Proverbs 3:18-20 The Tree of Life

Okay, we're continuing along in our study in Proverbs, and we come to the tree of life. Remember just a couple of things to remember. Proverbs is wisdom literature, and the purpose of the book is to make one wise.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and remember also Proverbs uses many different types of literary devices. One of the mistakes people make in interpreting Proverbs is to take it as though it were commands specifically, and it's not really given in that way, all right.

And the text for this morning is we're actually picking up on what we did last month, the pursuit of happiness, and then continuing on. So we actually start in verse 18, but I wanted to read verses 13 to 17 before, because a lot of what follows is based upon this.

So let's read Proverbs 3, 13. How blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding, for her profit is better than the profit of silver, and her gain is better than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire compares with her.

Long life is in her right hand, and her left hand are riches in honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. And then we come to our text for today, verse 18. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who hold her fast.

The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps were broken up, and the skies dripped with dew. My son, let them not vanish from your sight.

Keep sound wisdom and discretion, so they will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck. Then you will walk in your way securely, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid.

When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden fear, nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes. For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught.

The Tree of Life in Genesis, Proverbs, and Revelation

Now that's the text, so let's get into the study. Back in 1513, a man by the name of Juan Ponce de León is credited with discovering Florida, what is now considered Florida. Now he wasn't looking for Florida.

He wasn't that old at that point, but yeah, okay, that was a Jerry. He wasn't looking for Florida, but he was actually, and this is pretty well documented, he was looking for what the mythical fountain of youth, all right?

There were stories that this mythical fountain was believed to have been on the island of Bimini. Anybody know when modern days white Bimini came to prominence again? That was the vacation spot of Adam Clayton Powell, the congressman from New York.

Yes, yeah, and he was constantly being investigated by somebody, and they would always find him on Bimini. Now every culture has some story or myth concerning immortality, and these myths have been the subject of numerous books and movies.

I mean, you just go to the internet and scroll through, and you'll find all kinds of these type of stories, and even our culture. We offer various products to extend life. Think of which diet, exercise program, creams, ointments.

If you put a pyramid under your bed and sleep under, you'll have eternal life, and crystals, all kinds of gimmicks, all right? But there is in scripture a concept of life, all right? And you'll see it in several different ways.

It'll talk about physical life, spiritual life, the happy life, the life of evil, eternal life. So when you see the word life, you have to make sure that you're looking at the context of it, all right?

One of the concepts in scripture is that of the tree of life, and this image appears in three specific books of the Bible. First Genesis, obviously in the Garden of Eden, all right? But it also appears prominently in the book of the Revelation, okay?

And then, interestingly enough, the third book that we find it in is the book of Proverbs in 318. That's our main text for this morning. She's a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who hold her fast.

Of course, that's talking about wisdom. So trees in scripture, it's always helpful when we come to some sort of a picture that is given to us in scripture to see how it's handled in scripture in general.

And trees in scripture are symbols of different things. Firstly, they are always symbols of life. They are also sometimes symbols of strength. You see in Proverbs and the Psalms talk about the cedars of Lebanon indicating strength or symbols of permanence.

Their roots dig down, you know, the psalmist tells us. Or should I call him the psalmist, as our newly elected president calls it. Well, whatever, all right? So they are symbols of permanence. They're symbols of growth.

Remember the symbol of the mustard seed, which grows to be the largest tree in the garden. And they're symbols of prosperity, yielding fruit, you know, in its season, all right? Now, in Proverbs, wisdom is equated with the tree of life, all right?

The wise prosper and the foolish perish. That's the simplest outline for the book of Proverbs, if you really want to boil the whole thing down. Be wise, you prosper, be foolish, and you're going to perish, okay?

Let's go back to the garden again. Remember the tree of life was planted in the midst of the garden by God, all right? And in his sin, now obviously, I mean, you can analyze the whole sin of Abraham, of Adam, but the bottom line is, for our study, he violated, among other things, the principles of Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he'll make your path straight. Those two verses, I think, are centerpieces of how the proverbial wisdom plays out in the life of the believer, all right?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Just look at that. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. That means your whole soul, all right? Don't lean on your own understanding. In other words, you've got the wisdom of God, and you got your own understanding, all right?

And more often than not, they're at odds with each other. And then verse 6 talks about the expanse of it. In all your ways, acknowledge him, all right? And he will make your path straight. In all your ways.

Unfortunately, even within the Church of Jesus Christ, we have people who try to slice up their life and want to reserve a couple pieces of the life just for themselves and want God to come into that portion of your life because you enjoy it too much.

And this is what Adam violated, all right? If Adam had trusted God, he would have been given the tree of life, all right? Because he didn't. He lost the tree, all right? And then notice, among other things, and I mean, we could put a whole list of what Adam lost, but among other things, he lost the four promises of Proverbs 3, 16, and 17.

