THE MESSAGE OF THE TREE AND THE RIVER

While in Bible School, I would often hike the railroad tracks out in the country to a clear, swift-moving stream to a place where there was, growing on its edge, a large tree with a root like a chair’s seat and a slanted trunk like its back. There I would sit in the peace and quiet, far removed from the noisy dorm and town, to study my Greek or just to contemplate and muse. I never failed to leave refreshed and renewed. My spot of refreshing was created and made appealing by two features—a tree and a “river.” Those two, Tree and River, figure prominently in the Revelation’s description of the New Jerusalem, the Holy City. Why? Well, for one, they were the features of the original Garden, Eden--the Garden humanity lost and was banished from, because of their sin. Ever since, humanity has been trying to get back to the Garden, to the River and the Tree. Most will never make it. But those who trust in Christ, the saved, the redeemed, are on their way back. One day they will make it to the Tree and the River. Why is making it to the Tree and River so important? What underlies their significance? Both are described with the phrase “of life.” Both give life. But more specifically, a river refreshes and a tree restores. A river provides water for drinking and bathing; it refreshes. A tree provides fruit for food and leaves for healing. This description of the New Jerusalem with Tree and River was first written to a people of God who were harassed, pursued, persecuted, and many times martyred. This beleaguered band of pilgrims, under the constant duress of resisting the pressure to capitulate their faith, had to have been drained, depleted, and beaten up. Oh, they were promised victory. And, yes, they would be overcomers. They would make it to heaven—and by now, have. But here is the reality: The Redeemed will make it to heaven completely victorious, yet, that does not mean they make it unscathed. The promise is that nothing can destroy their soul. But that does not mean that their body, minds, emotions, and hearts have not suffered from the cares of life, attacks of the enemy, wounds of supposed friends, or personal afflictions of body and brain. The reality is that one can be not defeated yet depleted. One can have won yet be wounded. One can overcome but be overfatigued. Think of the soldier who has fought a great battle with a formidable foe. It’s over. He is victorious. He stands with a foot on the vanquished enemy, sword raised high, shouting, “Victory!” Yet, he is exhausted. Blood streams from multiple gashes. He aches in every joint. He carries the grief of comrades who deserted to or were slain by the enemy. However victorious he is, he needs refreshing. He needs healing—restoration. These the Tree and River provide. Upon resurrection or rapture, the refreshing and restoration of the saved one’s glorified body and being will be immediate and comprehensive. At that very nano-moment, he will be finally and completely perfected! Everything healed. All that’s wrong, made right. All that’s corrupted, made uncorrupted. Yet, the Tree and the River symbolize that to arrive at Heaven is to arrive to the refreshing and restoring from the battles passed through, the suffering endured, the exhaustion experienced, the wounds collected, and the hurts inflicted. Much can be said, that here must be left unsaid, about the Revelation’s description of that Tree and River. Something that must be said of the River is that it flows from the throne of God and the Lamb. God is the source. It flows from the Lamb. Significantly, the Lamb is the origin. The River is made possible, coming to the River is made possible, and drinking from the River is made possible, only because Jesus laid down His life as the sacrificial Lamb, paying the penalty for our sins and making eternal life possible. Because of the Lamb, those who believe with make it back to the Garden. They will see the Tree and the River. They will eat of the fruit of the Tree and drink of the River and, consequently, be restored and refreshed. But, though the River flows from the Lamb in heaven and the Tree grows on its banks there, can we not believe that the River flows past the parameters of Heaven just as the original Eden’s river flowed beyond its boundary? And can we not believe that the limbs of the Tree, laden with fruit for the picking, have grown over and beyond the walls of that City? If so, the water of the River flows close by you today and the fruit-laden limbs of the tree droop somewhere near to you at this moment. Because of the Lamb, you can, not having to wait until heaven, today drink and be refreshed, and eat and be restored. That’s the message of the Tree and the River. Pastor Clifford Hurst