Green Grass

Green Grass

The grass may look greener on the other side, but it still has to be mowed.

Hebrews 13:5 (KJV) Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

God Measures

When God measures a man, He puts the tape around the heart instead of the head.

1 Samuel 16:7 (KJV) But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

Marriage

A marriage may be made in heaven, but the maintenance must be done on earth.

Ephesians 5:33 (KJV) Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

The Worldwide Flood

Enlarged March 19, 2024
(first published June 29, 2011)

The vast majority of professing Christians today, even many “evangelicals,” do not believe that Noah’s Flood was global. This is because of end-times apostasy and the fearful accommodation to modern evolutionary theories.

For the following reasons we are certain that the Flood was global.

1. The Bible’s description points to a global flood.

The Bible plainly states that the flood of Noah’s day was worldwide. The great detail in which the Flood is described witnesses against a poetic or allegorical interpretation.

“And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them” (Genesis 6:7).

“And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die” (Genesis 6:17).

“For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth” (Genesis 7:4 ).

“And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered” (Genesis 7:19-20).

THE LORD GUIDES

Isaiah 58:11 (KJV) And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

How Old are You

When a new child visited our Sunday school, the teacher greeted him and asked his age. The little boy held up four fingers. “Oh, you’re four,” said the teacher. “And when will you be 5?” The child stared at her and after a few seconds replied, “When I hold up the other finger.”

Olive*

The olive, which is mentioned more than 50 times in the Bible, was a major part of Israel’s agriculture in ancient times and continues to be so today.

The olive tree is used in Scripture as a symbol for fruitfulness, prosperity, and beauty.

“like a green olive tree in the house of God” (Ps. 52:8)

“thy children like olive plants round about thy table” (Ps. 128:3)

“fair, and of goodly fruit” (Jer. 11:16)

“His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree” (Ho. 14:65)

The Hebrew words for olive tree are “zayith” (De. 6:11) and “shemen” (1 Ki. 6:31), both of which refer the tree’s oil.

The olive tree is native to Syria and Canaan, where growing conditions are often ideal. It can flourish in rocky ground with little topsoil. It likes cool winters (a mean temperature of 45-47 degrees F being ideal) and hot summers. Without a proper winter chilling, the olive doesn’t flower. “The terraced hills of Palestine, where the earth lies never many inches above the limestone rocks, the long rainless summer of unbroken sunshine, and the heavy dews of the autumn afford conditions which are extraordinarily favorable to at least the indigenous olive” (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia).

As for beauty, the olive tree does not have the striking natural beauty of a fir or cedar or maple or many other types of trees. On my first visits to Turkey and the Middle East, I was disappointed at the olive’s scraggly appearance. My first impression was to agree with Louis Figuier, “The olive is of a sober grayish green aspect and without beauty, having a rugged stunted aspect” (Vegetable World). But I have found that the olive tree has its own beauty and fascination for the careful observer.

There is beauty in the olive’s very asymmetry: its twists and turns, its protuberances and knots. Like God’s people, each olive tree is a perfectly unique individual. As Charles Spurgeon observed,

“You must look and look again! And then, if you do not at last feel a deep respect for the olive, and a quiet delight in its beauty, it must be because you are not of a thoughtful spirit, or else because you have little poetry in your soul. The more familiar you become with the olive tree, the more you will take pleasure in it” (“The Beauty of the Olive Tree,” Dec. 16, 1909).

There is beauty in the grayish, silverish green color of the olive leaves (being more silvery on the underside). It has a unique light-reflecting quality.

God colored most vegetation green to rest man’s eyes, but there are myriad shades of green for variety and delight.

There is beauty in the olive tree’s flowering. In about May, it is covered with clusters of small, star-shaped white flowers.

When they first appear, the olives are green and gradually turn black as they ripen.

The olive tree’s chief beauty lies in its fruitfulness. In the parable in Judges 9, the olive tree says, “Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man…? (Jg. 9:9). The fatness refers to the tree’s oil and to all other aspects of its valuable products.

One olive tree produces an average of about 50 kilos (110 pounds) of fruit annually. That is about 1,250 olives, though they vary greatly in size.

Large olive trees that haven’t been pruned can reach 40 to 50 feet high and can produce 800 kilos annually.

But for commercial purposes, the trees are pruned to facilitate harvesting from the ground.

The olive can continue to bear fruit for 3,000 years and more. There is a 3,000-year-old tree in Crete that still bears fruit.

The Greek poet Homer called olive oil “liquid oil.”

The olive is used for food, cooking oil, medicine, soap, fuel (pomace), and cosmetics. In ancient times. the olive oil was used in lamps. Olive oil was used extensively in the Levitical worship system. It was used to light the candlestick (Ex. 25:6), anoint the priests (Ex. 29:7), anoint the offerings (Le. 8:26), mingle with the offerings (Ex. 29:1-2), cleanse lepers (Le. 14:10).

