O COME, O COME EMMANUEL
I absolutely love decorating Christmas trees. Growing up, we had a mish-mash of ornaments my mom had collected throughout the years, including the obligatory “my children made these so I can’t throw them away no matter how hideous” ornaments. Some years we had real trees (one year I’m pretty sure my dad stole the tree from A Charlie Brown Christmas), but at some point, my parents decided fake trees were the way to go. Pre-lit trees were unheard of back in the day, so every year we fought through the unreal tangle of cords from the previous year and eventually managed to get the lights on the tree. My mom had, and still has, a very particular order in which the tree must be decorated. First the lights, then the ornaments, then the tinsel, and finally, the icicles.
Since being married, I have gone through a few tree phases. We started with a fake tree, then bought real trees for two years. That had to stop, though, because I couldn’t hold it together when we tossed our tree onto the tree recycling pile. There was just something so incredibly sad about leaving a tree that had given us so much joy on a huge heap of other people’s discarded trees. After the second year of me becoming an hysterical, sobbing mess, Gannon decided it was time to go back to fake trees.
The origin of bringing trees into the home and decorating them at Christmastime has been a subject of much debate. As with gift-giving, there are generally two camps—those who believe its roots come from pagan tradition and those who insist that the Christmas tree is a strictly Christian tradition. Few people, however, argue with the historical record which indicates that the custom in the United States arrived via Germany, whether through a Hessian prisoner, a German immigrant, or German communities in Pennsylvania. Godey’s Lady’s Book gave America its first widely circulated image of a decorated evergreen tree in December 1850, copied almost exactly from a woodcutting made of the British royal family in Windsor Castle, and by the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become a popular and common practice in our country. Even the tree in Windsor Castle had a German connection through Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, both of whom had German ancestry. Queen Victoria had been introduced to the decorating of trees by her grandmother, Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (a German duchy) who was married to King George III (yes, THAT King George...). Prince Albert was from the German duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and he brought his love of Christmas trees with him to Buckingham Palace after he married Victoria.
Evergreen trees have long held a special place of prominence because they were believed to have magical powers. When other plants and trees succumbed to the harshness of winter, evergreens remained alive. They came to symbolize life and hope for the return of spring. It became custom to bring evergreens inside the house during winter in order to ward off evil spirits and remind people that spring would return. Many believe this is the source of bringing an evergreen tree into houses during winter and decorating them.
Those who hold to the belief that Christmas trees come from Christian tradition point to the Feast Day of Adam and Eve as its origin. Adam and Eve were celebrated on December 24 during the Middle Ages, and plays were performed on that day, depicting the events surrounding their fall. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was always represented by a tree with bright red apples (even though the exact fruit is not specified in the Bible). Eventually, white discs were added to represent the Eucharist wafer. People began bringing trees into their homes and decorating them with apples or bright red globes and white discs, thus, according to some, introducing the practice of the Christmas tree.
Trees have long been important symbols in every culture, even before the advent of the Christmas tree. Ancient Greeks imbued trees with spirits in the form of dryads. Ancient Celts revered trees and had sacred groves where they would practice their rituals. In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil, is an immense ash tree which connects the nine worlds. Deities are believed to live in sacred groves in China, India, and Africa, among other countries and continents. Penalties for cutting down trees in these sacred groves is often thought to be supernaturally severe. This is actually one argument given against the idea of the Christmas tree tradition arising from pagan ritual. Trees were sacred and it would have been considered sacrilegious to cut down a tree and bring it into a home.
Why is it that trees, more than plants and other vegetation, have come to symbolize so much all throughout the world in every historical era? I think one possible explanation is because our story begins with trees. Trees were created on the third day (Genesis 1:11-13), including, presumably, the Tree of Life (עֵץ הַחַיִים – Etz HaChaim) and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (I find it not a little distressing that so many articles I read on the Internet so egregiously misidentified the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Many thought it was the same as the Tree of Life; some truncated its title and simply called it, “The Tree of Knowledge,” as if the great sin of humankind was that they sought to acquire knowledge. Ideas like that completely misrepresent the Bible as well as the God who wrote the Bible).
