God gives man a choice. There is the tree of life and the tree of death (Genesis 2;9+17).
The tree of life is nourished by a close relationship with God, the living source. The path of death is the decision not to rely on God’s guidelines.
Man wants to decide for himself what is good for him. He begins to mistrust that God means well for him. As soon as the basic trust in God is lacking, the relationship with him is destroyed.
Instead of living towards God, man turned away from God (Jeremiah 32:33). He hides from God (Genesis 3:8).
Erich Sauer wrote: “God wanted man to do good and know evil, but now he knows what would be good and does evil.
Man chooses the path of the “experience of godlessness“. God calls and saves those who desire God, who turn to him and want to take a new path.
The fir tree and its green branches in Advent symbolise the tree of life. It expresses the longing for eternal life in communion with God, the source of all life.
Messiah images in the Torah
- God seeks us – Adam where are you?
- The possibility of a choice – Two trees in the Garden of Eden
- Neediness instead divinity – A new view
- God’s master plan – Salvation through a human being
- A divine clothing – God acts
- A world upside down – Kai and Abel
- Living in the presence of God – Enoch
- God is calling – Noah
- A king-priest like Melchizedek
- God visits Abraham
- Life through a sacrifice – Isaac
- The ladder to heaven – Jacob
- New identity from Jacob to Israel
- Messiah Ben Joseph – Joseph the son of Jacob
- Shiloh, whom all nations will serve – Blessing on Judah
- Moses, the prototype of the Saviour
- References to Jesus in Moses
- The Passover Lamb
- The pillar of cloud and fire
- God wants to be with us – The tabernacle / The temple
- The snake on a pole – An image of a new beginning
- The rock in the desert – Faith is not a method
- A prophet greater than Moses
- A star from Jacob – Bileam