The Trees expose the heart's love.

God never offered a choice of Trees.
His was an absolute command: "do not eat."
His will was never alternative choices.
His will was "no." Clear. Simple.

When the choice that was never given
is seized, it is from the outset . . . rebellion
and the costly end . . . death.
So then the choice is immoral not intellectual.

It is a decision of disloyalty first,
only then does it become
a matter for the intellect.

The Tree of Knowledge is not really about knowledge.
It is about insurrection. Knowledge is the smokescreen
for hiding the right to live above God
and decide without Him.

The choice is made in the heart before
the Tree is eaten and
is an immoral choice,
never a decision born of reason.

You choose the tree that fits in harmony with
your moral choices, already
considered, weighted and made.
In secret.

The Trees are "obedience" and "rebellion."
You simply and naturally gravitate toward
the Tree of your inmost values.
Who do you live to please?
Self or God?

What you serve chooses the Tree for you
and you simply end there in knowledge, taking in the
deluding principles that are its fruit.
 

The tree under whose shadow you feast,
is the tree of your heart's truest desire,
of what you want most.
The tree of your preference exposes
the love of your heart's secret.
Have you chosen Self or God?

Knowledge is the pretentious mask that hides
a filthy motive, unacknowledged.

The choice of Knowledge above God is
the rejection of integrity and
the preference for lies.

The choice is Self over God.

The Tree of 'reason' transforms
the immoral thought into a moral action
by arguing the guilt away.
Satan takes what is wrong
and makes it come out as 'right.'
So if you secretly want the wrong, and
listen to the case of its support, you
are going to eat death.

Satan builds the opposite scramble as well:
you can be persuaded of wrong when
you are actually right.

The heart chooses, not the mind.

Eve chose knowledge because
she wanted knowledge.
The desire to disobey was in her heart.

Eve just needed a good reason to eat
and the serpent gave her the logical excuse
by defaming God.

That's always the appeal of the Tree of double death.
"God is withholding what you should have,
God is the problem."

It is never knowledge we are really after, but
independence from God by the
power to know without having to
stoop to hear Him or bow to obey Him!

And God did not blame the serpent.
 

The Tree of Death is Self-saving-Self.

The episode between Jesus and Peter reveals
the core meaning and the hidden essence
of the Tree of Death.

Jesus was going toward his crucifixion:
the unthinkable end of a sensational life.

Peter wanted to save the life of Jesus so
he strongly objected to His going to Jerusalem.

From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to you." But He (Jesus) turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."
Matt. 16:21-23

Jesus rebuked Satan and corrected Peter,
piercing the motive of his human reasoning.

Jesus stated clearly the problem . . .
not that Peter made an innocent mistake in listening to Satan,
but that his secret values were diametrically opposite to God.
Peter had "set his mind" toward the Tree of moral wrong.
His secret musings were turned, thought by thought,
until he was standing opposed to the very nature of God:
which is the sacrificial giving of self.

The logic of self-preservation calls
for the help of Satan.

When you go to save your own skin,
you are summoning Satan and eating the fruit of Death.

Self saving throws open the door of your mind
to God's enemy who brings the Tree of death into
the house of your imagination, for the destruction of
the very self you are trying to protect.

The brazen serpent delights to use you to challenge
the Savior you are following!

The words of Jesus that follow Peter's rebuke
chill the heart if we understand He states
the eternal principle we will live out!
Inevitably and absolutely we will live this out,
to Life or to Death:

Then Jesus said to His disciples,
"If anyone wishes to come after Me,
he must deny himself, and take up his cross
and follow Me.

Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Matthew 16:24, 25 NAS

Any of us can slip over to that Killing Tree.
It is a life time of choice, really a lifetime of
giving up having a choice.
Letting God's command be my obedience.

Only by the willingness to lose your life is there
safety from the Tree.

The way of God is to live entirely for
the thoughts of God, by the voice of God.
And in that Tree is fruit so delicious and full
as to make the other Tree taste only of poison.

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Copyright © 2002 Martha Kilpatrick