Scripture Reading: Gen. 2:9, 17; Rev. 22:1-2, 14; Job 1:1; 2:3; 42:1-6

DAY 1 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 2 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 3 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 4 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 5 Outline　MorningRevival

DAY 6 Outline　MorningRevival

«　WEEK 4　DAY 1　»

　　Gen. 2:9 And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, as well as the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

　　17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, of it you shall not eat; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

　　In the divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, there are two trees, two sources, two lines, two principles, and two ends.

　　In Genesis 2 there are two trees—the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, in Revelation 21 and 22 we see only one tree—the tree of life—in a holy city. In the center of this city is the throne of God and of the Lamb (22:1), indicating God’s administration…The Lamb is the lamp (21:23), and God is the light in the lamp. This indicates that God and the Lamb, the light and the lamp, are one. Out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, that is, out of the one God, flows a river, and on the two sides of this river grows the tree of life (22:2a). (Life-study of Job, p. 191)

　　All the evil things in Revelation 22 are involved with the lake of fire. Thus, the two ends are the city of water and the lake of fire. Between the two sources and the two ends are two lines, which become two ways. Each source issues in a line that becomes a way consummating in an end.

　　The Bible, as a full record of the divine revelation, is a book of signs (Rev. 1:1b). In the book of Revelation, for example, there are many signs, such as the golden lampstands (1:12), the stars (v. 20), the Lion of the tribe of Judah (5:5), the Lamb (v. 6), the four horses (6:1-8), and the universal woman (12:1). The last and the greatest sign in Revelation is the New Jerusalem.

　　The two most striking in the first group of signs in Genesis 1 and 2 are the two trees (2:9). The first of these signs is the tree of life, as the highest sign, signifying God, even the Triune God, as life to man in man’s relationship with Him (Psa. 36:9a). God created man, breathing into him the breath of life (Gen. 2:7), which became man’s spirit; but at that time He did not put Himself into man as man’s life. The second of these signs is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as the highest negative sign, signifying Satan the devil, even the evil one, as death to man in man’s fall before God (v. 17).

　　Both of these signs, as the most striking ones, signify persons—God and Satan—not things or matters. The first tree signifies God only as life, with no implications of other elements. The second tree signifies Satan as death, with the implications of knowledge, good, and evil. Whereas God is simple, Satan is very complicated.

　　According to the divine revelation, knowledge is Satan, good is Satan, and evil is Satan. Today the world is in an age that worships knowledge. Before eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve were ignorant, not knowing, so they had no sin. After they ate of the tree of knowledge, their eyes were opened, and they became knowledgeable. That was sin. We all consider that to commit sin is sin, but we may not consider that knowing sin is sin.

　　The genuine good is God Himself (Matt. 19:17a); hence, gaining God equals gaining the genuine good. When the rich young ruler came to the Lord Jesus and called Him, “Good Teacher,” the Lord Jesus said, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except One—God” (Mark 10:17-18)…If we touch the good things outside of God, this means that we touch Satan. The Bible teaches us that knowledge, good, and evil all are Satan. In the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, therefore, evil and good are equal. (Life-study of Job, pp. 191-193)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 10—11

«　WEEK 4　DAY 2　»

　　Matt. 7:13-14 Enter in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it. Because narrow is the gate and constricted is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it.

　　The two trees are not for producing materials but for man to eat their fruit (Gen. 3:3, 6b), the fruit of the tree of life becoming food to man for nourishing, for the dispensing of life, and the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil becoming poison to man for killing. To eat means to take in something that is outside of us and then digest and assimilate it. We must be careful concerning what we eat. Surely, today’s television and so many different kinds of newspapers and magazines are branches of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Life-study of Job, p. 194)

　　The two trees, as signs of God and Satan, are the two sources of two categories of men. The first tree is the source of men who seek God as life for their supply and enjoyment, of whom Abel is the leading one (Gen. 4:4). The second tree is the source of men who follow Satan as their poison unto death and eternal perdition, of whom Cain is the leading one (v. 5).

　　The outcome of the two sources becomes two kingdoms on the earth. The first is the kingdom of God, which was first the kingdom of Israel according to God’s Old Testament economy and then the church according to God’s New Testament economy (Matt. 21:43). The second is the kingdom of Satan (cf. 12:26; Col. 1:13).

　　These two sources issue in two lines…The two lines, as the two ways, originate from the two sources.

