THE LIFE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS (7)
[p. 102] THE LIFE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS (7)
Genesis 3: 20 - 24; Genesis 4: 26; Genesis 5: 21 - 24
JT It is thought that the tree of life deserves further consideration in relation to our subject. We looked at it in Revelation at the last reading, the allusion there (chapter 2: 7), is clearly to Genesis 2. It was in the midst of the paradise of God, and it was spoken of as thus having a dominant position. Revelation 22 speaks of a river “going out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of its street, and of the river, on this side and on that side, the tree of life” (verses 1, 2), showing that the full thought that God had in mind in Genesis is there. The leaves of the tree bear toward the millennium, and even the fruits, being twelve, allude to the administration of it in the millennial day.
There are other references in Revelation, such as fountains of water, that would link on with our subject. We should keep clear in our minds that whilst the tree of life in Revelation 22 bears on time, yet it properly belongs to the purpose of God, what God had in mind before sin came in. The actual fruits of the tree apparently are restricted to the inhabitants of the city, and the city having come down from God out of heaven, the links are quite clear as showing that the tree of life was a primary thought, not a thought introduced to meet a condition arising, but a primary one. Therefore we shall need to enquire why it is restricted in Genesis 3. Man is excluded from it. The Lord will help us, I believe, to see how life comes in, meeting conditions here, as it were, independently of the tree of life, because Adam having had a judicial sentence pronounced on him does not speak of death but rather of life; that is, he calls his wife by name, Life, as if he had some [p. 103] inkling from God that although he is debarred from the tree at the moment, there is a way to life nevertheless, but it is through death. So that immediately after he speaks of life we have the record that Jehovah clothes him and his wife with skins. There is no allusion to the garden there; it is a question of death coming in in view of life.
Then it is thought that we may also see life in Seth in calling his son Enosh, which means weak or mortal. “Then people began to call on the name of Jehovah” (Genesis 4: 26), involving that if Enosh is a dying person and if there is to be anything eternal, it must be through death and God must raise the dead; at least, that is how we should regard it now. And there is confirmation in the New Testament in addition to Genesis 5, that Enosh “should not see death”; that is, that death is overcome in Enoch by life through faith. “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death”, Hebrews 11: 5. That statement is not here but in the New Testament; it involves redemption. Enoch represents the thought of life, not only in its inward activity but as regards his body. The whole man went up, God taking him “And Enoch walked with God after he had begotten Methushelah three hundred years”, Genesis 5: 22. That would be on moral lines in view of having a family. Then we have in verse 24, “And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him”; that is, God was evidently pleased with his walk. “He has the testimony that he had pleased God”, Hebrews 11: 5. So that the walk must have constituted him as morally fit for translation.
JAP In connection with the first scripture read in Genesis 3: 20 - 24, which states that Adam could not partake of the tree of life, what change came in between the time which that scripture refers to and the time contemplated in Revelation 2: 7, where the overcomer is allowed to eat of the tree of life?
[p. 104] JT Redemption had taken place. The epistle to the Romans develops the gospel, showing how the judgment of God on man is met, and eternal life in Christ made available to man. The truth ministered in the epistle to the Ephesians goes beyond Romans, involving “the whole counsel of God”. The tree of life in the paradise of God is included in this; that is, as we have already noted, life answering to the purpose of God. Hence the appropriateness of the promise to the overcomer at Ephesus.
EMcK What is involved in the thought of “all living”, Genesis 3: 20. Is that the new order of man?
JT The Spirit of God would have that in mind. Statements in Genesis often have a root character, their import increasing as carried forward by the Spirit. Genesis 3: 20, to which you refer, may be regarded in this way. Adam undoubtedly alluded to the woman’s seed as seen in verse 15. Much is made of motherhood in the family of faith in Genesis, and it is enlarged upon in later scriptures. Hannah and Mary are outstanding examples of motherhood in the true sense. Israel and the assembly are viewed in Scripture as mothers, Revelation 12: 1, 2; Galatians 4: 26. As to the “living”, Hezekiah says, “The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I this day” (Isaiah 38: 19); and the Psalms allude to life in a spiritual sense. Evidently God intended Genesis 3: 20 as basic instruction as to life over against the sentence of death pronounced on man. “For as in the Adam all die, thus also in the Christ all shall be made alive”, 1 Corinthians 15: 22.
