William Andrew Dillard
Orchard
owners look with great expectation to the trees under their care.
They nourish, protect, and defend them from pestilence, and anything
else that would prevent full fruition. They are happy with the many
blossoms, small buds, and developing fruit. Anticipation of Harvest
time is truly filled with excitement, and the joy of abundant
blessings. But once harvest is over, then what? The tree is still
valuable, but it has given all that it can give. There will be no
more fruit to glean, and the eye of anticipation no longer sees as it
did before. It is a tree, now ordinary and fruitless, having given
all. It is interesting to note that this idea is presented in the
Word with reference to our Lord and Savior.
In Psalm 22 which is
prophetic of the life and sacrifice of Jesus, the word used to
describe him in verse six is “reproach.” The verse states, “But
I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the
people.” The word “worm” here is the “tolah” worm that was
crushed to yield the blood used to dye fabrics with the color of
royalty. The term “reproach” is a translation of the Hebrew word
“Charaph.” which conveys the idea of a picked tree with nothing
more to give. That term used here of Jesus describes how many people
see Him as He has given all for the harvest of the souls of men. The
people expected that the miracles He invoked for others would surely
be invoked for Himself thus giving them a super personage in which to
glory in the flesh. They were sadly disappointed.
However, while
the forces of sin and evil rejoiced at the crucifixion, the crushing
of that “tolah” worm, wrought robes of righteousness for the
royal children of the King. Moreover, those who avail themselves of
the fruit yielded by that tree find eternal, spiritual sustenance,
and a white robe of royal righteousness in which to stand before the
Creator. To the world, and to most of Jewish rulers, the tree was
picked, and not worthy of a second glance, but to those who have
tasted the fruit of that tree found life and hope of so much more
that is to come.
So, how do you see Him dear reader? Is He a
disappointment, or a wellspring of eternal joy? Is He a picked tree
to be turned away from, or is He the Living Tree of Life with the
fruit of eternal righteousness to all who receive Him in repentance
and faith? My prayer is that you see Him as the latter, even the
bread of life that one may eat and not hunger again; as the fruit of
all righteousness that one may receive and have no sin imputed by the
heavenly Father. There He is, the TREE at the crossroads of time and
eternity in the life of everyone.