Revelation 22:2

“On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations.”

In the second chapter of Genesis, as the Bible opens, we get a picture of the Garden of Eden in which there are two trees, “The tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” v 2

Two trees.  It was not the tree of life that became the center of attention, evidently Adam and Eve could eat its fruit freely, but it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that attracted them.  God strictly forbade them from eating the fruit of that tree but that is the very kind of fruit they wanted to eat.

As I see it, this probably means that they wanted to decide what was good and what was evil or bad, not God. That would give them control of ethics. God knew that if they are the ones to decide what is good and what is evil they will get it all wrong.  That is the beginning of the story – and the plot from then on continues throughout the Bible.

As I place the Eden scene in Genesis beside Revelation 22, our passage for today, I am struck by the absence of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Revelation 22, in the description of the New Jerusalem that comes down. That tree is missing!  Why? It must certainly be that the followers of God’s Lamb look to God to define for them what is good and what is evil.  The desire to be God or like God is no more.

The tree that is there for all believers to eat from is the tree of life, described here as producing twelve kinds of fruit, one for each month. There is no reference at all to the twelve tribes of Israel. In fact the medicine in the leaves is for all nations, including the Jews, of course. “The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.”  v 2

John saw only that tree, there is no other.  It is there for us, a new fresh fruit every month for our food and with leaves that contain medicine to heal the wounds of all nations, and to provide nourishment as well.

John’s vision closes on that note. Jesus is the balm for all people on the face of the earth – all of them, for all time. Awesome but true, forever.