TODAY IN THE WORD

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Psalm 1
He is like a tree planted by streams of water. - Psalm 1:3
TODAY IN THE WORD
The apostle Paul knew the benefits of good company, as well as the dangers of bad. He witnessed both firsthand in Corinth. The Corinthian believers’ faith was being harmed from spending extensive time with people who denied the resurrection. Quoting the Greek poet Menander, he exhorted the Corinthians to be careful of their associations. “Do not be misled: 'Bad company corrupts good character.’ ” (1 Cor. 15:33).

On the other hand, Psalm 1 paints a vivid picture of the kind of company a righteous person chooses and the good results that follow. This contrast between righteous and wicked company recalls the choice between the two trees we looked at earlier. In fact, we can read this psalm as a picture of someone who chooses the Tree of Life instead of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is the first of five images we will examine that symbolize the righteous person.

The psalm begins by describing the company that the righteous person, the person called “blessed,” does not choose. The verbs the psalmist uses show the progression of those who start down the “way of sinners”: first they “walk,” then “stand,” then “sit” (v. 1). What begins as a casual visit ends as a permanent residence.

But how then does the righteous person spend his time? In delight and meditation on “the law of the Lord” (v. 2). He feeds on God’s counsel. Together with the psalmist, this person exclaims, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long” (Ps. 119:97). God’s Word is his good company, night and day. He takes it in to his inmost being by frequent contemplation.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
In The Company We Keep,Wayne Booth argues that what we read influences our habits of moral reasoning, perhaps even our behavior.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Psalm 52
But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God. - Psalm 52:8
TODAY IN THE WORD
David was on the run from Saul. While fleeing, he stopped by the town of Nob to pick up supplies and guidance from Ahimelech the priest. Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s “head shepherd,” spotted David in the temple and reported Ahimelech’s apparent treason to Saul--who then called the priests of Nob and had Doeg put them to death. He killed 85 priests and decimated the entire town (1 Sam. 22:9-23). Psalm 52 is David’s outcry against Doeg’s action.

The content of Psalm 52 is all the more remarkable for its context. Spoken by David, the fleeing outlaw, to Doeg, the high court official of the current king, it reveals David’s unswerving faith in the God of Israel and his ability to see beyond the crisis of the present moment.

Verses 1–4 describe Doeg’s evil in terms of his speech. His tongue “plots destruction” and cuts the innocent like a “sharpened razor.” He delights in untruth and the “harmful word,” and boasts of his evil.

The consequence of his evil, spelled out in verses 5–7, is ultimate ruin. He will be torn from his tent by God, brought down, uprooted from the living--when he least expects it. His trust in wealth and his destruction of others will prove to be false strongholds (v. 7), and the righteous, confident in God’s power, will laugh at the unmasking of his weakness.

The final two verses assert that the only true stronghold is the Lord. The temporary “power” of the man who trusts in himself for his security contrasts with the eternal security of the man who trusts in the Lord’s unfailing love. David, though on the run, envisions himself as a securely rooted olive tree, “flourishing in the house of God” (v. . Olive trees live for hundreds of years! Even though David’s life seemed transient, he knew that God’s love for him provided security.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Psalm 52 is an exercise of faith. In a difficult situation, David nonetheless declares God’s power, mercy, and goodness and affirms his trust in Him.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Psalm 92
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree. - Psalm 92:12
TODAY IN THE WORD
Recent sociological studies have shown that, in general, people of faith live longer and are happier. To worshipers of God, rooted in the true Vine, this should come as no surprise. Our scriptural hymnbook, the Psalms, written centuries before modern studies, suggests the connection between praising God and living joyously.

Psalm 92 in particular links worship and flourishing. Worship is, among other things, recognizing and naming God’s goodness: His works, deeds, and faithfulness (v. 4). To worship God with our whole being is to regain a proper perspective on our life and the One who holds it. This psalm is written for the Sabbath day--a day of worship, a day dedicated to God.

The psalm contrasts the senseless man with the worshiper of God. They differ in perception and in longevity. The senseless man is ignorant of his own transience. He does not know that despite flourishing like grass, his life is temporary (v. 7).