I’m sure you all know the story of the temptation of Woman quite well, but sometimes it’s good to go back and read the overly familiar to try and catch new details. I did that, and some things popped out at me.
And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant
to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden,
and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:9 (KJV)
And the LORD God commanded the Man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden
you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall
not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof, [dying you shall die].”
Genesis 2:16-17 (KJV, added phrase)
One of the first things I noticed was that the LORD did not prohibit Man from eating the fruit of the Tree of Life. It was there for the taking, yet he never chose to eat. Following their rebellion against the LORD, Man and Woman were driven out of the Garden of Eden and cheruvim (no chubby babies with wings, these guys), along with a blazing, ever-turning sword, were stationed to prevent access to the Tree of Life...but why did Man and Woman not choose to eat before that? Perhaps the answer to that question lies in 1 Peter 1:19-21—the Messiah was destined before the foundation of the world to give His blood as ransom for those who would believe in Him. Perhaps Man and Woman didn’t eat from the Tree of Life because it was not the LORD’s intention that they do so.
Second, the prohibition the LORD gives against eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is usually translated in such a way that it seems confusing (“...in that day, you shall die.”) However, the phrase would best be translated, “dying you shall die.” This construct might sound a little odd to our ears, but the Hebrew verb is written twice, once in the imperfect form (“you shall die”), once in the imperative absolute form (“dying”). Did the LORD mean that the Man would drop dead the moment he ate the fruit? Obviously not, since that isn’t what happened. But is it possible that the Man interpret the LORD’s words as meaning that he would drop dead in an instant? Perhaps, especially considering how the Woman responded when she was tempted by the serpent.
And the Woman said unto the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of
the garden: But the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has
said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”
Genesis 3:2-3 (KJV)
The Man might have assumed that eating the fruit meant immediate death, and he passed on the same assumption to his wife. Or, she may have added her own interpretation to her husband’s words, which we women are often guilty of doing.
Another interesting detail is that the Woman refers to the tree in the midst (or the middle) of the garden. She mentions only the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as if it was the lone tree standing in the middle of the Garden. Is this another case of possible misinterpretation by the Man? Did the Woman misunderstand? Or, did the Man deliberately leave out the other tree when he told the Woman about the LORD’s command? We aren’t told and we can’t be certain exactly what happened between the time the LORD originally spoke to the Man and when the serpent tempted the Woman. What we do know is that for whatever reason, the Woman did not repeat the LORD’s words precisely, and she surrendered to the temptation to rebel against Him.
When the Woman looked at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (that is quite a mouthful, isn’t it?), the Bible tells us that she saw it was good as a source of food, it was delightful or pleasurable to look at, and it was desirable as a source of wisdom (Genesis 3:6). The way the verse in Genesis is phrased, it could be that the Woman had never even seen that particular tree before the serpent approached her; or, it might be that the Woman was simply contemplating the tree from a different perspective. When we say that we are “looking at” something, we could mean that we are actually observing it with our eyes, or we could mean that we are “looking at it” in the sense of contemplating it in a different light. Whether she was observing it with her eyes for the first time or the fiftieth, the Woman was definitely physically present in front of the tree at some point because she took of its fruit and ate, giving some to her husband, also...which led to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.
All the Man and Woman had known was the Garden, and their earliest stories would have been of nothing else. And what was most likely central in all those stories? Two trees. One which had lead to their dying death, and one which was lost to them for the rest of their long lives.
So it really should come as no galloping shock that trees became so prominent in every culture on the planet. Human beings haven’t changed from the moment we were banished and driven out of Eden, and I believe we’ve been trying to recapture its glory ever since. The only problem is, we’ve been trying to do it on our own terms. If a tree was responsible for our misery (or so the twisted and distorted human thinking goes), then maybe a tree will save us. By the time the people of Israel were snatched out of Egypt and on their way to the land of promise, many religions had sprung up which involved either the direct worship of trees or the utilization of trees in worship rituals. In Exodus 34:12-14, the LORD commanded His people to tear down altars, smash pillars, and cut down sacred posts (also referred to as “Asherim” or “Asherah poles” in the Bible). Rather than obey the LORD’s command, however, Israel abandoned themselves to the religions of other nations, sacrificing and worshipping under “sacred” trees (Ezekiel 6:13, Hosea 4:13).
