PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

After this mingling is accomplished, we express the food we have taken in, through our person, our image, our attributes. If you are Japanese, black, or white, you express your food through your Japanese, black, or white attributes. This is very meaningful. As saved persons who have been regenerated, transformed, and even conformed to the image of Christ, we express what we have eaten of God as our food. God as our food is expressed in our being. God is expressed, but His expression is in our being with its characteristics. Our being will not be annulled. Thus, in the New Jerusalem, I will know you and you will know me. I will still be me, and you will still be you. The mingling of God with us does not annul our being; therefore, we will be able to identify one another, even in eternity. Our being will remain forever to express God in what we are.

The Tree of Life as Man's Food Indicating Dependence

God as food to man indicates that man is dependent upon God. We cannot eat one meal and live forever. I have often thought that it would be wonderful if God had created us so that we needed to eat only one time for our entire life. If this were the case, it would spare us a great deal of trouble, because much time is spent on food. The food we eat must be purchased from the grocery store, stored, cleaned, cut or sliced, and cooked. Sometimes my wife becomes tired of cooking for me, and I sometimes become tired of eating. To sit and eat for thirty-five minutes sometimes becomes a difficult task for me. On one hand, eating is an enjoyment, but on the other hand, eating is a difficult job. God is gracious to make eating an enjoyment to us, because if it were not an enjoyment, many of us would not eat. Eating makes us very dependent. Because we must eat many times a day, and not merely one time for our entire life, we are very dependent. Eating indicates dependence. That God is our food, signified by the tree of life, means that we must depend on God continually. We must come to Him in order to feed on Him again and again. However, the tree of knowledge indicates independence. Once we learn how to use a computer in school, we do not need to go back to school to learn the same thing again. The knowledge we gain makes us independent.

In Genesis 2 the tree of life and the tree of knowledge were set up as two principles by which man could live. If we take the tree of life, we depend on God. If we take the tree of knowledge, we do not depend on God. Rather, taking the tree of knowledge makes us independent of God. In the eyes of God, the greatest sin is independence. We must learn to depend on God continually. To exercise our independence is sinful. In family life and in the church life, dependence is beautiful, but independence is ugly. To exercise independence is the principle of death. To take the tree of life is life, but to take the tree of knowledge is death.

GOD'S PROHIBITING THE FALLEN MAN, BY THE CHERUBIM AND THE FLAMING SWORD, FROM TAKING THE TREE OF LIFE INDICATING THAT GOD'S GLORY, HOLINESS, AND RIGHTEOUSNESS DO NOT ALLOW THE SINFUL MAN TO ABUSE THE LIFE OF GOD

When Adam and Eve took of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, they chose the principle of independence. Their choice cut them off from the tree of life (Gen. 3:22-24). Through eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, they were corrupted. They were no longer pure, because another source entered into them. This source was the nature and principle of Satan. This nature and principle is rebellion. Such a nature entered into man in Genesis 3. As a result, man's life was corrupted. Because of this corrupting element, God is prohibited by His glory (signified by the cherubim), holiness (signified by the flame), and righteousness (signified by the sword) from contacting fallen man. However, when the requirement of God's glory, holiness, and righteousness is fulfilled, His glory, holiness, and righteousness are satisfied. Thus, having been redeemed back to his original state before the fall, man can once again exercise his right to contact God. The tree of life, signifying God as life, was temporarily kept away from fallen man (Gen. 3:22-24) until Christ came to accomplish redemption. His redemption satisfied God's glory, holiness, and righteousness. Therefore, through Christ's redemption the way was opened for fallen man to contact God.

Witness Lee, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man, pp. 7-14.

APPLICATION

1. God's intention is to work Himself into His creatures that He may be life to His creatures-How will He accomplish His intention?

2. Explain how the three levels of created lives all work together for the expression of God.

3. What is the significance of the tree of life in Genesis and how are be able practically eat of the tree of life today?