Man, the trees and hope

Even a tree has more hope! If it is cut down, it will sprout again and grow new branches. Job 14:7

Introduction:

• Job lost his wealth, his children and his health. In the middle of the pain, he looks at a tree (Job 14:7-9).
• For Job, a tree had more hope than a man.
• But the whole Bible uses the tree to talk about you. And about hope.

1. Man and the trees. God looks at you and sees a tree (Mark 8:24).

• The blind man, halfway through his healing, said: "I see people, but I can't see them very clearly. They look like trees walking around" (Mark 8:24).
• A tree has roots. Without roots, you are "a weak reed, swayed by every breath of wind" (Matt 11:7).
• You were "a branch cut from a wild olive tree", and God grafted you "into his cultivated tree" (Rom 11:24).
• Jesus is "the true grapevine" (John 15:1). And "the godly will flourish like palm trees" (Ps 92:12).

2. The tree. Every part of it speaks of your life with God (Ps 1:3).

• Soil: those who walk with God "are like trees planted along the riverbank" (Ps 1:3).
• Roots: "Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him" (Col 2:7).
• Trunk and leaves: the trunk is spiritual uprightness, it points to heaven. Leaves are not fruit, but they identify the tree.
• Fruit: "just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions" (Matt 7:20).

3. The four seasons. Every tree goes through all of them.

• Fall and winter: the trials. The tree loses its leaves, but not its roots.
• Spring and summer: the victories.
• The tree planted along the riverbank keeps "bearing fruit each season" (Ps 1:3). A season is not a sentence.

4. The hope of the trees. Even cut down, it sprouts again (Job 14:7).

• God "will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle" (Isa 42:3).
• "Though its roots have grown old in the earth and its stump decays" (Job 14:8), there is still hope.
• "at the scent of water it will bud and sprout again" (Job 14:9).
• The water is the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised the woman at the well water that "becomes a fresh, bubbling spring" (John 4:14).

Conclusion:

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. Romans 5:3-4

• The cut is not the end of the tree. Winter is not the end of the year.
• Get close to the water. Where there is the scent of water, there is a sprout.
• What part of your life has been cut down, and how close to the water are you today?