RWS Is the way to the knowledge of this on moral lines? I refer to man calling his wife’s name “Eve” because she is the mother of all living; and Jehovah Elohim saying, “Behold, Man is become as one of us, to know good and evil” (verse 22). Does this then involve the whole moral question being dealt with before any knowledge of purpose can be [p. 105] enjoyed?
JT That is what I thought we might see; that Romans shows life being reached through death; so that I would take verses 20 and 21 as over against the remaining part of the chapter. Thus Adam in calling his wife’s name Eve because she is the mother of all living must be taken as prophetic. Whether the “because” was used by Adam or whether the Spirit of God added it as enlarging on the truth involved, we have to regard it as a sequence. The New Translation has “is the mother of all living”. She was nobody’s mother yet, so that it is prophetic. The facts recorded show that Jehovah Elohim regarded Adam as having light. God had pronounced sentence on him, but Adam did not allude to the sentence; he alluded to his wife and called her Eve, which means life. God must have anticipated his faith, because He had given him some basis for his naming his wife Eve in the fact that He had said that her seed would bruise the serpent’s head. That would have been in Adam’s mind. And then verse 21 would mean that God took account of what was in Adam. What would he be worth if there was not light in his soul? If he were just a bit of clay going back to his mother earth, of what value would he be to God or even to himself? But then we have to clothe these words with New Testament light. There was something in Adam. He does not head the list of faith in the New Testament, but surely Jehovah would take account of the name he gave his wife, when He had said that “in dying thou shalt die” (marginal reading, chapter 2: 17). The sentence was pronounced. How did Adam carry definitely in his mind the thought of life? God surely would then take more account of what we are saying now than we do. And then He clothed him with skins, as much as to say, this is the principle. It is very small, and somewhat vague, but this is the principle on which the tree of life will ultimately come into use again. In the meantime,
[p. 106] Jehovah regards Adam as outwardly under death; just as a natural man, and as he can use his hand, he might use it to partake of the tree of life: “Lest he stretch out his hand”, which is often the case with men now. So God says, “Lest he stretch out his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever ... !” You will notice there is an exclamation point, as if God would say, What an awful thing that would be; as if much more could be said — that men should appropriate what belongs to God in a natural way adding to themselves through it. So then it is said, “Therefore Jehovah Elohim sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. And he drove out Man; and he set the Cherubim, and the flame of the flashing sword, toward the east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life” (verse 24). We have to leave this for a later time, but in the meantime the principle of life as overcoming death has come into evidence.
ANW In saying the tree of life is a primary thought, are you differentiating between its fruit and its leaves, as the leaves adapt themselves to the wounds of the nations?
JT Yes. There is no evidence that the fruits are brought outside the city. Revelation 22: 14 shows that one who washes his robes has a right to go in and partake of the tree of life. The twelve manner of fruits would mean that the heavenly city is viewed as in relation to time; it is an administrative time and its own life is mentioned as if it were in that time, men partaking of the twelve manner of fruits; because clearly those who form the heavenly city are not there idly. We are to be there administratively and need food to maintain a heavenly constitution for administration in relation to the millennial world. But in itself the city belongs to heaven and eternity.
AR Have you in mind that the tree of life [p. 107] has been held in reserve; that is, that the tree has been reserved in relation to purpose, whereas life as seen in Romans can be enjoyed as we are here in responsibility?
JT Yes; life as mentioned in relation to Eve. That would be the clue. It is an element brought in in relation to the penalty on Adam, as if God were to speak of it from another point of view. As Judge, He pronounced the sentence without any mitigation; but as God, according to what He is, He thought of His creature in relation to what he said to Eve. That is what I would take it to be. He is regarding Adam now according to what he said of Eve after the pronouncement of judgment. If Adam were rebellious and upbraiding God for such a severe sentence, it would be different. But he is not even speaking of it; he is speaking of his wife and that she is the mother of all living. God valued that; faith was there and in principle that opened up the great matter of redemption.
AMacN It does seem remarkable that Adam should say this; that is, he said it of himself. Faith was there and God always addresses Himself to that, would you say?
JT Yes. The life he had was forfeited, as expressed in the divine pronouncement. There is no hope at all in God’s words expressing the judgment; but the fact that Adam did not rest on those words or upbraid his wife for having misled him, but spoke of her as the mother of all living, shows that light came into his soul. So that life now has to be taken account of in another way; that is, as coming in through death. It would come in through the seed of the woman already spoken of.
