“In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations”
In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.
The river flows down the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river was “the tree of life.”
This tree bore crops of fruit each month. There will be twelve harvests a year there. The Greek says, “according to each month.” Each month produces its proper fruit. Just as today, different seasons produce different kinds of produce. The tree here represents the eternal state. Contrast the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden. This is similar to the trees in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9,16,17). This tree abundantly produces fruit for life.
The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
The leaves of the tree will heal the nations. The word “healing” carries the idea of giving health. The tree secures the health of the nations. There is no sickness in the eternal state, so the leaves of the tree supply the physical well-being of those in the eternal state. Eating of these trees assures us of continued immortality. Everyone will have perfect health in eternity.
Principle:
We will eat in Heaven.
Application:
In the Old Testament, angels ate when Abraham entertained them. Jesus ate after He rose from the dead. We will eat at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Evidently, there will be no need to eat in Heaven; eating will mainly be a social function. We will have a social life in Heaven. The main person with whom we will socialize is God Himself and the Lamb.
i agree in your position, everyone will have a perfect health and we don’t need to eat those leaves for our own healing. but this is what i believe partially. i don’t like to convince you but rather i want to submit it for my own project. During Christ return all of us who remain faithful to Him will be change in the twinkling of an eye our corruptible body will become incorruptible, but our character are the same, even our appetite these things will not be changed.
could this be possible that the main purpose of the left of the tree of life is to change us completely? including our appetite, and character? because i do believe we will be saved by His eternal grace of Christ, and even how holy we are through Christ blood but still we have evilness within us, the law serves in our salvation as our guide to holiness, but doesn’t mean that the law will makes us holy, only Christ blood. then how about our character? yes! i believe through His grace we all become patience, humble, loving, ect. but how about some of of oer aspects? our appetite? i don’t believe meat eater have no oppurtunity to be in heaven, and only the vegetarian? that’s foolishness i think.
i’m sorry but help me to understand these.
thank you so much sir if you have a concern about this i just want to know it for my research method.
The sin capacity will not continue after death; every person in heaven will have no need to deal with the sin issue, thus, our character will change in a flash. Our appetite for sin will change to an appetite for fellowship with God.
thank you so much sir for the short yet clear to me. can you still give me some answer this inquiry sir? thank you. sir can you tell me what is the other function of the leaf of the tree of life, is just only to coninue our immortality? how about if someone dont want to eat the leaf of the tree meaning to say His immortality have end?
Jessmar,
I cannot find evidence for your idea in the text. The central thrust for this passage is the “healing of nations.” Jesus will fix all national entity problems in the eternal state.
First,let me preface this as just thoughts, not belief or fact. I try to picture what is described to me in a dream and apply a spiritual parallel to what is being seen. With God, nothing is by chance. He is a detail oriented God. So, John is looking at The Throne Room of God accompanied by our Lord, Jesus Christ. How do we get to the throne room? It is by the straight way, the right path and / or road. I also have a question, where is The Holy Spirit? I believe He would be The River ( Pure and Clear). We are the people on the road, the healed Nations, pure and cleaned by The Blood of The Lamb, filled with The Holy Spirit. The Lord’s Voice is as the sound of many waters, each of us being a drop combined together in unity to make a mighty river. The leaves are tapped into The Tree, some grafted in just like when Jesus said He is The Vine and we are the branches. So I guess you know by now I think the Tree of Life is God and Jesus one on either side of the road. Question, why are they on different sides of the road to The Throne Room? My thoughts are that the side that God is on is The Old Testament and the other side with the tree that represents Jesus is the New Testament. As for the fruit, yes it could represent plenty in Heaven, no more hunger. May I suggest that it could be twelve represent The Tribes of Israel? Or, since in Gen. 3:22, God is fearful that we must partake of The Tree of Life to get to heaven and have eternal life this could be what is spoken of, you will know them by there fruit. The fruit if you will gives us our attitude of patience, kindness, longsuffering, ect. It is the Healing fruit that produces eternal life and gives us strength for the journey to Heaven. The Greatest of these fruits is Love. Thanks
Craig, I am in Bangladesh and India for a few weeks. Will answer when I get back.
heaven is eternal, no time frame as we know it here on earth. Why then is there a monthly time frame for the fruit on the tree of life?
Mary, since people in eternity do not possess omnipresence or other attributes of God, God still deals with people in eternity as finite. They have eternal life but they are still finite in terms of knowledge and other attributes. We will spend eternity learning about God and His plan. We will not have omniscience in eternity–that prerogative belongs to God. Christians will still need anthropomorphic and anthropopathic help in understanding God. Regarding the tree–the tree will on a monthly rhythm for eternity provide heath-giving provision to those in the eternal state.
Craig, it is dangerous to spiritualize the Bible when it comes to interpretation. That is a process whereby people can read anything they want into the Bible by whatever their imagination may bring up. There are literal ideas behind all biblical figures but there must be a correlation between the figure and and literal idea.