You know, I would rather have it that way, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you rather have the Bible? I mean, I think about, you know, Moses talked with God, and Noah, and we're going to see that even Adam talked with God. And, you know, that'd be awesome. But not everybody's Adam. Not everybody's Noah. Not everybody's Moses. Not everybody's one of the prophets. And a lot of times they didn't hear from God all that often. Right. And so when things were written down, it's interesting to me that scholars will get on you because you say the book, the book, the book, pastor always refers to the Bible, the book, the book. And they'll say, well, don't you know, John, there was no books back then. Don't you know that they wrote on scrolls and papyrus and all that kind of stuff and whatever they wrote on. But the Bible itself calls it a book. And I think it's intentional that the Bible calls it a book because that's what we ended up with. We ended up with a book. and for you know more than two thousand years but a complete book for for at least two thousand years we've had the Bible and so we have direct access to the very words of God anytime we want we don't have to wonder what the preacher said about it we don't remember what the prophet said about it we don't have to wait for the dreams and visions to come true we just open up the book and we can all read it for ourselves now I'm gonna encourage you to do that today because we're gonna go through some strange doctrines some more Not so much very strange, but just some different things that some people I'm sure have never heard before. But, you know, you never have to take what I say for it. I was talking to Brother Wyatt the other day. He was with us to pass out the tracts. And I had mentioned we were talking about animals and creation and some interesting things while we were eating dinner. And he said, what about this and what do you think about that? And I said something and he goes, well that makes sense, that sounds good. And we talked about the gap theory and things and he said, yeah it all made sense to me, but the thing is that he has his own Bible. and we all have our own Bible. So anything you hear today, anything you hear at all from this church or any other place, you are responsible to open up the Bible and see for yourself. And don't ever say, well, I just don't understand the Bible. I cannot understand the Bible. He understands the Bible. I cannot understand the Bible like he... How do you think I understood the Bible? i think pastor understands the bible and we don't have microchips been planted in our skulls you know nobody put the software in us it i've been saved for i don't know thirty five thirty i don't know how many years i could do the math but over thirty years and and and i tell you it just it's over a course of time if you stick it out so that's that's off topic you know but i'm just i was just thinking all the way from the song service till now about that so we're in genesis chapter two and we're in verse eight Genesis chapter 2 and verse... yeah, you start relying on people and what they say, you'll get messed up. You know, the Bible doesn't... the Bible doesn't mince words. It said, let God be true, but every man a liar. You say, well, are you a liar? Absolutely. You know, I'm in sales. I don't know if everybody, most of you know that. I'm in sales, pet products. And when I, I always talk to people and I tell, you know, try, just try this dog food, you know, try this treat, try this whatever. Your pet's gonna love it. And they, so they, and I, and it gives me the open door to say, because you know, salesmen, they lie. But pets don't lie. If they eat the food, if they like it, they don't lie. If they do well on the product, they don't lie. You see the proofs right in the pudding. But people lie. And I always quote that verse, let God be true, but every man a liar. And you should see the reaction I get from people when I do that. The silence, the silence. That's in the Bible. Anyway, Genesis chapter 2, verse 8 is where we're left off. And it says, and the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed." We're not going to go over that again. "...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." So, we're just going to talk about these trees here for a few minutes, and this will be where maybe the strange doctrine comes in, but man was originally a vegetarian. So if you're a vegetarian, you're in good company because Adam was a vegetarian and so was Eve. And their children, up until a certain time, they were vegetarians. God told them that every... Keep reading on the sheet. God gave Adam every herb bearing seed and every fruit tree for meat. That's Genesis 1.29. You can look over there if you'd like. In fact, God says in Deuteronomy, and I have the quote I want on your paper, you don't have to turn here, but Deuteronomy 20, 19 says something very interesting. It says, the tree of the field is man's life. So if you're into eating fruits and vegetables and nuts and things that grow on trees, again, you're in good company. God established that. He says in Deuteronomy that the tree of the field is man's life. As a matter of fact, is it in Deuteronomy? Maybe I will turn there. Let me just check before I have you do that. You might want to go with me, in case it is there. Oh yes, go over there. Go over to Deuteronomy 20 and look at verse 19. We'll start there and we'll read 19 and 20. This is what God thinks. It's interesting. We're not going to do it today. We're not going to study trees in general. But I would encourage you to, if you have free time, and if you're into that, you know, not everybody wants to study trees in the Bible, but if you do, look at it, because it's very interesting, the correlation between man and trees. There's a correlation between Lucifer and tree. We'll look at that this morning. But it says in Deuteronomy 20, 19, when thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them. For thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down. For the tree of the field is man's life, to employ them in the siege. Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down, and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee until it be subdued." So only the trees that aren't for meat you can make your furniture from, you can build your houses from, you can build a boat from if you want to. But the ones for meat, God says, don't destroy those, those are for you. and uh... there's something about trees there's a tree of life we see here why god make a tree a tree of life well we can get into it i'm not going to but i wanna what i want to do this morning is identify uh... hopefully try to identify the tree of life in the and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and will do that will try to do it quickly uh... one of the trees that you man is not supposed to eat up back to your notes is the tree of knowledge of good and evil So all the trees that had fruit, that bore fruit, were for man. Man was a vegetarian. Man did not eat animals. That came in after the flood with Noah. And that's when animals started to eat animals, actually, too. But before this, man was just strictly eating from the trees and the herbs and things like that. So the fruit of the tree, of this tree, would bring instant death. Look at chapter 2 in Genesis again. Genesis 2 and verse 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. This tree was not for your life. This tree, you would die if you ate of it. So now, again, go over to take a look at Ezekiel chapter 31. Ezekiel chapter 31. I don't want to go on too many rabbit trails. I really am trying, even when I make my notes, to speed up going through these first two chapters. Really, the first three are going to be where I'm going to be bogged down. But if you get into Ezekiel 31, I just want to start reading a little bit in verse 2, and then we'll jump a little ways. It says, Ezekiel 31.2, "'Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh,' the type of the Antichrist, type of the devil, king of Egypt, and to his multitude, whom art thou like in thy greatness behold the Assyrian another type of the Antichrist was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches with a shadowing shroud and of a high stature and his top was among the thick bows the waters made him great the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. It goes on and talks about it, and then we just, let's just jump down to verse nine. Well, let's jump down to verse eight. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him. The fir trees were not like his bows, and the chestnut tree were not like his branches, nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. You see what that's talking about, right? That's talking about Satan. That's talking about Lucifer. Then you get to verse 9. So, we're not going to get into it much, but that's just to whet your appetite, perhaps, to take a look at this idea of trees and how God liked His man. Go over to Psalm 1. Psalm 1. You know you're like a tree, too? Psalm 1, you know this, you could probably quote the whole chapter. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree. That's strange. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. See the fruit of the spirit? The tree brings forth fruit. That tree of life brought forth eternal fruit. That tree of knowledge of good and evil brought forth death. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Look at the ungodly, what they're like. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff. which the wind drive with the way so that's what happens when you grind up the tree it's just chaff right up and so just go back to genesis two i'm just making i'm just showing you how that the bible has a lot to say about trees when god healed the blind man uh... i've heard uh... forget where it is in the bible right now exactly cuz he'll more than one but when he held the blind man he had it had him uh... he did it partially at first he said open your eyes what do you see and he says i see men walking about as trees And then God says, okay, let me finish the process. And he healed him and he saw men the way they are. It's just kind of interesting. Now, Satan was likened unto a cedar tree there in Ezekiel. But what I'm going to show you here today is I think the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the representation of Lucifer or Satan now, the serpent. What is a cedar tree? We're not going to go back there, but it was taller than any other. It was envied in the garden as branches were. And if you read about how the fowls would land in