　　The first way is the way of life, the constricted way (Matt. 7:14), the Way (Acts 9:2; 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:22), the straight way (2 Pet. 2:15), the way of righteousness (v. 21), the way of salvation (Acts 16:17), the way of God (Matt. 22:16; Acts 18:26), and the way of the Lord (v. 25), for men to seek God, to gain God, and to enjoy God in His eternal life as the supply and unto His eternal life as the goal, that they may be born of God in His life and nature (John 1:12-13), transformed and conformed into His glorious image (2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29), and glorified in Him as glory (v. 30; 1 Pet. 5:10a; Heb. 2:10a) to gain Him and participate in Him to the fullest extent. In this way of life are Abel, Seth, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Samuel, all the Old Testament prophets, and all the New Testament believers (11:39-40). God’s purpose in dealing with Job was to turn him from the way of good and evil to this way of life that he might gain God to the fullest extent.

　　The second way is the way of good and evil, the way of death, the broad way (Matt. 7:13), for men to follow Satan to be his children (1 John 3:10a) unto death and his companions in his eternal perdition (Matt. 25:41). In this way of death and of good and evil are Cain, Lamech, Jabal, Jubal, Tubal-cain (Jude 11a; Gen. 4:16-24), Ham, Cush, Nimrod (10:6-12), Korah, Balaam (2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11b), Saul, Absalom, Antichrist and his followers (Rev. 19:19- 21), and all unbelievers (20:15).

　　These two ways, the way of life and the way of death, lead men to the two God-ordained ends—the New Jerusalem and the lake of fire—respectively… The two ways…constitute the two controlling, ruling, and regulating principles by which men have their relationship with God.

　　The first principle is the principle of life, according to which all men in the way of life keep their contact with God, and by which they seek God, gain God, possess God, and enjoy God, step by step, until they reach the fullest extent.

　　The second principle is the principle of death and of good and evil, in which all men in the way of death follow Satan either consciously or unconsciously, and through which they reject God and His way of life to be Satan’s companions unto death and eternal perdition. (Life-study of Job, pp. 194-196)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 6—7

«　WEEK 4　DAY 3　»

　　Rev. 22:1-2 And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life…

　　The destination of God’s way of life is a city of water of life, the New Jerusalem, God’s eternal dwelling (Rev. 21:2, 11, 23; 22:1-2, 14), as the best and most glorious goal for all the men who walk in the way of life according to God’s desire and for God’s pleasure, that they may participate with God in all the blessings of God as the eternal life for eternity.

　　The destination of the way of death and of good and evil is a lake of fire of brimstone, the Gehenna of fire (Matt. 5:22), Satan’s eternal prison, as the worst and most miserable end for all the men who take the way of death according to Satan’s evil device, that they may share with Satan the eternal judgment and eternal perdition (John 16:11; Matt. 25:41; Rev. 21:8, 27; 22:15). (Life-study of Job, p. 197)

　　The New Jerusalem, as the best and most glorious end of God’s way of life, is a dynamic incentive for us to seek God until we gain Him to the fullest extent according to His love and grace; and the lake of fire, as the worst and most miserable end of Satan’s way of death and of good and evil, should be a solemn warning to the men who follow Satan in his way against God’s economy, to turn from his way of death to God’s way of life that they may escape Satan’s eternal judgment and eternal perdition, according to God’s righteousness and justice.

　　God’s intention with Job was to consume this “perfect and upright” person and to strip him of his attainments, his achievements, in the highest standard of ethics in perfection and uprightness (Job 1:1).

　　God’s intention was also to tear down the natural Job in his perfection and uprightness that He might build up a renewed Job in God’s nature and attributes. God’s intention was not to have a Job in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but a Job in the line of the tree of life (Gen. 2:9).

　　God’s purpose in dealing with Job severely was to adjust his logic concerning his relationship with God from the principle of good and evil according to ethics to the principle of life according to God, that he might be one who gained God and participated in God for the fulfillment of God’s eternal economy.

　　Job, like his friends, was halted in the knowledge of right and wrong, not knowing God’s economy, not realizing in an adequate way the purpose for which God created man. He and his friends were devoid of the divine revelation and of the experience of the divine life. He had no idea that God had no intention to increase his perfection, uprightness, righteousness, and integrity. Rather, God’s intention was to strip all these human virtues which he had as his contentment, so that he could seek and gain only God Himself. Neither his friends nor he were in the line of the tree of life as God ordained man to be.

　　God put the book of Job into the Bible as a black background. The speaking of Job and his friends indicated that although they apparently were godly men, they were short of God, and they did not express God. Job and his friends came together to debate, not to fellowship. They had nothing of God to fellowship with one another.

　　Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, were in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…God was trying to rescue them from that realm and put them into the realm of the tree of life. The first thing God had to do was to strip Job, consume him, and tear him down so that he would become nothing as a person under suffering. This became the base for God to rebuild Job with the Divine Trinity, that Job could be a new man, a part of God’s new creation, to fulfill God’s eternal economy for God’s expression. (Life-study of Job, pp. 197, 29, 196, 39-40, 57)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 4—5, 9

«　WEEK 4　DAY 4　»

　　John 1:4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 15:1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.