This contrasts with the worshiper of God who knows that “it is good to praise the Lord” (v. 1). The worshiper isn’t senseless like the other man, but knows that God’s thoughts are “profound” and that He is “exalted forever” (vv. 5, . This joy in the Lord and His deeds causes eternal praise and adoration. The worshiper is seen as a tree taking root in God’s house, a secure and sheltered place. “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God” (vv. 12, 13).

Being rooted in praise, says the psalm, leads to a life of fruitfulness. Unlike the senseless man who withers like grass, the righteous will “still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green” (v. 14).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
The psalmist writes that it is “good to praise the Lord . . . to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night” (vv. 1-2). Consider reading this psalm of praise aloud to the Lord; read it several times until you are able to offer it as your prayer. Then proclaim His love--for you, your family, neighbors, co-workers, friends--and His faithfulness. What are concrete ways in which God has recently shown you His love and faithfulness that you could share with someone else? Be sure to make note of them.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Jeremiah 17:5-8
I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind. - Jeremiah 17:10
TODAY IN THE WORD
The story is told of thirteen firefighters dropped from a plane to fight a Montana forest fire. Once they were on the ground, the fire jumped a ravine and surrounded them. With only moments to act, the captain ordered his men to light the grass around them, hoping to burn a space of safety before the fire arrived. But they cursed him and ran to higher ground, trusting in themselves and in their strength, rather than in the direction of their captain. They all died in the fire; only he survived.

Whom do you trust? This question occurs repeatedly in Scripture. In our passage today, God Himself asks the question and outlines the consequences of two very different answers.

In this passage, trust is defined in terms of where one chooses to live. The man who trusts in flesh, not the Spirit, and in human strength, not God’s, is imagined as a bush in a wasteland. He is isolated (v. 6), cut off from other people, from water, and from God. Indeed, the three go together. The reason that “he will not see prosperity when it comes” is that he has settled away from its sources (v. 6). How can you share in an abundant rainfall when you’ve chosen to live where no rain comes? How can you bear fruit without water? To trust in man is to live in a desert of no possibility.

The one who trusts in God,on the other hand, lives in a place of continual renewal. Like a tree rooted in a stream, this person lives at the source of prosperity. Drought isn’t scary because there is a constant water source; this person’s “leaves” remain green. Not only that, but this individual “never fails to bear fruit.” What a wonderful promise! Abiding in Christ will lead to a fruitful life; it is an inevitable outgrowing of life in the Spirit.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Trees don’t try to bear fruit, they just do by virtue of being near good water and sunlight. In today’s Scripture God makes the wonderful promise that those whose confidence is in Him will remain green and will bear fruit.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Genesis 2:8-17; 3:1-7, 21-24
You are free to eat from any tree in the garden. - Genesis 2:16
TODAY IN THE WORD
Robert Frost’s famous poem, “The Road Not Taken,” tells the story of a man making a choice between two roads. The final lines speak to the consequences of taking one road over the other. “I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence: / Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--/ I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference.”

Genesis 2 speaks of the choice between two trees, and here, as in the poem, we see the haunting consequences of a single choice. Adam and Eve were free to eat from any tree in the garden, except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Any tree, including the Tree of Life (vv. 16–17). Both trees stood in the middle of the beautiful garden in which God had placed them (v. 9). Why, then, did they not choose to eat of the Tree of Life? Why did they choose the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?

This tree promised to give them, according to the serpent, God-like knowledge. If they ate of it, they would become “like God, knowing good and evil” (3:5). The appeal to pride was strong: Eve saw that it was “desirable for gaining wisdom,” as well as “good for food and pleasing to the eye” (3:6). This tree would give them, she thought, nourishment, pleasure, power, greater understanding, and increased status. She and Adam could break their dependence on the Creator and become independent, knowing things for themselves without His input. They could be moral judges. They could be “free.”
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Every day we, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, have a choice: to eat from the Tree of Life, or to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Will it be Christian fellowship or a Sunday morning sleep-in? Ongoing, inward fellowship with Jesus or ongoing, inward criticism of self and others?