those branches. And then now what you have it reduced to, because I'm going to spill the beans early, but you can read on your sheet, is you have it reduced to a vine. And it goes like this. And what else goes like this? A serpent. Right? And so, what kind of tree might this be? Well, chances are it was a vine tree. A vine tree. You say, a vine tree? You're really pushing things, you know, calling a vine a grape. It's grapes. You call grapes a tree. Well, that's what the Bible says three times. Go back to Ezekiel. I should have had you stay there. Go back to Ezekiel and look at least one reference. We won't look at all of them, but you can look at all of them yourself and you'll see. I passed it up. Alright, Ezekiel chapter 15. Look at verse 2. It says, Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree? or then a branch which is among the trees of the forest so it's equating it with the trees of the forest it's calling the vine tree it's calling a what we would call a vine the grapes a tree look down at verse 6 therefore thus sayeth the Lord God as the vine tree among the trees of the forest which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Now you can look up the other references. They say the same thing. It's vine tree. That's what the Bible calls it. So grapes are probably the fruit that Adam and Eve ate off of the vine tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You say, why? Why would you come up with that? I know I can see the Bible says vine tree, but why would it be the vine tree? Why wouldn't it be some other kind of tree? well uh... because of what you're gonna see next uh... grapes are associated with blood in scripture now i'm looking at the clock i don't think we have a lot of time to reference all these but uh... i will have you turn to genesis forty nine genesis forty nine inverse eleven genesis forty nine inverse eleven you say well i thought it was an apple that they ate in the garden well talk about that in a second uh... but how do you know was an apple where's your biblical proof that it's an apple Right? I'm going to try to give you some biblical proof or some food for thought, anyway, that will make you look at possibly it being a vine tree that grew grapes. All right? Now, grapes are associated with blood in Scripture, Genesis 49, 11. It says, "...binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in..." What does it say there? "...the blood of the grapes." wine is associated with blood, grapes are associated with blood in the Bible. Matthew 26, don't turn to it because you all know what it is, is Jesus at the Last Supper with his disciples saying that this cup of the New Testament is my blood, right? I'm getting it wrong, quoting it wrong, but he said this is my blood. What were they drinking? grape juice. They weren't drinking fermented wine. You former Catholics don't drink, don't say, well, where's the ferment, where's the hooch, you know? I mean, I'm here, I'm having, we don't do that here, all right? We serve what Jesus called the fruit of the vine, okay, which is fresh grape juice, and it's equated with blood. Have you ever wondered why God requires bloodshed for sin? Think about it. What's the first thing God had to do with Adam and Eve when they sinned? He put skins on them. Where did He get those skins? Did He just create those skins? No. He set a precedent in the Bible. He shed the blood, and I believe, of a lamb. And shed blood, made the first sacrifice for sins, it required bloodshed. Now, we could go through all the scriptures. I've listed many of them here for you, but we won't do that for sake of time. After Adam and Eve sinned, God shed the blood of a lamb to cover their nakedness. By the way, it's interesting that the first thing that they realized when they ate the grape was that they were naked. Go over to Habakkuk. If you can find Habakkuk, I didn't test myself. I put a marker there. Habakkuk chapter 3. I just know it's a quick book to run right past. It's almost to the New Testament. Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 15. Notice in the Bible, before we read the verse, I'll give you time to get there. Adam realized he was naked after he ate that grape. I'm just going to go ahead and use the word grape, okay? Noah got himself drunk and got unclothed, right? There's a parallel between Noah and Adam, we've gone through it before. Right here what you have in Habakkuk 2.15, if you're there now, Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that putteth thy bottle to him. You know, hey, have a little wine with me. Hey, I'm gonna soften you up. Have a drink with me. uh... and beat the allies to say be careful about that don't do that don't even be careful just don't do that don't even don't drink wine don't offer the wine uh... it says one to him to give it his neighbor drink that put it that put a side bottle to him and make it seem drunken also that down this look on their nakedness that's why they do it why do you think they're getting drunk in the bars Well, for several reasons, but this being one of them. In the Bible, when you go through the wine and you go through strong drink, it's associated with nakedness. okay it brings out doesn't bring out the best in you brings out the worst in you we could go to we can run through the Bible and show you how getting drunk