Long life, riches and honor, pleasantness, and peace. If you remember a month ago, those were the four things that we looked at that wisdom gives us in general as we obey him and trust in the Lord. There's a direct relationship between our text today and Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

Sometimes when we're looking at Scripture, the symbolism that the authors use is often overlooked, all right? And this is one that I haven't heard too often. Notice the location of the tree was in the midst of the garden.

In other words, it was right in the middle of the garden, all right? That's not by accident, all right? God must be the centerpiece of the life of mankind. God not only speaks to us through written revelation, which obviously is absolutely essential for salvation, but he also speaks to us through his natural order.

Proverbs is filled with allusions to nature, to animals, etc., but also what we see in the Old Testament in particular is that geography speaks to us, as does the Old Testament sacrificial system. In fact, even if you look at the Torah and you will see that there were specific instructions for how the Israelites were to camp.

When they would move, then they would set up and stop. God would tell them to camp there. What was the first thing that they erected? Tabernacle. Where was it? In the center of the camp. It shouldn't go without our notice that the tree was in the center of the garden, yes.

Absolutely, absolutely. The tree is indicating that it's the dwelling place of God or where they find this wisdom, and that, of course, correlates with the temple. And what's the new covenant? Yes, the church.

Church, that's where God dwells. So, Adam lost paradise. Also, it meant he lost the tree of life. He was cut off with, remember, the cherubim flaming swords can't enter in. He lost wisdom. He was cut off from God.

All right. He lost a perfect relationship with God. However, we also have the message of Scripture. It's not just paradise lost, but paradise restored. And how many people have read Paradise Lost by Milton?

Only one? Well, it counts, though. You read it. It's not that long. Okay. How many people have read Paradise Restored by Chilton? Shame on you. Firstly, shame on you if you haven't read Paradise Lost.

That's a double shame. These are important books. These are some very important books. And in fact, in Chilton's Paradise Restored, if I remember correctly, each chapter begins with a quotation from Paradise Lost.

So, the Paradise Restored is a direct response to Paradise Lost. All right. But what's important, and the reason that I'm spending some time on this, is that we need to understand the concept. What Adam lost, Christ restored, and then some.

Okay. Salvation is more than redemption. In fact, if you, how many, I'm going to really be testing you here now. How many people have read J. Adams' book, Not Competent to Counsel? You should have read that one.

All right. Well, we went through that in our study, but he wrote a companion to it called A Theology of Christian Counseling. How many people have read that? Nobody. There's a subtitle, and it says, More Than Redemption.

And this is, I'm digressing from, well, it's actually really not digressing from the topic, but the idea is that salvation that we have, we are actually raised to a higher position than Adam lost. All right.

We think of Adam being, you know, the epitome. He was created by God, created perfect and innocent. All right. And yet, the promises to him were conditional. When we are saved, the promises to us are unconditional and cannot be lost.

Paradise cannot be lost to us any longer. All right. So, in that perspective, our salvation is greater than the loss of Adam. So, and that's where we ask the question, which is greater, the resurrection of Christ or the sin of Adam?

Okay. And unfortunately, most of the church, while they wouldn't say that, but their theology comes out that they think that the sin of Adam was greater because they don't see the restoration that we have in Christ, the resurrection, as overturning the entire curse.

I mean, there's a lot of things. Anyway. All right. I'm going to stop on that. Let's get back to the lesson. What Adam lost, Christ restored. That's what I was trying to say. And we see that in 1 Corinthians 15, for sins by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all died, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. All right. And then we see how Jesus concludes his letter to the church in Ephesus. Now, this is Jesus's letter, not Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus.

In Revelation 2, 7, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Now, notice here what we talked about.

Three books that put forth this concept of the tree of life. Genesis, Revelation. Interesting. First and last books of the Bible. And then what's Proverbs? Proverbs fills in the blanks between Genesis and Revelation, tells you how to live your life on this earth.

All right. And that's where we see the tree of life as well. So this tree of life is an important concept in our theology. All right. And then twice more in this important and instructive book of Revelation, we see similar descriptions.

Revelation 22, 2, he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming to the throne of God and of the Lamb, and in the middle of its street. And on either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.

And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. All right. When is this talking about? Go ahead. Yes, it does. Excellent. And so we see the tree of life. Now, when is this talking about this tree of life here in the book of the Revelation?

Now. Yes, very quickly. Why? How do we know that? Just from this verse, yielding its fruit every month, time. Yeah. Yeah. And what's the, according to this verse, verse two, what's the purpose for the tree of life and the fruit?

Healing of the nations. Is that necessary in the eternal state? No. See, the verse itself shows that this is what we are supposed to be doing now. The tree of life is here now. It's within the church.