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Matthew 3:1-12
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. - Matthew 3:8
TODAY IN THE WORD
The Book of Common Prayerdescribes baptism in the following way: “Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned from others that not be christened, but it is also a sign of Regeneration or New Birth.” Baptism signifies both a verbal profession of faith and an inward transformation in the person baptized. It is an outward mark of an interior change. Or at least it ought to be, according to John the Baptist.

John prepared the way of the Lord by calling people to repentance (v. 11). Matthew reports that people from all over the Jordan region came to him to be baptized. Why, then, does he rebuke the religious leaders who approached him, presumably for baptism?

John recognized the Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ failure to repent and their focus on appearances. They came for baptism to observe a religious formality or to take out an insurance policy--“who warned you to flee?” (v. 7)--not to repent. Without inward repentance, the sign of baptism is void. Urging them to produce evidence--fruit of their repentance--he warned them against relying on substitutes.

One false substitute for repentance is reliance on lineage. John says the claim to being Abraham’s children is worth nothing unless it’s accompanied by the internal orientation of Abraham (faith) and its evidence (righteous deeds). This active faith is the New Testament qualification for membership in the kingdom of God. Drawing on the Old Testament images of Israel as a tree, John implies that unless they produce fruit worthy of Abraham’s tree, they will be cut down (v. 10).

Another false substitute is reliance on the sign and not the reality. Just as the Pharisees’ and Sadducees’ heritage was ineffectual without the heart and deeds of Abraham, so the sign of baptism is ineffectual without an inward rebirth.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Baptism reminds us of our forgiveness from sins and makes a public statement about our entry into the body of Christ, the church.

Remembering our baptism encourages us because it points to the reality of having had “our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Matthew 7:15-23
By their fruit you will recognize them. - Matthew 7:16
TODAY IN THE WORD
In the middle of winter, it’s not easy to tell the difference between a healthy tree and a dead one. Beneath a blanket of snow, it’s only natural for trees to stand hauntingly without leaves or fruit. But time will reveal a tree’s status. In the heat of the summer or the reddish rainbow of fall, a dead tree will stand in stark contrast from the colorful life of healthy, fruitful vegetation.

It is precisely this trait to which Jesus refers in His warning about false prophets. This is the second day of our study of trees as symbols of judgment.

False prophets, those who pretend to speak God’s truth but whose own interests are paramount, can initially be disguised. Clothing is the metaphor here; they can dress up like sheep, when “inwardly” they are wolves. But Jesus urges His listeners to look beyond appearances to results, to look beyond clothing to fruit.

Why fruit? Fruit is a long-term result. Fruit makes visible the hidden things. Fruit grows out of a tree’s diet, soil, air, light, and water. Fruit cannot be faked. If a tree lacks water, it will not produce fruit. Or in Jesus’ image, if a tree is a thorn bush, it will not produce grapes, nor will thistles produce figs. Look for the fruit, He admonishes, then you can name the tree. Don’t believe the name “prophet” until you see the evidence. Indeed, Jesus Himself repeatedly invited people to believe in Him on the basis of His miracles, His “fruit” (John 10:37–38).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
God calls believers to bear spiritual fruit. Inside and out we are to be “well-dressed” by the Spirit.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: James 3:9-17
My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? - James 3:12
TODAY IN THE WORD
How do we identify trees? How do we know for sure when we are looking at a poplar instead of a juniper? A tree’s leaves, flowers, or bark tell us volumes. So does its fruit.

We recognize a tree’s type because of what it produces. Trees are very consistent this way. We don’t find maple trees bearing oak leaves, or apple trees producing lemons. Yet this is exactly the spiritual problem James was noticing among those whom he shepherded. As we’ll see the next two days, trees also symbolize spiritual health for us.

James diagnoses the problem as one of “mixed fruit.” They were praising God and cursing man with the same tongue, something he says “should not be” (v. 10). It should not exist in the world. It is as unnatural as a fig tree producing olives, or a grapevine, figs. Or, to change the analogy, it is as unnatural as fresh water and salt water coming from the same spring. Blessings and curses come from different sources.