brings out the worst in people and how they'll do stupid things and how they do things that are just aren't like me and then they go back and seek it yet again as the Bible says tells you in Proverbs so that's that's just a little aside but among other things Adam and Eve sinned, God shed the blood of a lamb to cover their nakedness, and man was required to do so ever since. Even Abel knew to bring a blood sacrifice before God. Go back to Genesis and look at chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4 and verse 3. We'll start there. It says, And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. Wrong choice, Cain. How? Well, wait a minute. I tilled the ground. I do this. This is what God blessed me to do. You know, I'm I'm a man of the I'm an outdoor man. You know, I'm not like Jacob, but I'm more like Esau. You know, I go out there and God, you blessed the fruit of my hands and you've given me this wonderful ability. And, Lord, I want to present these wonderful blessings of God back to you. God says that's not acceptable. The lesson there, which we'll get to later when we get to this chapter, is you just don't serve the Lord however you think you're supposed to serve the Lord. You don't serve him when you want to serve him, how you want to serve him. You don't read the Bible of your choice. You don't like the genre of music of your choice when it comes to God. You choose God's ways. They're not acceptable, Cain. Yeah, that's the fruit of the land. That's my land. That's your labor. You did it. And I blessed it. But don't bring it to me for worship. Don't just decide how you worship God and when and if and how. All right, so then it goes on in verse four, but Abel, it doesn't say, but it says, and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. Well, where did Abel learn that? Well, he learned it from mom and dad. Mom and dad told him the story. You know what happened to us? We ate that grape, you know, over there, and we shouldn't have done that, and we died that day. Our spirits died, our bodies changed, and God, you know what he did? He shed blood. and no doubt they had conversations still with God about that. They understood the meaning and the reason behind it. Maybe they didn't quite understand the association with the grape and the blood. You say, well, what is the association? Why would God choose the grape and call it blood? Because you know what happened is when we sin, we got a blood problem now. We'll get into that in a second. But why is that? I don't know. I don't know. All I know is this. It's a vine tree And Satan was a cedar. He was beautiful. He was wise above all. He was, I think, the pinnacle of what God said, that's the ultimate creation right there. At least at that time. Now man is the image of God, right? Body, soul, and spirit. But he likened him to that cedar tree, but now he's down to a crawling vine. And there's something about that I can't put two and two together right now for you, but the Bible does say, what does it say about Satan, what he was from the beginning? Anybody know? No, he's a murderer. He's a murderer. Isn't that interesting? That's what the Bible ascribes to him from the beginning. He was a murderer. Blood. Bloodshed something about the grape. I don't know what it is, but there's something about it It represents something to God and why he represents him now as that tree of knowledge of good and evil But so I'll just throw that out there for a thought thank God for providing an eternal blood sacrifice to us that's what you why did Jesus have to shed his blood now there's multitude of verses I give you here look him up later but Jesus took that bloody put on the mercy seat up in heaven and for once and for all no more blood blood of bulls and goats to take ways could never take away sins they can only forgive sins temporarily that's why they went to down into the heart of the earth into Abraham's bosom to paradise they couldn't get to heaven until Jesus died and shed his blood Then he went down, as you all know I hope, he went down and spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth and he led captivity captive. He took all those Old Testament saints right out of there. He took them up to heaven. Why? Because the eternal blood of God was shed on the cross and now true forgiveness, true redemption of their sins could be made and now they could have access to a holy place called heaven. They couldn't have access to it before, they were still in the earth. and so god had to shed his blood why he shed blood I just you know what what the world you know the last person out there with no Bible education wasn't raised in church they don't get that they don't hurt but you should understand that the reason that god had to shed blood is because your blood got tainted the day you said you you're you you brought death into this world Adam brought death in this world by eating a fruit that that in itself is a little strange right but he ate a fruit he ate a fruit that represented what Satan did He ate a fruit that represented blood, bad blood. He ate that fruit and when he took it in, he died that day, his spirit died that day. And so Jesus now had to give a blood transfusion to every single one of us. We all need a blood transfusion. We need a change. We need eternal blood, because our blood