ABP Is the thought of travail significant; that life now must be reached through that severity of exercise?
JT Yes; no doubt that enters into it. Why [p. 108] Adam should speak about his wife in relation to life immediately after the terrible sentence is what we should especially think of. It indicated the state of Adam’s soul; that there was reaction to light. And that is a principle of general importance — that whether, as something is suggested to us in the way of light, there is any reaction to it; and I think verse 20 is reaction to light that God furnished.
CN Do you think there is any link between the clothing in this chapter and the eating of the flesh of animals by Noah in chapter 9?
JT Well, I suppose that would be an expansion. What we had here yesterday should be of general help; that Genesis is the seed plot. The seed is usually small, but its fruit is usually large; meaning that there is increase as you go on, and thus when we come to Genesis 9, we find animal food given to man. There is no suggestion of it in the skins, but the skins implied that death had taken place. It may be said, however, that in Abel’s offering there was the idea of food. God introduces in Noah a further thought. Much is made of life, even of the animals, in Genesis 9. God is claiming that these creatures, although they may seem just to go down into the earth, yet their blood which is their life is His.
CN I was thinking of what you said — that although the tree of life is barred, yet the thought of life through death is maintained in the skins. Is the expansion, as you say, in the eating of the flesh?
JT Yes. The tree of life was not debarred from Adam, according to chapter 2; but now it is, and I suppose it is kept for “its own time”; and I believe Ephesians is the time when the full thought comes out as to the counsel of God. It is after this counsel is stated that we have redemption mentioned: “in whom we have redemption through his blood”, Ephesians 1: 7.
FSC The tree of life is mentioned a number of [p. 109] times in Proverbs. Is it a different thought there?
JT It is just a tree of life; a figure. No doubt the words allude to Genesis, but it is the tree of life here. There is only one. It has the article always.
GVD Would it be right to connect the clothing with Romans: “Righteousness of God is revealed therein, on the principle of faith, to faith: according as it is written, But the just shall live by faith”, Romans 1: 17?
JT Yes. It is a revelation. But the position of the tree of life should be distinguished from this. It appeared before sin came in, and it is seen in Revelation 22 as in the city, which certainly must be regarded as outside of the scene and area of sin. It is a sinless state of things, because it comes down from God out of heaven, as if it were indigenous there. The fruits of the tree seem clearly to be for the inhabitants of the city. The leaves are carried out. This implies that grace is active in the heavenly city in view of the effects of sin still existing.
JS Would the greatness of God’s work be seen in Adam’s being able to call Eve the mother of all living?
JT Yes; we bring Romans into this verse just to make it clear. Then as regards food in that connection, it is introduced in 1 Corinthians, in the Lord’s supper. And so also John 6. The bread there is for the life of the world, and this extends to millennial times, so that the nations will have food; but John 6 is distinct from the tree of life.
AAT This tree produces a different kind of fruit each month. What does that suggest?
JT It is in relation to the millennial service, in which we all, as of the heavenly city, shall be engaged. Of Adam it is said, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”, Genesis 3: 19. That will not be in the millennium. The millennial saints will have their own food. We will have our heavenly food, only I [p. 110] think the reference to time, that is, the months of the year, would mean that the heavenly saints are for the moment occupied with the renewed earth in an administrative way and this brings them into time. I do not think the twelve monthly fruits will go into eternity. The months will stop: there is no time there.
ABP Does it contemplate that there will be freshness and variety in the expression of life in this administration?
JT I would think that. We are supported in our heavenly service even as we are now, because we eat the heavenly food now; the old corn of the land is heavenly food. It belongs to heaven.
JTJr Is there a progression in the scriptures you have suggested; that is, first in Adam; then in Seth; then in Enosh? Is there a point reached in Enoch that we should come to?
JT That is what I thought. Enoch is said to be the seventh from Adam. That would be through Seth; not through Cain. So Enoch would probably take account of what Jehovah did for Adam, and learn from it; that is, he would be the seventh lineally, but also, as we may say, educationally; that is, through discipline, as a learner. He would look back on the past and take account of what happened and what God did with others. That is how we all should learn; so that this is the climax in the antediluvian world from the heavenly side, and Noah is the continuance of things. I thought we might just see what the testimony as to life was in the antediluvian world, for that is the period we are dealing with. It is much longer, perhaps, than most of us realise. It would be nearly as long as our own dispensation, and yet it is recorded in about six chapters; but there is a testimony of life in it. “The world that then was ... perished”, but that world had testimony of life rendered [p. 111] to it.