James goes on (vv. 13–17) to name the two sources for the distinct “fruits” of praises and curses. Earthly wisdom, which has to do with “bitter envy” (v. 14), produces the bitter water of cursing. (Fruitful trees can’t grow in bitter--or salt--water.) Where there is envy and ambition, people are prone to speak hatefully of one another. This “wisdom” which produces “disorder” is “of the devil,” certainly not of the God of order and peace (v. 15).

Heavenly wisdom, on the other hand, is completely “peace-loving” and “submissive” (v. 17). It is also considerate, full of mercy, impartial, and sincere. True praise of God thus comes from people who are yielded to Him and who are not seeking their own advancement. These people, flowing with fresh water, will produce “good fruit.” “Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness” (v. 18).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
James tells us that the fruit of our speech reveals what kind of tree we are.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Ephesians 3:14-21
[Be] rooted and established in love. - Ephesians 3:17
TODAY IN THE WORD
Seventeenth-century English preacher and poet John Donne was well-practiced in the art of “holy dying.” Before he sailed to Germany, during a season of rough wintry weather, he penned the poem “A Hymn to Christ, at the Author’s Last Going into Germany” (1619) to honor his departure and to prepare for death. (Fortunately, he survived the trip.)

Donne uses imagery from Ephesians to describe his journey. He writes, “As the trees sap doth seek the root below / In winter, in my winter now I go, / Where none but Thee, the eternal root / Of true love I may know.” In the descent of death to the under-ground, he imagines encountering the Root of God’s love.

We have seen how trees symbolize the righteous person, Israel, Christ, and the Jews. Here the tree symbolism is used to communicate the position and purpose of the believing community, the church: to be rooted in love.

What does it mean to be rooted in love? To be rooted implies having a fixed and settled position. If you live in a place long enough, you “put down roots,” or if you visit a family homestead, you say you are returning to your “roots.” To be rooted in love implies a firm settling into God’s love: you take up residence there, you move in to stay. It is not a temporary position. You are not “tasting” and seeing that the Lord is good (Ps. 34): you already know that. Instead, being rooted, you drink daily, constantly, of Him, for “God is love” (1 John 4:7).

Why do we need to be rooted in love? Paul gives two related reasons. First, we need to be rooted and established in love to be able to grasp the enormity of Christ’s love--the deep, deep love of Jesus takes “power” to comprehend (v. 18). Without firm roots, we couldn’t even start to grasp it.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
The Bible in 1 John 3:16, says that we know what love is because Jesus laid down His life for us and that we ought to do the same for others. “Let us . . . love . . . with actions” (1 John 3:18).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Proverbs 27:18; Galatians 6:7-10
He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who looks after his master will be honored. - Proverbs 27:18
TODAY IN THE WORD
Genesis 39 tells the story of Joseph’s rise to prominence in Egypt. Sold as a slave, Joseph nonetheless won a position of responsibility from his Egyptian master. What was the key to his success? The Lord blessed Joseph, and he acted in the best interests of his master. Even when wrongly accused by Potiphar’s wife, Joseph ascends to power again in jail by earning the favor of the warden and other prisoners. Joseph ultimately receives the benefit of his long years of faithful service.

The proverb for today explains this reward for service in terms of tending a fig tree. Taking care of a tree is thankless work: most of the year the caretaker mulches, prunes, waters, sprays, or trims. But when the fruit comes, its caretaker is rewarded for his labor.

The same is true regarding the servant who looks out for the interests of his master. Jesus says that God will honor those who serve His Son and go where He goes, even unto death (John 12:26). In economics, this is called the law of returns. What you cast on the water after many days will return to you (Eccl. 11:1).

To conclude our study, we will look at how Scripture uses the images of trees as a symbol of blessing. Paul speaks of a spiritual law of returns using the agricultural language of sowing seeds. This spiritual principle applies both negatively and positively--the harvest is determined by the seeds sown. “God cannot be mocked” because “a man reaps what he sows” (v. 7).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Paul concludes with an exhortation: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (v. 10).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Proverbs 27:18; Galatians 6:7-10
He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit, and he who looks after his master will be honored. - Proverbs 27:18
TODAY IN THE WORD
Genesis 39 tells the story of Joseph’s rise to prominence in Egypt. Sold as a slave, Joseph nonetheless won a position of responsibility from his Egyptian master. What was the key to his success? The Lord blessed Joseph, and he acted in the best interests of his master. Even when wrongly accused by Potiphar’s wife, Joseph ascends to power again in jail by earning the favor of the warden and other prisoners. Joseph ultimately receives the benefit of his long years of faithful service.