The worship of trees and the offering of sacrifices in sacred groves was not simply a rebellion against a direct command of the LORD. It was a gross distortion of truth and reality. Isaiah 11 tells us of a man who would arise from the nation of Israel, a man upon whom the Spirit of the LORD would rest (Isaiah 11:1-5). The imagery Isaiah uses is not merely poetic style. An olive tree was often used to depict Israel in the Old Testament, and because of their treachery and transgression, Israel was going to be felled like a mighty tree. However, a rod or shoot would grow from the stump of Jesse, and a branch would sprout from his roots. The true tree of Israel would arise from the stump of the devastated nation which had turned to false trees for their deliverance.
Isaiah also refers to the Branch of Jesse as being an ensign or standard to Israel and to the nations (Isaiah 11:10, 12). The purpose of an ensign was that it would be elevated as a token to be seen far away. In Hebrew, the word “ensign” comes from a root which may be translated as “to lift up.” Does that phrase bring anything to mind? In John 3:14, John 8:28, and John 12:32, Jesus declared that He would be lifted up, and when He was, He would draw all men to Him. He was the ensign prophesied by Isaiah...and it was no coincidence that He was lifted up on an instrument of death made from a tree.
A curious ritual was given by the LORD as a form of cleansing and purification following a healing from leprosy. Once an individual was proven to be healed, the priest was to take two birds, cedar wood, crimson thread (or “stuff”, as translated by the JPS), and hyssop. One bird would be slaughtered over fresh water, then the live bird, cedar wood, crimson thread, and hyssop were to be dipped in the blood of the slaughtered bird and sprinkled seven times on the former leper. After that, the live bird was to be set free. I know that nothing the LORD commanded was without reason, and it’s been pointed out that both crimson thread and hyssop were prominent during the crucifixion of Jesus (Matthew 27:28; John 19:29), leaving only the cedar wood absent. Is it possible that the cross was made from the wood of a cedar?
Peter wrote to believers scattered throughout certain provinces in the Roman Empire about the ark of Noah being a symbol of their rescue through Jesus the Messiah (1 Peter 3:20b-21). What material did the LORD instruct Noah to use in constructing the ark? Wood from trees. And a specific instruction was given that the wood should be covered inside and out with pitch. A very interesting Hebrew root word is used to denote “pitch.” Kafar, translated “to cover.” A child word from that root is used to describe what is sometimes translated as the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25:17). The same word is translated in other places as “atonement” or “ransom”. A vessel made of wood became the place of covering or atonement, the instrument of deliverance and rescue.
Just as an ark made of wood became a place of atonement and rescue for Noah and his family, the cross, fashioned into an instrument of torture and death from a tree, has become the same for the family of the LORD. Through His death on the cross, Jesus the Messiah has made atonement for all who call on His Name (Hebrews 2:17). All those who believe and trust in the truth that the Living Tree of Israel became a human being, lived, died, and was resurrected, have been atoned for and rescued from death.
Remember the question I asked about the cross a moment ago? Is it possible the cross was formed from cedar wood? Consider this—cedar is an evergreen, and cedar wood definitely would have been available during the time of Jesus, so if the cross was made of cedar, Jesus was crucified on an evergreen. This Christmas, if you put up a tree in your house (whether real or fake), let it stand not so much for the birth of a baby but as an ensign to you and your family, and everyone who comes into your home, that the LORD, the Creator of all, has rescued you from death and granted you His atonement.
O come, thou Root of Jesse’s tree, an ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall; all peoples on Thy mercy call.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Latin Veni, Veni Emmanuel
Origins unknown; Translation by J.M. Neale