ANW Is the instruction in connection with Seth in the fact that he calls his son Enosh?
JT Yes. He is the one man that clearly saw what the sentence was. He is taking account of the sentence on Adam, his father, and he is calling his son by a name that indicates that he understands and is accepting it, and thus light is shining, because “people began to call on the name of Jehovah”, at that point.
FNW There are two trees in chapter 3. Does the tree of life stand as a secret in the believer’s soul? Satan seems to be acquainted with the first tree, but the other, being part of God’s purpose, Satan is unfamiliar with it. Satan had attacked the churches in Revelation as he had attacked Adam in relation to the forbidden tree, but the tree of life seems to be something he is not in the secret of.
JT Just so. As we have said, “the whole counsel of God” is made known in the ministry to the saints at Ephesus.
RWS It would appear that these men in the antediluvian world who had light were on the alert to discover some little intimation from God about life.
JT Quite so. We can understand how Enoch in his walk with God would enquire from Him and be taught by Him. I think that is indicated in Seth, and then fully seen in Enoch, because he is spoken of as the seventh from Adam. Only Jude mentions that, and evidently he implies that Enoch was a learner. He is also the only one that tells us that Enoch was a prophet. He would be qualified for prophetic service as taught of God, involving instruction gained by observation of others who had experience with God before him, and from contemporary history, too; corruption in his own times would be known to him and would enter into his prophetic announcement of evil in the last days.
[p. 112] He speaks also of the Lord coming with the holy myriads to execute judgment against them.
CN Would he also illustrate, as the seventh, the fulness or completion of life in that he was not, for God took him?
JT Yes. Enoch is a witness to eternal life entered into on moral lines, not as partaking of the tree of life. By the power of God, death was overcome in him. He walked with God, we may say, in connection with his family; that is, as Methushelah was born. No doubt he had observed that other earlier families were not doing well. He would know something about Cain’s family and the world around him, and as his son was born he walked with God. The evidence is clear that his walk had a moral bearing; that he was thinking of his family; other children were born to him. So that in his walk with God there was testimony that he pleased God. Then a second time we have it stated that he walked with God; “and he was not, for God took him” (verse 24). Hebrews 11 says, “... and was not found, because God had translated him” (verse 5). The Spirit of God brings that in. It suggests that his absence would be noticed. Where is Enoch? That will happen in our own case presently. But then there is another thing added as we already remarked, that he should not see death, which shows there is some way other than the tree of getting back to the idea of life. Enoch did not come under Adam’s penalty. This implies “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”. That was foreshadowed in the skins of the animals by which Adam and Eve were clothed.
JTJr So that the question of good and evil was also paramount at that time. Does it not run down to our own times, and work out in Romans?
JT It must have been worked out in measure in Enoch’s case, because he walked with God; and Romans teaches us to walk in newness of life. In [p. 113] Leviticus those animals that divide the hoof typify the discrimination between good and evil in believers. I mean to say these germs of light and truth in the antediluvian world become larger and larger as God proceeds with His testimony, and when we come to Leviticus, we have the creatures that divide the hoof. Adam, I think, would not name them because of the divided hoof, because the idea of walk was not so much there, but the idea of walk is stressed in Enoch. God would notice that he divided the hoof; that is, he discriminated between good and evil in his walk; he kept in the clean paths.
RWS There was the way to the tree of life that was guarded by the Cherubim and the flame of the flashing sword. Would you suggest that there was a way back to the tree of life in the suggestion of the way back in the antediluvian world?
JT The teaching as to life in these chapters, as we have seen, relates to the gospel. What intervenes between the barring of the tree of life to man and his permission to partake of it, is how God met sin, bringing in life through death. “It became him”, Hebrews 2: 10. That is the great lesson for us; the moral side. The Cherubim kept the way until Christ became Man; and even when He was here, before He died, the way was not made. He had to lay down His life. The way back was through death. But whether He was the tree of life as here below, or whether it is Christ as indigenous to heaven and known there in its own environment, is a question to think over.