The proverb for today explains this reward for service in terms of tending a fig tree. Taking care of a tree is thankless work: most of the year the caretaker mulches, prunes, waters, sprays, or trims. But when the fruit comes, its caretaker is rewarded for his labor.

The same is true regarding the servant who looks out for the interests of his master. Jesus says that God will honor those who serve His Son and go where He goes, even unto death (John 12:26). In economics, this is called the law of returns. What you cast on the water after many days will return to you (Eccl. 11:1).

To conclude our study, we will look at how Scripture uses the images of trees as a symbol of blessing. Paul speaks of a spiritual law of returns using the agricultural language of sowing seeds. This spiritual principle applies both negatively and positively--the harvest is determined by the seeds sown. “God cannot be mocked” because “a man reaps what he sows” (v. 7).
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Paul concludes with an exhortation: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (v. 10).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Genesis 7:24-8:22
[T]here in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! - Genesis 8:11
TODAY IN THE WORD
God’s deliverance of His people throughout the Old Testa-ment repeatedly involves the provision of water. Lot and Abram’s herdsmen divide over water supply; Rebekah gives water to Jacob’s camels; Moses strikes water from the rock at Meribah during Israel’s desert wanderings. Water in the wilderness signifies grace, the springing up of life in a dry and weary land. But what signifies grace when there is too much water?

Noah and his family didn’t need an oasis of water; they were looking for an oasis of land. The olive branch plucked from a living tree after the ravages of the flood promised such an oasis.

While initially the dove “could find no place to set its feet” (v. 9), the second time it returned with the leaf, a sign of the water’s recession below the tree-line. The third time it departed for good. After a good half year of floating on water, a leaf signaled the stability of life on land and God’s deliverance of Noah and his family from the flood. Just think how joyful they were to see that leaf!

The olive leaf also symbo-lizes a renewal of life. God destroyed the face of the earth by the flood, and here was a fresh leaf, a sign of new life growing in the chastened world. God in His goodness did not return Noah’s family to a barren wasteland, but to a land of new growth. This is a good lesson for us to remember when God disciplines us. What awaits us afterward isn’t aridity but renewal of life.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Can you imagine what life would be like without the pattern of seasons? Thank God for ordering the seasons this fall: for seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night. Make a point this September to acknowledge God’s ordering of the seasons as good. If you or someone you know is in a time of “flood,” a loss of an established pattern and order in life, pray for an olive leaf to be given to them, a promise of coming stability and structure. And thank God for the protection He offers us during these times of tumult and storms.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Jonah 3:10-4:11
But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?” - Jonah 4:9
TODAY IN THE WORD
In recent years, educational studies have discovered that different people have different styles of learning. Some learn best through verbal interaction--in lectures or books. Others learn visually--seeing images or symbols helps them to remember or communicate information. Still others learn experientially, interacting with physical materials or environments in order to understand them.

Jonah, it would seem, is an experiential learner. This reluctant prophet only learns when God places him in live-action parables. In growing and withering the vine, for example, God leads Jonah in an experience of grace in order to explain His mercy for the Ninevites.

Jonah knows God is gracious. Indeed, it angers Him (v. 2). He doesn’t want God to show grace to the Gentile Ninevites, but only to Israel. God’s question to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry?” suggests that Jonah doesn’t understand the nature of grace. His response to the gift of the vine confirms this; God graciously shelters Jonah from the desert sun, but when the vine withers, Jonah is angry again.

