Page 90 - Through New Eyes

84 THROUGH NEW EYES
what more have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look
after you. I am like a luxuriant cypress; from Me comes your
fruit (Hosea 14:5-8).

It is interesting to note the Temple imagery that comes through
here, because the olive, cypress, and cedar were the three woods
used in the Temple, while the bronze pillars and bronze sea were
decorated as lilies ( 1 Kings 6; 7:19, 26). Note also again the asso-
ciation of grain (bread) and the vine (wine).
We should also note that God compares Himself to a tree
here. The Bible does not refer to God as a Tree as often as it does
to God as a Rock, but this is one instance of it. The shade of the
tree canopy recalls the shade of God’s glory-cloud (Isaiah 4:5-6)
and the shade of the mighty rock. As we shall see, the tree in the
Bible is a common picture of a ladder to heaven, with the glory-
canopy at the top.
In summary, the primary aspects of the tree to which the
Bible calls attention are food and medicine, beauty and shade.
The picture of the blessed and happy Israelite is found in 1 Kings
4:25, “So Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his
vine and his fig tree.”

God Manifest at Trees
At first glance there do not seem to be many “arboreal theo-
phanies” – appearances of God in or at trees — in the Bible, but
there are more than we might think. The key that unlocks this
imagery is found in Exodus 3:1-5:

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law,
the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the
wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the
Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the
midst of the bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was
burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses
said, “Let me turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the
bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he turned
aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush,
and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He
said, “Stop coming near here; remove your sandals from your
feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”