Welcome back! We are going to continue our discussion on spiritual trees. Last time we talked about how people are represented as trees in the Bible. Today, we are going to look at how trees represent nations.
Trees Represent Nations
Israel and Judah
We touched on this last week, where the nation of Israel was represented by the cultivated olive tree. This representation is found all throughout Scripture.
One of the famous passages in the Old Testament is this one:
“The LORD once called you ‘a green olive tree, beautiful with good fruit.’ But with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has decreed disaster against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.” Jeremiah 11:16-17 (ESV)
The houses of Israel and Judah, or the nations of Israel and Judah are represented by olive trees.
The Kingdom of Babylon
In the book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream of a tree:
“The visions of my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and its height was great. The tree grew and became strong, and its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it. “I saw in the visions of my head as I lay in bed, and behold, a watcher, a holy one, came down from heaven. He proclaimed aloud and said thus: ‘Chop down the tree and lop off its branches, strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But leave the stump of its roots in the earth…” Daniel 4:10-15a (ESV)
The Prophet Daniel properly interprets the vision of King Nebuchadnezzar, and this is what he discerned from the Lord about this vision:
“The tree you saw, which grew and became strong, so that its top reached to heaven, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth, whose leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in which was food for all, under which beasts of the field found shade, and in whose branches the birds of the heavens lived– it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your dominion to the ends of the earth. And because the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, ‘Chop down the tree and destroy it, but leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field, and let him be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the beasts of the field, till seven periods of time pass over him,’ this is the interpretation, O king: It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that Heaven rules. Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.” Daniel 4:20-27 (ESV)
King Nebuchadnezzar, as the King of Babylon, is represented by the tree, and what happens to the spiritual tree is representative of what happens to Nebuchadnezzar, and vice versa. The tree also represents the Kingdom of Babylon in a similar way that the King represents the Kingdom.
And this is another nugget that Cherise spoke about last summer, that trees represent governments.
The Kingdom of Assyria
One of the most intriguing references to trees and nations is the Kingdom of Assyria.
We pick up in the book of Ezekiel the Prophet, chapter 31:
“Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches and forest shade, and of towering height, its top among the clouds. The waters nourished it; the deep made it grow tall, making its rivers flow around the place of its planting, sending forth its streams to all the trees of the field. So it towered high above all the trees of the field; its boughs grew large and its branches long from abundant water in its shoots. All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and under its shadow lived all great nations. It was beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its roots went down to abundant waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not rival it, nor the fir trees equal its boughs; neither were the plane trees like its branches; no tree in the garden of God was its equal in beauty. I made it beautiful in the mass of its branches, and all the trees of Eden envied it, that were in the garden of God.” Ezekiel 31:3-9 (ESV)
OK, did you catch the implication of what Ezekiel wrote down for us? The trees were in the Garden of Eden!
And what are the trees? The trees are nations; the trees are governments!
Just let that sink in: the trees in the Garden of Eden were governments!
The Garden of Eden
Let’s go back real quick to Genesis and see what God says about the trees in the Garden of Eden.
“And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. … The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”” Genesis 2:9, 15-17 (ESV)
We see three trees or categories of trees listed here:
- The Tree of Life
- The tree of the knowledge of good and evil
- The other trees: those pleasant to the sight and good for food
These are all governments.
The Tree of Life represents the Government of Jesus Christ.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the government of Lucifer or Satan.
And the other trees represent the other governments of the world that were going to come into existence through time!
Adam was allowed to eat of the fruit of the government of Jesus Christ as well as the fruit of the other human governments, but he was commanded not to partake of the government of Satan.
The government of Satan is anti-Christ; it’s anti-God; it’s anti-Holy Spirit. The devil’s government is full of pride and exists to steal and kill and destroy from every person.
But the Lord gives us the choice of which kingdom we will partake of. Do we partake of the fruit of Jesus’ Kingdom? Do we partake of the fruit of human governments? Do we join forces with the kingdom of darkness? We have that choice. We get to choose every day which kingdom we represent, which one we want to be in submission under.
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