All right. And again, unfortunately, so much of this, these concepts are put off by people. You know, this is eschatology. This is, you know, years from now. Well, actually, some of them would think, you know, it's for now, but not yet.

All right. Next time we see verse 14 of Revelation 22, blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. All right. So, I just wrote this note.

While there is certainly an eschatological aspect to the tree of life, Proverbs teaches that the benefits of the tree are available to the church right now. All right. And that's the teaching of this particular chapter in Proverbs.

Remember, Proverbs is not telling us how we have to live in heaven, all right, or the eternal state. Proverbs is given to us to tell us how we are to live as believers in the church today. So, wisdom, a couple of things about this wisdom, the tree of life, and in verses 19 to 20, we see that it's eternal.

The Wisdom of God in Creation and the Water Cycle

Now, remember, verses 19 and 20 follow verse 18, talking about wisdom is the tree of life. And what do we see? The Lord, by wisdom, founded the earth. By understanding, he established the heavens. By his knowledge, the deeps were broken up and the skies dripped with dew.

All right. Now, let's look at that. His wisdom is clearly seen. All right. Proverbs, Psalm 19, 1, the heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. All right.

So, we see that the wisdom of God is eternal. It was the wisdom of God through which he created this physical universe. All right. Creation itself reflects the wisdom of God. You just walk out, you know, and look at this world.

That's why it's so ludicrous, you know, even though sometimes I think it's foolish to debate atheists about evolution, because nobody really believes that. I mean, you can't. If you're an intelligent person, if you're applying what you know to be true.

All right. And, oh, in verse 20, this was interesting. This came from via Greg Bonson in his study in Proverbs. He believes that this is an allusion to the water cycle. By his knowledge, the deeps were broken up and the skies dripped with dew.

The deeps are broken up, the water comes up, it evaporates, it goes up, and then it drips down dew, either in the form of rain or just the dew in general. Yes. Yes. Yep. Okay. So, now, and one of the things, and this is interesting, and I had never seen this before.

All right. But his wisdom is clearly seen in the water cycle. Here's what we mean. Water itself is an amazing compound. When it freezes, it expands and becomes lighter than its liquid form. It's one of only a few compounds or elements that that happens.

Normally, when something freezes, it contracts. All right. When we put siding, when we put a vinyl siding on your house, what do you have to do? You have to leave spaces for the expansion and contraction.

When it gets cold, it contracts. Not so with water. Now, think about this. What would happen if water was like most of the other compounds? If it froze, what would happen to that chunk of ice floating in the water?

It would sink. And what would you do with your scotch? All right. No, you know, think about it. If the water in the ocean froze, and what would happen if all those icebergs just sank? It would continue to freeze.

You probably would wind up with the oceans being frozen in the winter and not being able to be thawed again. Think about that. God's, you know, and then again, the whole evaporate. So, the whole cycle is a cycle of evaporation.

You see the wisdom of God clearly in that because it's strange that water, when it freezes, it expands. Okay. And in fact, the creation is seen in many ways. Somebody gave me this example once. What if God put your nose and it was upside down instead of this way?

Every time it rained. Imagine every time you sneeze, it would put your hairline back. All right. So, we're told now to pursue this wisdom. Verse 21, my son, let them not depart from your sight. Keep sound wisdom and discretion.

And the author says in verse 5 that God's wisdom is to be central to life. That's the point we're looking at with the tree of life. And then he describes that wisdom. And now in verse 21, he returns to the theme that that wisdom might be pursued.

If you look at the whole structure of chapter 3, this is a crucial chapter in the book of Proverbs. Verse 5 and 6 is center, describes the wisdom all the way down to verse 21, and then he returns, pursue it.

It's our job to pursue wisdom. And remember, we've already seen in chapter 2 that wisdom and discretion, firstly, it doesn't come natural to man, and it's not easily obtained. Remember, we're told to search for wisdom as though it was buried treasure.

You don't find buried treasure laying on the side of the road. You're just not going to walk through life and say, okay, here's a piece of wisdom, here's a piece of wisdom. It's got to be searched for.

How is it searched for? Through the Word of God. And there's effort involved in gaining biblical wisdom. All right. And then we have the results of pursuing wisdom. Look at these next few verses, they're very important.

So there will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck. All right. There's so much that could be said about that, but I'll let that stand. All right. Attaining wisdom means life to your soul. We have this whole concept of life, and that's what we're looking at with this tree of life.

And not just in the eternal state, but here on earth. Remember, Christ came to give us life and to give it, and that more abundantly. And that's all for here and now. And this is the consistent theme in Proverbs.

We see it again in Proverbs 15, 27. He who profits illicitly troubles his own house, but he who hates bribes will live. Proverbs 14, 30. A tranquil heart is life to the body, but passion is rottenness to the bones.

