What is it about trees that compels
people to worship? Perhaps it’s that some trees seem bigger
than life as the tallest and oldest living things that occupy our
natural landscape. As such they symbolize vitality, growth,
strength, endurance, fruitfulness, and even eternal life.
Because of the many benefits of trees to mankind, we treasure
them. This is especially true in the more arid regions of
the world like northern Africa and the Middle East, which make up
what has been called the Fertile Crescent, the nursery of modern
civilization. Symbols, pictographs, writings, and art
objects from the ancient cultures that occupied these areas are
replete with trees, tree forms, and tree references, providing
evidence that those lands were more forested a few thousand years
ago.
The Bible itself contains more references to trees than to any
other living thing except people. The account of Eden’s
paradise in the Bible’s first book includes reference to the first
specific tree: the tree of life (Gen. 2:9). And the last
book of the Bible, the Revelation, includes reference again to the
tree of life - this time as a major feature in the Paradise of God
(Rev. 22:2,14). How fitting it is that the tree, this
magnificent gift from the Creator, provides the bookends of the
Word of God, the writing of which spans some 1,500 years.
Between these bookends, we learn much about trees and worship.
First, and extremely significant, is that trees were never
worshiped by true children of God. Nonetheless, trees were
highly valued, both for their beauty and their utility (Gen. 2:9).
Since the Genesis account of creation seems to indicate that the
fruit of trees and other plants were the food of all the early
peoples and animals, trees were obviously the linchpin of life and
health for the entire creation, and they still are. Early in
the second narrative of the creation (Gen. 2), the Holy Spirit
speaks specifically of two types of life occupying the Garden of
Eden virtually in tandem: first man, then trees. While it is
clear that God intended for man and trees to live in harmony and
in mutual support, we discover that man’s relationship to the tree
becomes troubled very quickly, trouble that has affected all of
creation’s history.
As this story unfolds, we find some 550 references to trees, or
wood, in the Bible. At least 26 different kinds of trees are
specifically mentioned. While there are a number of verses
speaking of the beauty of trees, most deal with the tree’s
utility. Specific mention is made of trees as a source of
food and healing substances; fuel for cooking, heating, and altar
sacrifices; shade, landmarks, burial markers, furniture
(especially temple furnishings); and lumber for buildings, ships,
carriages, and chariots. Other practical wooden things are
staves for walking and herding, carrier poles, flagstaffs,
buckets, ox yokes, tools, musical instruments, and even
scarecrows.
More sinister uses for trees and wood mentioned in the Bible are
spears, war clubs, bows, and arrows. And perhaps most
gruesome is the use of trees as gallows - racks to hang and
display the bodies of criminals and unfortunate victims of hatred.
This use of the tree is given special mention in the Old Testament
book of Deuteronomy:
You must not leave [a man’s]
body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day,
because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse (21:23
NIV).
This passage brings us closer to
the issue of trees and worship. Throughout history, when a
culture turns from God to follow its own way (as did Adam and
Eve), it essentially turns its back on the very Creator of
mankind. But because of the inherent need of people to
worship, we look for a substitute God. If one turns away
from the Creator, however, the only things left to worship are the
things God has made. Granted, some of those things are
awe-inspiring, like the sun, moon, and stars. The powerful
forces and basic elements of nature not only compel us to wonder,
they cause us to fear, which is an emotion akin to worship.
Perhaps less compelling, yet
something to marvel at, are the other created things that have
been found in the pantheon of creature-gods through the ages:
mountains, rivers, trees, and animals of all sorts. The
religions of the Greeks and Romans amply demonstrate that man too
has often elevated himself to godlike status and worship, not only
for his appearance, powers, and abilities, but also for his
capacity for murder and virtually unlimited wickedness. This
turning from the Creator to nature as the object of worship was
described by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Roman
Christians:
Although they knew God, they
did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile
in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory
of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible
man, and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.
Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of
their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who
exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served
the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
Amen (Rom. 1:21-25).
Perhaps even more dramatic is the
prophet Isaiah’s parody of one who worships wooden idols:
He cuts down cedars for
himself, and takes the cypress and the oak; he secures it for
himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine,
and the rain nourishes it. Then it shall be for a man to
burn, for he will take some of it and warm himself; yes, he
kindles it and bakes bread; indeed he makes a god and worships
it; he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it. He
burns half of it in the fire; with this half he eats meat; he
roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He even warms himself
and says, “Ah! I am warm, I have seen the fire.” And the
rest of it he makes into a god, his carved image. He falls
down before it and worships it, prays to it, and says, “Deliver
me, for you are my god!” They do not know nor understand;
for [God] has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and
their hearts, so that they cannot understand. And no one
considers in his heart, nor is there knowledge nor understanding
to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire; yes, I have also
baked bread on its coals; I have roasted meat and eaten it; and
shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall
down before a block of wood?” He feeds on ashes; a
deceived heart has turned him aside; and he cannot deliver his
soul, nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?” (Isa.
44:14-20).
The Bible, a book that was written
in the midst of peoples and cultures that chose to worship the
created thing instead of the Creator, stood out among ancient
scriptures as a beacon of light in the darkness of animism and
paganism. And the children of God themselves, when they were
faithful and penitent, by their very actions proclaimed the truth
about the one true God by destroying the sacred groves, Asherah
poles, and idols of the pagan worshipers.
The Bible speaks of the desecration of God’s creation by the
designation of high places and groves of trees as sacred places
where religious prostitution was practiced. Those performing
these degrading fertility rites ignored the divine source of life
in the Creator Himself and considered earthly places and objects
more effective in granting them their needs and catering to their
pleasures (Isa. 1:29; Jer. 2:20; 3:6; Ezek. 6:13).
Nothing in the Bible or in the Christian faith condones the
worship of trees, or any other created thing. So do we
conclude that Julia Hill was acting like a pagan when she dropped
to her knees and worshiped in the “cathedral” of the redwood
forest? Was she detracting from the truth about God when she
felt “overwhelmed by the wisdom, energy, and spirituality housed
in this holiest of temples”? We’ll need to dig a little
deeper into the Bible to find a complete and balanced answer to
those questions.
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