APT John the baptist had great light in speaking of the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God; the sacrificial side as taking away the sin of the world; and then in the next paragraph he goes further in the apprehension of the Person. I was wondering whether this linked with Genesis and Leviticus as to the walk of certain [p. 114] creatures.
JT Yes. How far he did go in his remarks! John said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1: 29), also that He is the Son of God (verse 34). The Son of God is a title that largely alludes to Christ’s undertakings; what He does. So John witnesses to that: “I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God” (verse 34). He baptised with the Holy Spirit. The Lord in chapter 3 says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up, that every one who believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal” (verse 14). The allusion there is not to the tree of life, but life. It is rather meeting sin here. But then the passage goes on to say, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal” (verse 16). That is God’s gift. God’s love is expressed in that. But then the Lord said earlier, “And no one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven” (verse 13). Notice “who is in heaven”. Well, what is in that for us? I believe it is where we come in — the heavenly side of the truth. All He says about eternal life takes place here on earth in meeting sin in man; but when He says, “No one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven”, we have something beyond the earthly dispensation altogether; He is touching eternity in heaven. His own inherent place is there. So in chapter 6, where He treats of life and Himself as coming down here so that men should have life, that is not the tree of life. He goes on to say, “If then ye see the Son of man ascending up where he was before?” John 6: 62. “Where he was before”, points, I believe, to the assembly’s place, the assembly is wrapped up in all that; so that it comes down from God out of heaven.
AR What you say helps us to understand [p. 115] the idea of the tree of life as compared with eternal life. It has been often said that eternal life is for man here, but, according to what you have been saying, the tree of life is up there.
JT It is indigenous to heaven, and only celestial beings have part in it. It is our food.
JTJr Paul also says, “But if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer”, 2 Corinthians 5: 16. Is that what you have in mind? The tree of life evidently alludes to Him where He is.
JT Yes. “So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new: and all things are of the God” (verses 17, 18). That is our eternal portion.
APT So in John 3 the Lord further says, “If I have said the earthly things to you, and ye believe not, how, if I say the heavenly things to you, will ye believe?” (verse 12). Do you think the situation in that chapter indicates that Nicodemus and those with him were not ready for this great thought of the Son of man who was in heaven?
JT They were not. Nicodemus did not follow the Lord in the very initial things that he should have known from the Old Testament. He remained with the Council, because heavenly things did not come into his soul. John the baptist did go on to the heavenly thought; not that he belonged to the heavenly family properly, but he grasped the thought. The Lord’s word in verse 12, quoted already, is in the plural — “ye”. It refers to the ordinary Jewish state of mind.
ABP Do you have the way of the tree of life in John’s gospel in His words, “I am the way and the truth and the life”?
JT Yes. The way to it.
ANW As to finding the way, have you any [p. 116] thought as to why the fat is stressed in Abel’s offerings? There is no mention of the blood.
JT It certainly opens up quite a subject as to the offerings. Cain did not have a death-offering; he had a meat-offering. But it was useless because it was not preceded by an offering through death. Abel had such an offering without a meat-offering, and he was accepted. He evidently had a great appreciation of the fat which involves the excellence of the offering. It alludes to the fulness of excellence in Christ as offered to God.
ANW I thought that it was striking that his faith should stress the fat.
JT It looks as if the Spirit of God puts these touches in Scripture for us as learners. Enoch learned through all these things, and we may as well learn because the intent is that we should partake of disciplinary education as Enoch did.
AAT All the families of God will have life, but is there something special for christians in the way of life?
JT Clearly; the word to the Ephesian overcomer is suggestive: “I will give to him to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God”, chapter 2: 7. It is obviously special and as promised to an overcomer at Ephesus, where the whole counsel of God was made known; it points to the heavenly portion of the assembly.
EMcK What is the thought in Luke 15 where the father speaks of the son as having come to life, and being clothed with what is brought out of the house?
JT Well, he is alive again. The gentile is in mind. It would mean that God had begun to work in the gentile world. “Because this thy brother was dead, and has come to life again, and was lost and has been found” (verse 32). He has come to life.
[p. 117] But then there is more than that in the passage; that is, he has the best robe.
EMcK That is what I was thinking. The best robe is brought out. You were speaking about what was indigenous to heaven.
JT Yes; it is the heavenly side from Luke’s point of view. The elder brother was invited to come in to the house but the best robe was placed on the prodigal who is the gentile, viewed in Paul’s ministry.
