The Great Tree

My church has given us Lent Readings to do for this season. They are a section from Genesis and a section from Revelation everyday (appropriately named Alpha & Omega). The goal was to see what God would tell our church if everyone was reading the same things at the same time.

I wanted to share with you something I discovered.

While in Genesis (12:6-7), something stood out to me. Abram had just left his home.

Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem.

Great tree? What great tree? Why's it so great?

When I looked into it I found something very God-made, something He had obviously planned. From what historians can tell, it was no ordinary tree. It had to have been massive or old or unique in some way to have such a definite article and be such a landmark in the area. The great tree of Moreh is actually a fairly important spot in our faith's history. For several reasons, the first:

This is the first place that God appeared to Abram. God was made real to him at this spot. Before He had only spoken, but now He stood before him. After their conversation Abram immediately made an altar and worshiped God. But that wasn't the last of the tree.

Several decades later Abram's grandson, Jacob visits the spot. Jacob had tricked his brother and stolen the birthright, but now he had to return to his brother's land. When Esau welcomed him back with no hard feelings Jacob went and set up his tents in Shechem, the place of the tree. Some bad dealings went on and Jacob was forced to flee to avoid his people being destroyed. Before they left he said,

“Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.” So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. (35:2-4)

Here on the spot where his grandfather had first met God, Jacob fulfills his oath to go to Bethel and worship God there. But first he gathers all the idols of his people and buries them under the tree, cleansing his people. But that isn't the last of the tree either.

Centuries later, God uses the tree to solidify His covenant with His people. Joshua gathers all the tribes together at Shechem to make a final declaration of faith. He reminds all the people what God had done for them in the past from Abraham to where they stood on that day. And he said,

“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Josh. 24:14-15)

And they agreed to serve the Lord, to throw out the old gods (who were still among them!) and give their whole heart to Him. And then they set up a reminder for themselves.

Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak near the holy place of the LORD. (26)

This was close to 800 years after Abram, so was it the same tree? Maybe not, but the Israelites remembered that tree and had designated another near the holy spot where God had met them in the past.

Isn't it amazing that God had planned a tree to be such a crossroads between Him and His people? God appeared to men at the tree. It was at the tree that His people rid themselves of the sinful idols among them and buried them at its feet. And hundreds of years later His people again threw the idols of their lives at the foot of the tree, this time to ultimately declare their eternal covenant to follow God. At the tree.

At the beginning of time a tree was created to give life. Then after sin entered the world a tree would be the place where God's people would not only meet Him for the first time, but cleanse themselves of their sinful ways, several times. It seems appropriate then, for Jesus to be hung on a tree, a place where we can meet Him for the first time, a place where we can throw the old gods of our lives at his feet, and a place where we can gain new life.



And its what He had planned all along...