Trees are of utmost importance to our environment and our lives. They help to provide oxygen. They turn carbon dioxide into oxygen, keep dust out, provide shade bringing in cool, help with protecting to ozone, and provide a home to insects and other insects. Our lives are dependent on trees. Trees have been attacked heavily during the industrial years causing major climate changes to our ecosystem. Trees are full of symbolism. There is a great symbolic reference through out the bible regarding trees. In Genesis God orders Adam and Eve to take care of the Garden and to eat out of every tree except out of two. Trees have two primary functions; they provide beauty and nutrition. The tree of knowledge and the tree of life were only to be observed for their beauty, but like most of us Adam and Eve forgot the real purpose of the trees and ate causing chaos to come. The symbolic reference of the trees is forgotten, so God continues to wrestle with man to bring it back. Man needs to remember that a tree is not just a tree. It is a representation of God’s side of greatness and humility here in earth. They are a symbol of God’s redemption through man, angels and other.
As David’s men engaged in battle against Absalom and begin to pursue them the trees of the forest also joined the battle. To the point that the trees in forest swallowed up more men then David’s army. The imaginative mind would say that the trees came to life and attacked the enemies of David as in the movie of the Lord of the Reign, but in as the scriptures denotes the trees indeed helped with the battle. Absalom was running from David’s men and as he rode his mule he got caught by an oak tree’s root by his neck to the point that he could not get out; he was hanging from his neck. Trees protect us from the heat of the day when the battle rages there is always a tree to run to.
1 Samuel 18:8
8 The battle spread out over the whole countryside, and the forest swallowed up more men that day than the sword. 9And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away.
God wanted man to hold esteem towards trees. He made sure that the first two people recognized that certain trees were made for beauty and others for food and to make sure that they were looked after. In Deuteronomy God gave instructions to the people regarding trees when they went to war with their enemies(Deut. 20:19). Trees are not our enemies. Trees are everywhere; at the battle front, when there is no war, and at every place. They are the resources that are always around, but overlooked at. In the Song of Solomon the sodemite likens Solomon like an apple tree which provides her the protection from the heat and supplies nourishment to her (SOS 2:3). Jesus healed this man who was at Bethsaida who was blind by spitting on the ground and making mud. After Jesus healed him he asked him what did he see (Mk. 8:22-25), and the man said that he saw people walking as trees. The idea that there are people who are around us who have the God thing in them is real; they are God’s trees.
In Judges Jotham illustrates a choice gone bad by the people. Instead of the people choosing certain potential candidates to rule over them in righteousness they chose one who was to become a burning pain. He presented the story of the forest where a king was needed to rule over the forest. They came and asked each great tree, but each had an excuse for not taking the kingdom; the olive did not give up his oil, the fig did not want to give up its fruit and vine his wine. The only one who was willing to give up his virtue was the thorn, but he had a condition for the trees and it was that everyone had to come into his shade else they would burn up from the release of the fire from his thorns(jd 9:7). Sometimes we prefer the tree of knowledge over the tree of life. Jesus is known as the tree of life; he is the true vine (Jh 15:1). A good tree is known by its fruit the psalmist said that this tree bares its fruit in due season and that it is planted near a stream of water (ps.1)