Proverbs 10, 16. The wages of the righteous is life. The income of the wicked, punishment. Proverbs 21, 21. He who pursues righteousness and loyalty finds life, righteousness, and honor. And then 19, 23.

The fear of the Lord leads to life so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil. These are important verses for us right now. Okay. Proverbs 8, 35. For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord.

And godliness is life to your soul even in this life here on earth. And then Proverbs proceeds to, that's supposed to be show, the results or rewards of seeking wisdom and discretion. And these are the ones that I want to conclude with.

Walking Securely, Sleeping in Peace, and Facing the Wicked Without Fear

If you pursue wisdom, you will walk securely in your way and your foot will not stumble. Life is going to get hard, gentlemen, especially in the Christian church. We know it's coming. All the signs are there.

They've pretty much told us it's coming. The agenda, this is not a question of we don't know what they're up to. They've made it abundantly clear what they're up to. This nation is becoming increasingly anti-Christian.

Even among some churches are turning to be anti-Christian. All right. And so these verses are important. And of course, when we see walk in your way, that means living your life. All right. Your life will be secure.

Your foot will not stumble. And that's just emphasizing the point. This is a typical parallelism. Then you'll walk in your way securely and your foot will not stumble. That's a synonymous parallelism.

Okay. No matter what happens to you, your position in the kingdom of God is secure. They can never take that away. Now, these last couple of verses, again, are important. The result of pursuing wisdom, when you lie down, you will not be afraid.

And what does the scripture say about the wicked? They run when no one's pursuing them. All right. We need to be... I've heard a lot of people talk about having trouble sleeping at night and all. We need to dwell more on this proverbial wisdom.

When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Don't have to worry when you put your head on your pillow, you know, not as a believer. Fear is a major problem in our society. You want to do an exercise? Google phobias and see how much people are afraid of.

And unfortunately, even within the church, we have so many people who are just living in fear. All right. Unfortunately, even in the church. The number one command of Jesus, while he was on earth, was to fear not.

More than any other command that he gave, it was fear not. But the author of Proverbs continues. He says, when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. That should be... Every believer should have that as a model.

If you're laying down and you can't sleep for... because your mind is racing, you need to trust in God. That's the answer. It doesn't matter what, even if, when I lay down at night, I put my head on my pillow, even if they rush my house at night and drag me away in the, you know, in the middle of the night, my salvation is secure.

What can they do to me? Sure. And sleep is an important event. If you can't sleep, that brings on all kinds of other problems. So physical and emotional. And so pursue wisdom and your sleep will be sweet.

In fact, it's funny. Years ago now, probably about 15 years ago, I was diagnosed with that sleep apnea. All right. And that's a physical thing. And the doctor gave me a list of conditions that sleep apnea could bring on if you don't get a good night's sleep.

And it was like a full page of other physical maladies, physical and emotional maladies that can happen if you don't get a night's sleep. So it was important that I had the physical aspect corrected. But what good is that if mentally and emotionally and spiritually we're afraid and we can't sleep?

The same thing happens. Verse 25, Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor the onslaught of the wicked when it comes. There's an important word in there which sometimes is overlooked. Notice what it says, nor of the onslaught of the wicked if it comes, when it comes.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you can expect some kind of problem. The wicked will come. And what's the command? Do not be afraid of sudden fear. Christian has nothing to fear from the wicked.

God has promised that nothing will come upon you that is greater than you are able to endure it. If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8. All right. And we have the example of polycarp. I'm going to ask another question.

How many people have read the document called the martyrdom of polycarp? Only two. All right. But it's not a very long article. You can find it. In fact, I think the whole article is in the Fox's Book of Martyrs.

But you got to read the martyrdom of polycarp. Here is an 80-year-old man coming and taken prisoner by the Roman guards. And he's brought into the arena to be executed. And the pro-council asks him, you know, he says, look, I don't want to do this to you.

You know, you're an old man. He says, simply recant. All right. Simply say, away with the atheists. They call Christians atheists because they didn't believe in the older gods. And so he looks at the crowd and he says, away with the atheists.

And then he says, just recant. He says, in fact, the pro-council went on to say that even if you don't mean it, just say it. And he says, I can't. He says, my God has been faithful for me these 80 years.

He says, how can I do anything less? They brought him out to the center of the arena and they were going to tie him up. But he says, oh, you're going to nail his hands. And to the post, and he said, you don't have to do that.

I'm not going anywhere. But they did tie him and they lit him on fire. And they said that the witnesses who were there said that it was not like an execution, but it was more like baking bread in an oven.

There was even an aroma and a fragrance. And he just went, 80 years old, went to his death, just proclaiming the name of God. Amazing. Last verse that we're going to look at today, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

The wisdom of God is eminently practical. It is the wisdom you need to guide you through the good and the bad times of life. Biblical wisdom always leads you to Jesus Christ. The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.

Any questions?