the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Tree
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or We meet with the names of a great variety of trees in Scripture, but if we may give credit to ancient writers, there was nothing in the Hebrew language less determined than the special names of trees. The sacred writers, however, have very largely and very beautifully classed them under their respective names. I do not take upon me to say that in numberless instances the names and trees are not figurative, for I rather think they are. It has been thought so by some writers, and there is reason for the opinion; and when we consider how God the Holy Ghost, from the description of the garden of Eden, in the very opening of the Bible, to the closing the canon of Scripture, in the description of the Paradise of God, makes use of the several names of "the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil," which were evidently symbolical and sacramental, I cannot but pause over the several elegantly and highly finished representations which the whole Book of God abounds with, more or less, from beginning to end, and accept them as such. Hence, in this point of view, are the "trees of the garden and of the forest, the trees of righteousness, and of the Lord's right hand planting;" but chiefly and above all in beholding that most striking and lovely representation of Jesus, under the similitude of the tree of life. (Revelation 22:2) Amidst a thousand beauties included in this lovely figure, how blessed is it to see that in his person, the life, the fruit, the healing, the shadow of his branches, the everlasting root, the verdure of his leaves, all, and every one, are beautifully described as figurative of temporal, spiritual, and eternal blessings in Jesus. And it is not the least of the beauty of this similitude, that this tree of life is said to be in the midst of the street, and on either side of the river. For as the church of Jesus, though but one, and the only one of her mother, (Song of Song of Solomon 6:9) is in both worlds, the river of Jordan only separating in place, but not in union; Jesus is equally the life of both, and gives blessedness to the body below as well as happiness to the society above. Hail! thou everlasting and eternal tree of life! Cause me to sit down under thy shadow with great delight this side the river, until thou shalt bring me home to the everlasting rest and enjoyment of thy fulness, in the paradise of God above. Amen.
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Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Tree'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/t/tree.html. London. 1828.
