 What is the tree of life? Why do we have the tree of life? In the Bible we hear about the tree of life, but we really don't get an awful lot of detail about the tree of life. And we see it first in Genesis chapter 2 verse 9. It says, And out of the ground the Lord God calls to grow every tree that is pleasing in the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Without going into the other tree, the question is, what is the tree of life? Well, apparently the tree of life is what was used to sustain a person forever. Now, why wasn't the person born with eternal life in them? In other words, longevity, immortality, do not know, but clearly that you needed to eat of the tree in order to continue to live. Now, we know that's the case because after man's sin, as man was getting punished, God references the tree of life. He says that now the Lord says in chapter 3 verse 22, Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now he might stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever. So, apparently you could take and eat from it, don't know what the fruit was, what it looked like and so forth, but apparently eating from this tree would give the person the ability to eat if they continually do so, would give them the ability to live forever. So, what does God do? He puts them out of the garden where they cannot have access to this tree. God states that when you eat of that, then you will die. So, the process of them dying began because they don't have this life-sustaining tree to eat from anymore. Now, before we go further, I want to also point you to another time or other times that the term tree of life is used, but it's not used with the definite article. It's not used as the tree of life, but it's used kind of in a figurative way, figure of speech and metaphor. In Proverbs 11.30 says, the fruit of the righteousness is a tree of life and he who is wise wins souls. Notice he says a tree of life, not using the definite article, the tree of life, and the reason is for that is just kind of use metaphorically as a figure of speech that this is what righteousness is. It's a tree of life, but it's not referring to a person who is righteous having the tree of life. It's not speaking in that in that regard. And so, I just want to bring up because the Bible does bring this up in other places where it's used kind of as a term to kind of express some sort of meaningful life. It's not talking about eternal life. And so, I just want to make you aware of that also, but getting back to this actual tree that is in the garden, we're going to see this tree show up again in Revelation because now God is letting us know or focusing our attention on eternity, which brings this point up again. In the garden, they needed the tree of life to sustain them forever. And then in eternity, we'll also need the tree of life to sustain us forever, even with a glorified body, a brand new body. We're still going to need this tree. The Bible doesn't tell us why that's the case, why he could just give us long life, but the tree is still there. If we go to Revelation chapter 2, verse 70 says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, which is, as we look at this in the Greek, it says, to the overcoming ones, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. And so, the tree of life is going to be also there and the person will eat. I will grant them the overcoming ones, all of those who ever come, which is obviously those who are believing. He will grant us the ability to eat from the tree of life. We see this a few more times in Revelation. We also see it in chapter 22, verse 2. He says, in the middle of the street, 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. There will no longer be any curse. And the thorn of God and of the land will be in it. And his bondservants will serve him. So, again, it doesn't say a lot about the tree. It does give a little bit of extra detail in terms of saying that this fruit, it will bear these 12 fruits for each month and so forth. That tells us a lot about it though. And so, we have some vague references to it. All we know is this tree is the tree that God has desired or stated that it will sustain us. We see that in Genesis before the fall, before sin, and we see it now in eternity after sin is done away with. So, guys, I hope this has been helpful. Again, I wish I could give more. I wish the Bible gave us more detail about the tree of life. But the one thing we do want to look forward to is the day where we can eat of it, meaning that we are incomplete and forever fellowship with our Lord forever. Amen.