AR Then we can enjoy eternal life now in the sphere of responsibility, and eternal life will also be enjoyed in the millennium, but there is something beyond either according to what you had in mind.
JT I think that is plain. Let the Scriptures themselves speak. The Lord says, “These shall go away ... into eternal life”, Matthew 25: 46. That is the saved nations. They do not go into heaven; they go into eternal life. It is an order of things established down here. I would not separate it from what we are speaking of, because there is a link. What is going to become of all the millennial saints? They are viewed at the outset as in flesh and blood condition, but they are not going to remain thus. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom”, 1 Corinthians 15: 50. So that enjoying eternal life in flesh and blood condition is a peculiar victory of God. Satan might say that you cannot make an ordinary man have eternal life. But God says that He can; even a man like Adam; that is, by converting him inwardly and giving him light so that he sees the second Man. Abraham rejoiced to see Christ’s day, and he saw it and was glad. The millennial world will in principle be of the order of Christ. They go into eternal life. It does not say they go into heaven; it is what is established down here, but then what will become of them afterwards? Scripture is silent as to actual words, but inferentially they must partake of [p. 118] the heavenly in some sense; taking on spiritual bodies, no doubt in a family by themselves. They never form part of the assembly, but they serve to give God the victory as to this matter of meeting death, that He can bring in life in the kind of persons, physically, that sinned.
FSC Are the leaves of the tree of life medicinal to bring this about?
JT I would say that. That is a good word — medicinal, because they are for healing. It will not fail like many medicines that are now used; they shall be healed.
JAP Can the tree of life be enjoyed by us individually apart from the assembly? Is the overcomer individual?
JT Yes. The book of Revelation contemplates declension. The assembly, seen in Ephesus, has failed and judgment is threatened. This is definitely imposed on Thyatira. Thus there is no promise made to the responsible body. The need of overcoming is contemplated as to each assembly. Overcoming is really the ground on which promises are made. So that partaking of the tree of life is open to any one that is an overcomer. It is given; you do not attain to it; the Lord gives it to the overcomer.
ANW The apostle says to Timothy, “Lay hold of eternal life” — is that another side of the matter?
JT It has a present application; it is an exhortation. The reference is to eternal life, not the tree of life. It has been described, “an out-of-the-world heavenly condition of relationship and being in which eternal life exists”. That is the present provisional form of it. You are still in flesh and blood, hence urged to lay hold of eternal life.
JTJr Is that not suggested in Enoch’s walking with God? Is that not the point, you have God and man together?
JT It is said by the Lord that eternal life is to [p. 119] know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He had sent; John 17: 3. This, in principle, is seen in Enoch.
ABP Is Enoch very much like the overcomer in the church? The whole public system is about to be spued out, so to speak, and he is preserved from even seeing death.
JT He is a good model. If we are to get the gain of the early men of faith, we must read about them and enquire of the Lord what is meant. The Spirit of God mentions just what we need. He could mention much more. What unwritten history Enoch must have had!
APT Does Enoch’s life correspond with John in the book of Revelation? Up to the end of chapter 3, he is in Patmos and then in chapter 4 he is said to be taken up to heaven. They might ask. Where is he? Is that what is on your mind?
JT Quite so; but the “in the midst” chapters are to be noted — the Lord walking in the midst of the assemblies. In chapter 4 it is what is in heaven; but it is not the tree of life exactly. It is in view of what is down here. All God’s judicial dealings are contemplated in relation to the throne in heaven.
AMacN Perhaps there is some connection between the first psalm and what has come before us in relation to the tree of life. The one who walks perfectly there could only be the Lord Jesus; but He is like a [p. 120] tree planted by the brooks of water. I was wondering whether that has any connection with what is before us.
JT There is some connection. It has often been noticed that the first psalm is what Christ is morally; the second psalm is what He is officially; and these two psalms cover the whole five books. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, and standeth not in the way of sinners, and sitteth not in the seat of scorners ... . And he is as a tree planted by the brooks of water, which giveth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf fadeth not; and all that he doeth prospereth” (verses 1 - 3). All this, whilst applicable to Christ, is not Christ as the tree of life but what He was morally down here, and even what any saint might be in measure, because that is the idea of the psalm. The tree of life is not down here. It is indigenous to heaven. The paradise of God is above. It is not down here on earth at all.