　　The most important item in the garden is the trees. In the Scriptures the

　　concept concerning the tree is crucial. When the Scripture mentions man, both in the beginning and at the end, it also mentions the tree. Whether man will have life or will die, will live eternally or will perish, all depends on how man deals with the tree (cf. Gen. 2:16-17; 3:1-3, 22, 24; Ezek. 47:12; Rev. 22:2, 14, 19). The concept of the tree is absolutely vital to man’s destiny. Genesis 2:9 says that the trees were good for food. Notice that the Bible does not say that the trees were good for producing materials, for the concept of Genesis is not that of human labor or achievement. Thus, no manufacturing materials are mentioned. The concept of Genesis 2 is fully focused on life. Thus, it says that the trees were good for food because food is related to life. Without food we cannot live. Food maintains our life and satisfies us. (Life- study of Genesis, pp. 139-140)

　　The tree of life was in the middle of the garden. If we study the record of Genesis 2, we will realize that, apart from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, no tree is mentioned by name except the tree of life…This shows that the tree of life was the center.

　　The tree of life is the center of the universe. According to the purpose of God, the earth is the center of the universe, the garden of Eden is the center of the earth, and the tree of life is the center of the garden of Eden. We must realize that the whole universe is centered on this tree of life: nothing is more central and crucial to both God and man than this tree. It is very meaningful to see man in the garden standing before the tree of life.

　　This tree enables man to receive God as life…The following books of the Bible reveal that God is life. Therefore, the tree of life in the garden was the indicator that God intends to be our life in the form of food. One day, according to the Gospel of John, God came in the flesh (1:1, 14). In Him was life (v. 4). The life displayed by the tree of life in Genesis 2 was the life incarnated in Jesus, God in the flesh. Jesus told us that He Himself is life (John 14:6). Furthermore, John 15 tells us that Christ is a tree, the vine tree. On the one hand, He is a tree; on the other hand, He is life. When we put together all these portions from John, we see that Jesus is the tree of life. Jesus said that He is the bread of life, meaning that He has come to us as the tree of life in the form of food.

　　Let me ask you a question: how tall was the tree of life? If you turn the question to me, I will answer that it was not taller than I…If the tree of life had been of a great height, its fruit would have been out of reach. Adam and Eve had no ladder or other instrument to use in plucking the fruit of this tree. Therefore, I believe that the tree of life was not very tall. As the almighty God, Jesus is high, but when He came to us as food, He was lowly. He was a loaf of bread. He was even the crumbs under the table (Matt. 15:21-27). The very Jesus who came to us as life in the form of food was not tall and great; He was small and lowly. Anything we eat must be smaller than we are; if it is not, we cannot take it into us. Even if our food is larger than we are, it must be cut into pieces small enough to eat. Thus, Jesus came to us as life in the form of food. He said, “I am the bread of life,” and, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” God in the Son is the tree of life, which is good for food. DAY after day we can feed on Him. We can eat Him.

　　The tree of life typifies Christ who imparts life to man and who pleases and satisfies man (cf. John 15:1; Exo. 15:25). Christ imparts divine life into us, pleases us, and satisfies us. Many of us can testify of this. We can say, “Hallelujah! Jesus has imparted life to me. He satisfies me all the time.” This is the tree of life. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 140- 141)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Genesis, msg. 11

«　WEEK 4　DAY 5　»

　　Rev. 22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.

　　John 14:6 Jesus said to him, I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.

　　Revelation 22:2 says, “On this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life.” That the one tree of life grows on the two sides of the river signifies that the tree of life is a vine that spreads and proceeds along the flow of the water of life for God’s people to receive and enjoy. This tree fulfills for eternity what God intended from the beginning (Gen. 2:9). The tree of life was closed to man because of his fall (3:22-24), but it was opened to the believers through the redemption of Christ (Heb. 10:19-20). Today the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life is the believers’ common portion (John 6:35, 57). In the millennial kingdom the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life will be a dispensational reward to the overcoming believers (Rev. 2:7). Eventually, in the new heaven and new earth for eternity, the enjoyment of Christ as the tree of life will be the eternal portion of all of God’s redeemed (22:14, 19). (Life-study of Revelation, pp. 727-728)

　　The tree of life is Christ as our life supply. First, Christ was the Lamb of God for our redemption (John 1:29) and then the tree of life for our life supply (6:35). Christ’s redemption is for imparting Himself into us as the life supply.