The olive tree’s wood is also valuable. It is hard and has interesting patterns. It was used in Solomon’s temple for the carvings of the cherubim (1Ki. 6:23), the posts (1 Ki. 6:33), and the doors to the oracle (1 KI. 6:31).

To gather the ripe olives, the tree is beaten with rods, and the law of Moses required that some fruit be left for the poor (De. 24:20).

There were already great groves of olives in Canaan when Israel entered (De. 6:10-11; 8:7-8; Jos. 24:13).

King David had groves of olives in the plains (1 Ch. 27:28).

Great numbers of olive trees have been planted in Israel since the 20th century. Today, the focus is on planting in the Negev desert.

It was on the Mount of Olives that Jesus prayed before His arrest (John 8:1). This mount is still covered with many olive trees today.

We saw ancient olive trees in the traditional Garden of Gethsemane that have been dated to about 900 years according to an extensive scientific study completed in 2012. Olive trees are difficult to date because they make new trunks out of the same roots.

“Outside in the garden itself, the massive, gnarled trunks produce new shoots, although the trees themselves are ancient. Olive trees have no rings, so it’s tough to determine their age. However, several olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane date to about 900 years ago according to a recent three-year study by the National Research Council. The age of these trees coincide with the time the Crusaders came to Jerusalem. However, the roots of the modern trees go back much further–and may represent the offshoots of the trees from the first century. It’s fairly certain that none of the trees standing today ever beheld Jesus in prayer that fateful night” (“Sites and Insights: Hanging Gardens of Gethsemane,” The Jerusalem Post, Nov. 4, 2012).

The olive trees that existed in Jesus’ time were cut down by the Roman Tenth Legion during the siege of Jerusalem in AD 70. Josephus said that every tree within 10 furlongs (12 miles) of the city was cut down to build siege ramps and engines of war.

Bible Trees

The following is excerpted from the 2020 edition of Bible Times & Ancient Kingdoms, available from http://www.wayoflife.org. The 700-page book is accompanied 26 PowerPoints packed with 5,600 high quality color photos, drawings, historic recreations, and video clips. The PowerPoint on Bible Plants, which includes the studies on trees, has 264 slides.

Fig *

The fig is mentioned 51 times in the Bible.

Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves (Ge. 3:7).

Egypt cultivated figs (Ps. 105:33).

The Promised Land was a land of fig trees (De. 8:8).

It was common for families to grow figs (1 Ki. 4:25).

Israel is likened to a fig tree planted by God (Lu. 13:6-9).

Nathanael was under a fig tree when Philip called him to see Jesus – (Joh. 1:48).

Figs will be cultivated in Christ’s kingdom (Joe. 2:22; Mic. 4:4; Zec. 3:10).

The biblical fig is the Ficus carica, which is native to Western Asia but is grown commercially throughout the world.

It is a deciduous tree that grows to a height of 23-33 feet (7-10 m). The fragrant leaves are 5-10 inches long and 4-7 inches wide and are deeply lobed with three or five lobes.

It is a beautiful tree with white bark and multiple trunks that form a great variety of habits or forms. As the tree ages, the thick trunks and the above-ground roots are intertwined to form beautiful shapes.

It is pollinated by a fig wasp, which is the only creature capable of pollinating this tree. There are more than 700 species of figs and each has its own specialized wasp. The tree bears two types of fruit, one (the caprifig) is capable of being pollinated for reproduction of the tree; the other is female and is the edible fruit. The female wasp crawls inside the caprifig through a tiny hole (the ostiole), lays her eggs and dies. After the offspring hatch, the males mate with the females, then dig tunnels out of the fruit and die. The females, covered in fig pollen, crawl out of the tunnels and fly off to repeat the cycle. This is one of the myriad of symbiotic relationships in nature. The wasp provides the tree with pollination services, while the tree provides the wasp with a safe environment for reproduction.

Evolutionists claim that the wasp-fig wasp symbiosis is an example of “co-evolution,” but if so it means that these two complex living things “evolved” at exactly the same time with full-blown capabilities. That sounds more like creation to me! The idea of “co-evolution” is an evolutionary “Just So” story that attempts to explain away the complexity of creation, but it is a fairy tale. Evolutionists have never proposed a creative mechanism that could produce complex living creatures. Natural selection is not creative but genetically selective, and mutations are overwhelmingly destructive and do not build up information to the creature’s genome in a creative way.

Another type of Ficus, the Ficus sycomorus is called the sycomore. It is the Egyptian fig-mulberry. It is the tree that Zacchaeus climbed Zacchaeus climbed in Jericho (Lu. 19:1-4).. (See PowerPoint 02 – Sycomore.)