takes us to hell. Right? So, eating blood, the next point there, eating blood is forbidden throughout scripture, is another reason why, just like in the tree of the garden, it's always been forbidden in the Bible. Before the law, I won't turn you there, but you can look it up. Well, you might, because if you're in Genesis, real quick, I am, Genesis 9-4, just to show you. Genesis 9 for but the flesh with the life is talking about eating and that's where we were before about everyone we used to be a Vegetarian and no longer we are it's right here where it changed verse 3 every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you Not just the trees anymore even as the green herb have I given you all things but flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." And that precedent has never changed. We study dispensations here at this church. We had a Bible Institute class all about dispensations here. And one of the things we talked about, some things are eternal principles. Some things run clear through every dispensation of time, and this is one of those. You look up the rest of the references, Leviticus 17, 12, that's under the law. They were still not supposed to eat blood. And after the law, in Acts chapter 15, when the disciples got together, apostles got together, and established what the gospel would be, they said, oh, and one more thing, just command everybody not to eat blood. It's eternal. What is it about eating blood that is a principle that runs through the Bible and goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden? It's what we've been talking about. The life of the flesh is in the blood, the Bible tells you, in Leviticus. And there's something about that blood that Jesus had to shed His blood on the cross. It was God's own blood to forgive us, to cleanse us, because our blood is bad ever since we ate of a tree. So that's why I'm telling you I believe it was a grape. There's only one forbidden fruit in the Bible. Go over to Numbers chapter 6. Numbers chapter 6. And you'll see... The Bible doesn't tell about any... Don't eat apples. The Bible doesn't say that. Don't eat lemons. Don't eat a banana. Doesn't say that. But it does say in Numbers chapter six in verse two, talking about a Nazarite vow. Well, just start in verse one, might as well. And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord. That's why they did it, to separate themselves unto the Lord. He shall separate himself from wine. Interesting. If you want to get right with God, guess what you separate from alcohol, not just alcohol, but wine. All right. Because it says and strong drink that's fermented out. That's fermented grapes. All right. You understand that, you know, you have to be willingly ignorant not to understand the Bible. Sometimes, you know, well, the Bible, you know, Jesus made water into wine. Why, by the way, why did Jesus make water into wine? to show you what we're talking about right here. That's why possibly, and I said it in another class, possibly the blood that you had running through your veins before was water. And he had to turn it into wine to represent what was going on. And he had to turn it into pure wine, his blood, to give you a picture. Right? Maybe, maybe. Oh, you're crazy, John. Well, then you tell me. Tell me why it's an apple. So, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, there's another reference, from the kernels even to the husk. Stay away from those grapes. Now, I eat grapes. I just went to Publix and bought two for six, you know, Welch's grape juice. It's okay to drink, you know, they told us, Paul will tell you, he told Timothy, now use a little wine for thy stomach's sake. Yeah, you notice what it said, use it. So if you do get the alcohol, and if you do keep the alcohol in the liquor cabinet, because, well, I guess it's your liquor cabinet. If you keep it there, because, you know, you want to do what they did in the Old West, before they made things like, you know, Benadryl and all that stuff, or whatever, you know, NyQuil, that's what I'm thinking of. Then you take your little shot, and you don't tell anybody, and you keep it there, and you hide it, and whatever you got to do, but don't go advertising that, well, yeah, I drink, you know, Jack Daniels, whenever I get sick. Just don't tell anybody. alright keep it to yourself and don't go back to the jack daniels because you're depressed and then go back to the jack daniels because you know i have a rough day and then go back to it because what you know that made me feel good yesterday i'd like that feeling again and don't do it for your back pain right you know do get a shot for your back pain uh... you know but that's what that's what happens c So you better you better understand the Bible's against it. All right. God's against it. Eating blood is forbidden in scripture. It's the only forbidden fruit in the Bible. So I'm just making the case. We're done. I try to make a little small case. I've done a whole class on this before gotten into more things. But, you know, make a small case for the fact that when we get up here and say, you know, when Adam ate the grape, you're like, huh? He ate an apple. What are you talking about? No, I believe he ate from the vine tree, a representation of who Satan was. So why then do people say it was an apple? Here it