This time he justifies his anger (4:9). He asserts his right to shade in the desert; he asserts his “right” to grace. But God tells Jonah the vine was a gift, just as much as His mercy on the Ninevites is a gift. Neither the sheltering vine (a means of grace in the desert) nor the forgiveness of God can be earned, only received.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
Jonah tried to limit God’s mercy to others, but demanded it as a right for himself. His attitude is worth pondering. Are we sometimes the “reluctant prophets”? Do we hoard God’s kindness to ourselves? Or are we willing to testify to His mercy to whomever He sends us? Today, like Samuel, say to the Lord, “Here I am, send me.” Ask for an opportunity this week to speak of God’s kindness to someone you may have previously been reluctant to talk to. Then wait and see whom God will bring your way and follow God’s leading.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Isaiah 55:6-13
[A]ll the trees of the field will clap their hands. - Isaiah 55:12
TODAY IN THE WORD
In the sermon “The Garden of Graces,” seventeenth century English preacher Thomas Hooker compares the heart to a garden. This garden produces offensive weeds as well as wholesome herbs that send up sweet fragrance to God. The rain that waters this garden is God’s Word, for Hooker notes that in Scripture “God’s Word is often compared to Rain or Dew.” When the Word falls on the heart, it cools its heat, quenches its thirst, cleans the air, softens its hardened earth, and causes things to grow.

In Isaiah, God’s Word is also likened to rainfall that nourishes the earth. Rain does not fall without effect but acts and alters the environment. It produces the harvest that yields seed, the origin of sustenance, and also bread, its end product. So too, God’s Word spoken into the world causes active fruitful change (v. 11)--“seeds” and “bread” of a spiritual kind.

The harvest is recorded in verses 12 and 13. Isaiah speaks here of the release of Israel from the Babylonian captivity. God’s promise to free them, God says, is the beginning of a chain reaction. While, like rain, it doesn’t instantly produce bread (results), it does start a process that will.

God’s promise to Israel is not simply release from slavery, but jubilant freedom. God declares they will “go out with joy and be led forth in peace.” What’s more, the whole earth will rejoice with them as they resume their God-given place in it. This celebration prefigures the joy of creation at the ultimate release of all God’s people.

In contrast to the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt through the desert, this future return is associated with lush vegetation. Trees in the desert, as we have seen, are a sign of God’s grace, providing shade and water.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
If your heart is a garden, what is growing there? Is it lush or barren? Ripe with herbs and fruit or weedy? Is it in need of a little rainfall? Thomas Hooker ends his sermon with the following prayer: “O great God of all, and sweet Father of thy chosen, pour upon us thy holy dews of grace: make our souls to stand thick with sanctified herbs; that we may receive thy blessing. That honoring thee in the day of Grace, we may be honored by thee in the day of Glory. Grant this for thy loved Son, and our loving Savior, Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.”

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Proverbs 3:13-18; 11:30
[Wisdom] is a tree of life to those who embrace her - Proverbs 3:18
TODAY IN THE WORD
In the song “Tree of Life,” songwriter Sue Valentine beautifully captures the biblical link between trees and wisdom. Whereas “pride, the fruit of worldly wisdom,” comes from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, “paradise, the fruit of heavenly wisdom,” comes from the Tree of Life. The fruit we bear, pride or paradise, depends on which tree we consume. The song ends with a prayer to God to help us eat from the right tree: “We’re craving food for eternal life / Keep us feeding on the Tree of Life.”

Today’s reading from Proverbs, a poem in praise of wisdom, links wisdom and a tree of life. The phrase “tree of life” means source of life, something that generates vibrant growth. Proverbs 3 argues that wisdom is generative, for it multiplies blessing to those who possess it. A good investment, it “yields better returns” than silver or gold (v. 14); it lengthens life, multiplies riches and honor; and all its ways are shalom or, as it is also translated, “prosperity” (v. 17).

Note, though, that to be a tree of life, wisdom must be embraced (v. 18). It is not enough to offer a business-like handshake; wisdom asks for an eager, intimate hug, like one given to a beloved. (Indeed, Proverbs notes that we’ll either embrace Wisdom or the Adul-teress and urges us to choose Wisdom.) And this is not a quick hug--you have to hang on tight! If you hold wisdom close to you, like a beloved, then it becomes a source of blessing and vitality.
TODAY ALONG THE WAY
They say of families, that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.