consistent. In the beginning there is the tree of life, and in the last book the tree of life is still there. In Revelation it has been even more developed. Man fell, yet we have the blood to wash our robes that we may come again to the tree of life. “Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:14, Gk.). Hallelujah! Redemption brings us back to eating. Fallen Christianity keeps us away from eating. This is why we need the Lord’s recovery. It brings us back to eating again, back to the beginning. We can come to the highest plane by eating the tree of life and taking the highest life into us.