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Trees and Thorns 87
4:3, 6-10, 14; Ezekiel 17:22-23; Remans 15:12). The Messiah is
the True Lampstand. He is the very Word of God, the Tree of
Life, the Lamp to our feet (2 Samuel 22:29; Psalm 119:105).

Trees as Ladders to Heaven
Having seen God manifest in connection with trees, and the
Messiah as a Tree of Life, let us look now at trees as ladders to
heaven. We can easily visualize a tree as a ladder to heaven, with
the bottom as the beginning of the ladder, the trunk as the ladder
proper, and the leafy crown on top as the glory-cloud of heaven.
Is this a Biblical image, however, or is it just one that we have
dreamed up?
Clearly it is Biblical. The place to begin is with the most fa-
mous counterfeit tree-ladder, found in Daniel 4. There Nebuch-
adnezzar had a dream of himself as a Tree of Life.

The tree grew large and became strong, and its height reached
to the sky, and it was visible to the end of the whole earth. Its
foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food
for all. The beast of the field found shade under it, and the
birds of the sky dwelt in its branches, and all living creatures
fed themselves from it (Daniel 4:11-12).

God ordered that this presumptuous Tower of Babel Tree be
cut down, with only a stump remaining (Daniel 4:14-15). This
meant that Nebuchadnezzar would be bestially insane for seven
years, to teach him not to play god (Daniel 4:16, 20-33).
Just as the Tower of Babel was a counterfeit ladder to heaven,
so Jacob’s visionary ladder was the true one (Genesis 28:12-17).
Babylon means “gate of heaven,” and at the foot of Jacob’s ladder
was the true gate of heaven (v. 17). Just so, if Nebuchadnezzar’s
ladder tree was a counterfeit, there must also be a true ladder
tree. That true Ladder is the Messiah. Jesus said to Nathaniel,
“You shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascend-
ing and descending upon the Son of Man,” referring to Jacob’s
vision (John 1:51). But also, in context, Jesus stresses that
Nathaniel has been sitting under a fig tree (John 1:48, 50). The
fig tree, a symbol of Israel as God’s priestly nation, is correlated
with the ladder of heaven, with the Tme Israel, Jesus Christ.