is on your nose. This is just one thought that I've grabbed from somebody, and I don't even know if it's true, but it sounds good, so I'm giving it to you. Why do they say it was an apple? It's highly possible that this view came from a medieval pun. You know what a pun is, right? The Latin for evil is mellum. And the Latin for apple is malus. One letter difference. Malum, malus. All right? Medieval monks may have played a game with the words to make the fruit which conducted evil, which is malum, into the word apple, which is malus. and we all do that we all goof around we all say things and we all and then the next thing you know is it becomes truth right it's the gospel and that they ate an apple and everybody says that in the whole world they say everything that he an apple well it's you you can't find that in the bible you say well what i can find it and i didn't find it grapes in the bible well okay study a little deeper maybe uh... and that's fine with me i'm just giving you something that hopefully would be of interest to you and it kind of connects right and tells you a little bit why jesus had to shed his blood it doesn't become so much of a mystery anymore you know we split we're we're real spiritual aren't we holy holy holy you know and we want to do something like counts and beads or something while we're doing that all i can't wait to handle This is a very reverent moment, you know. We're real spiritual. And we like Catholicism. Oh, hey, listen, almost two billion people like it. That's a lot of people in this world. They like that Hinduism, that Buddhism. Talk to people. I'm a spiritual person. I don't go to church, you know, I'm just a spiritual person, though. No, you're not. Not according to God. That's not spiritual. You worship Him in spirit and in truth. If you don't have the Holy Spirit wherever you're doing your worship, you don't have spiritual. You're not spiritual. And so, yeah, but we all want to get real spiritual, and we're like, oh, yeah. But, you know, it's real. The Bible's more practical than that. What I'm telling you is the Bible's very practical. You got a blood problem. Your granddaddy ate of a fruit, and it was a grape, I believe, whatever, whatever. You know, but his blood changed. I know that. Because the life of the flesh is in the blood. So if you have life in your flesh and it's in the blood, how come I die? Why do I die? I should be living forever. You know, Adam was in a state of innocence. I don't know if we'll get to it today, but it's on your paper. He is in it. He was in a state of innocence, just like a little child is in a state of innocence. When they die, they go to heaven. Right. And so he didn't sin. But if, because the wages of sin is death, right? So if he had, if he had sinned, there would be death. But we die. Even little babies die. Why? Because our blood has changed. Something's wrong with our blood. And Jesus said, you know what? I can fix that. I got, I got eternal blood. I'm perfect. You know, I will give you, you know, I will give you my, I'll give you my kidney. I'll give you a heart, you know, my heart when I die. I'll give you an organ. I'm an organ donor. You know, I'll give, that's wonderful. Great. Jesus gave us his blood. It's not some religious, oh, you know, let's do it. It's practical. It's what we need. It makes you understand now why He did that, right? It makes you understand why we get upset when guys like John MacArthur say, it was just the death of Jesus that was efficacious to get you to heaven. No, it wasn't just His death. You couldn't have just strangled Him, suffocated Him, or whatever, beat Him to death. You couldn't have stoned Him. Then He couldn't have saved us. He had to shed blood. Alright, so I hope that gives you a better understanding. Now, I won't go through it because it's just more of the same, and I want to get further, but it's probable that the tree of life was an olive tree. Why do you say that? Well, just run through it real quick. In Genesis 8-11, which we won't turn to, Noah sends a dove from the ark, and when it returns, it has an olive leaf in its mouth. Why? Well, because that's all that he could find? No, because that's intentional by God. He had an olive leaf in his mouth, a sign of life. In Exodus 27, 20, the lights of the lamp stand in the tabernacle were fueled by what kind of oil? Olive oil. Why? And they burned always. They were always to be lit. Why? It's a sign of eternal life. Olive oil was burning. In Psalm 52, 8, David likens his life to an olive tree in the house of God. That's a strange thing to liken yourself unto. Why would he do that? Because he understood it represented eternal life, signifying his life could never be destroyed. He had eternal security. David knew where he was going when he died. And so I'm like an olive tree, he says. Zechariah 14.4, when Jesus returns to set up his eternal kingdom, he returns to what mountain? Mount of Olives. Strange name for a mountain, right? Romans 11.24 tells us that we are graft into the olive tree when we are saved. So, is that enough biblical evidence for it to be an olive tree? I think so. Now, can I prove it? No, I wasn't there. And God doesn't specifically tell you what kind of tree. He just names them, right? But it's interesting to know. It gives you some insight into the Bible. Now,