　　The tree of life grows on the two sides of the river of life. It does not go up but spreads like a vine. Hence, it is available along the flow of the water of life. Christ as the tree of life is the life supply available along the flow of the Spirit as the water of life. Where the Spirit flows, there the life supply of Christ is found. This is all in and with the divine nature as our holy way,

　　signified by the street.

　　It took me years to understand three things mentioned in Revelation 22:1- 2: the street, the river, and the tree of life. In the midst of the street is the river; hence, the street spontaneously becomes the two banks of the river. The tree of life grows as a vine on the banks of the river…The street, the river, and the tree are all interrelated. After you enter through the pearl gate and get on the golden street, you immediately have the flowing river. Along the flow of the living water is the tree of life. This picture is very clear.

　　Let us now apply this picture to our daily living. Suppose a certain sister goes shopping in a department store. Even before she enters the store, the divine nature as the inner street begins to regulate her. There is no word, just an inward regulating. The sister enters the store and picks up a certain item. The inward regulating says, “Drop it,” but she excuses herself, telling herself that it is all right to buy that article this time and that she will not do it again. However, from that moment, the inner flow stops. After the sister comes home, she finds that she is not able to pray…This is a negative illustration of what happens when we do not follow the inward regulation of the divine nature.

　　Suppose when the inward regulation tells this sister not to buy that particular article, she [instead] says, “Amen, Lord, Amen.” Immediately, she will find herself walking on the golden street. At the same time, she will sense that the inner flow is intensified and strengthened. She will also sense that the inner flow brings her the rich supply of life. This is the enjoyment of the tree of life…As she leaves the store, she may even feel like singing or shouting Hallelujah. This is what it means to walk on the golden street, to partake of the flowing river, and to enjoy all the riches of the tree of life.

　　Revelation 22:2 also says that the tree of life produces twelve fruits, yielding its fruit each month. The fruits of the tree of life will be the food of God’s redeemed for eternity. They will be continually fresh, produced every month, twelve fruits yearly. (Life-study of Revelation, pp. 728-730)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Revelation, msg. 65

«　WEEK 4　DAY 6　»

　　Prov. 16:25 There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end of it is the ways of death.

　　John 11:25 …I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live.

　　Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.

　　After God created Adam, He placed him in front of two trees—the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God then charged Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if he ate of that tree, he would die (Gen. 2:9, 16-17). God wanted Adam to eat of the tree of life. If Adam had eaten of the tree of life, this tree would have entered into him and then would have grown within him. However, Adam ate instead of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree was thus sown into Adam and grew within him, and it has been growing in all of Adam’s descendants…Today the entire human race is a race constituted according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In every human society, regardless of the kind of ethics it has, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is growing. As long as this tree is growing among the human race, there will be no peace. (Life-study of Job, pp. 29-30)

　　Before we were regenerated, we were in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When we were regenerated, Christ planted Himself into us as the tree of life. However, in our practical, daily living, are we in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or in the line of the tree of life? In our married life, for example, we may be in the line of the tree of knowledge, and by the way we talk with our spouse, we may not only grow this tree but also water it and fertilize it. What, then, should we do? We need to remember Paul’s word in Galatians 2:20—”It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me”—and turn from the tree of knowledge to the tree of life. If we do this, we will live Christ and grow Christ as the tree of life.

　　Suppose there is a problem between you and your spouse. You should not do anything, for whatever you do will be in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You should simply pray-read Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Do not care for the problem or your anger—just care for Christ living in you. This should be our way in everything.

　　Job and his friends…were in the realm of good and evil, in the realm of promoting man’s integrity. They needed to get into the right realm, the realm of the tree of life. They needed to come back to the tree of life. The tree of life was their answer. Instead of trying to attain to the peak of integrity, Job needed to do his best to pursue God, to pursue Christ the person directly. Job’s direction should have been toward that peak, not toward the peak of human integrity.

　　We need to see that the entire Bible is a book on God’s eternal economy. In His economy God’s intention is to dispense Himself into us to be our life and our nature that we may be the same as He is in life and nature in order to express Him. What, then, about the stripping and the consuming? God’s stripping and God’s consuming are to tear us down. We are fallen and natural men. As such men, we need to be torn down. God must tear us down. Then God can have a base, a way, to build us up again.

　　In His economy God’s intention is not to make fallen man whole. Rather, God’s intention is to tear us down and rebuild us with Himself as our life and our nature that we may be persons who are absolutely one with Him.

　　The book of Job shows us that God, through Satan as an ugly tool, was tearing Job down by two ways: stripping and consuming. God’s stripping and consuming were exercised over Job to tear Job down that God might have a base and a way to rebuild him with God Himself that he might become a God- man. This is what we should receive in our study of Job. (Life-study of Job, pp. 30, 70, 44, 34-35)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 13, 16, 22—25, 32, 36—38