They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light

Revelation 22:1-5

Revelation, the last book of Scripture is about the victory of our Lord. This last chapter of Revelation shows the victory of God enjoyed by all creation. There is a picture of the River of Life, and reminds us that Jesus is the stream of living water.

There is also the Tree of Life on the side of the River. This reminds us of the Tree of Life in Genesis in the Garden of Eden. This is the tree people are meant to eat from. Its leaves heal the nations. There will be no more curse, suggesting no more disease, decay, degeneration and so on.

The throne of God will be the source of the river. The Lamb will sit on the throne and the people will see His face. The name of the Lamb, Yshua Ha Masiach, will on the foreheads of people. God Himself will provide the light for the world and there is no need for the sun.






Revelation 22
The River of Life

1 And he showed me a pure[a] river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4 They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5 There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

The Time Is Near

6 Then he said to me, “These words are faithful and true.” And the Lord God of the holy[b] prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place.

7 “Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

8 Now I, John, saw and heard[c] these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.

9 Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. For[d] I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” 10 And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. 11 He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous[e] still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.”

Jesus Testifies to the Churches

12 “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”[f]

14 Blessed are those who do His commandments,[g] that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. 15 But[h] outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.

16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”

17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

A Warning

18 For[i] I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add[j] to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away[k] his part from the Book[l] of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

I Am Coming Quickly

20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.”

Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.[m] Amen.

Banishment from Eden and the Tree of Life

The scripture below sheds a bit more light on the question of "The Tree of Life" which we discussed briefly in the last post. From v22, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil gives man the ability to know good and evil. Obviously this does not mean All-Knowing like God because we humans don't know so much.

The more interesting tree in this discussion is the Tree of Life which in v22 says that it gives immortality. So it appears for all the time Adam and Eve were in the Garden, they did not eat from the Tree of Life, yet God did not specifically said not to. Here we can speculate perhaps God was already teaching them about the Tree of Life. Perhaps God even promised a time in the future where they can eat from the Tree of Life. Perhaps they had an understanding that God was sanctifying / preparing them and once that is finished they can partake in the Tree of Life and achieve immortality. So perhaps because the fruits of Tree of Life were promised to man and so it did not cause so much temptation as the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Whatever the plan was for the Tree of Life, it was cut short by the First Sin. As a result of sin and man being in a sinful state, God cannot allow man to be immortal and yet sinful. Hence the Tree of Life was out of bounds. But God does not intend to keep the Tree of Life from man forever. Instead God has a plan to cleanse the sinful man and then give him immortality, only when he is cleanse, by eating the Tree of Life.

Fast forward thousands of years later, our Lord Jesus of Nazareth is that Tree of Life. When we repent and accept Him, then His sacrifice makes us clean again for God. Then only we eat from the Tree of Life - Jesus - we achieve immortality and be in the Presence of God.



Genesis 3
²² Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— ²³ therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.




Revelations 2
7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.”’


John 6
³⁵ And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. ³⁶ But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe. ³⁷ All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. ³⁸ For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. ³⁹ This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. ⁴⁰ And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”


John 6
⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁴⁵ It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’^[e]Therefore everyone who has heard and learned^[f] from the Father comes to Me. ⁴⁶ Not that anyone has seen the Father, except He who is from God; He has seen the Father. ⁴⁷ Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me^[g]has everlasting life. ⁴⁸ I am the bread of life. ⁴⁹ Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. ⁵⁰ This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.” 
⁵² The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?” 
⁵³ Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. ⁵⁴ Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵For My flesh is food indeed,^[h] and My blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶ He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. ⁵⁸ This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” 

Garden of Eden

After God created man and woman, he also had a very special place prepared for them. We all know this as the Garden of Eden and we envisage this as a paradise. In the Garden, God also placed many trees that man can eat from. Recently, I have realised that different versions of the Bible may describe the two trees, Tree of Life and Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in different ways.

In the NIV, it seems to suggest that there many trees which are good for food and the two trees are included in them. In the King James it appears that the two separate Trees are singled out - this means that the two special trees were not intended for food, at least not yet. This is no surprise for the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, because God specifically said we can eat from it. However, considering the Tree of Life, this may lead to profound revelations about doctrine. The main uncertainty I found is that has Adam and Eve been regularly eating from the Tree of Life.Alternatively, even if the fruit of the Tree of Life is allowed to be eaten, was it being saved for a later time.

The scripture verses also tell us exactly where the Garden of Eden is, thus establishing the historical accuracy of the Bible. The only difficulty is that two of the four rivers mentioned (Pishon, Gihon, Tigris, Euphrates), has been lost through time. Knowing these four rivers would allow us to pinpoint he location of the Garden of Eden.

The article here mentions the possible location of the Garden of Eden being the location where Kuwait, Iran and Iraq meets.
http://www.focusmagazine.org/Articles/pishonriver.htm


Genesis 2:
⁸ The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. ⁹ And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 
¹⁰ Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. ¹¹ The name of the first is Pishon; it isthe one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. ¹² And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is Hiddekel;^[b] it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates. 
¹⁵ Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. ¹⁶ And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”