True Christian Religion (Chadwick) n. 468

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468. A tree means man, as is proved by the following passages in the Word:

All the trees of the countryside shall know that I, Jehovah, will lay low the tall tree, and raise up the low tree; and I will wither the green tree and make the dry tree sprout. Ezek. 17:24.

Blessed is he whose pleasure is in the law; he shall be like a tree planted near streams of water, which shall give fruit at its proper time. Ps. 1:2, 3; Jer. 17:8.

Praise Jehovah, fruit-trees. Ps. 148:9.

Jehovah's trees are fully watered. Ps. '104:16.

The axe lies at the root of the tree; every tree which does not produce good fruit will be cut out. Matt. 3:10; 7:16-21.

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten [and its fruit rotten]; for by its fruit the tree is known. Matt. 12:33; Luke 6:43, 44.

I shall light a fire which will consume every green tree and every dry tree. Ezek. 20:47.

It was because a tree means man, that it was commanded that the fruit of a tree used for food in the land of Canaan should be accounted uncircumcised (Lev. 19:23, 24). Since an olive-tree means a man of the celestial church, it is said of the two witnesses who were prophesying, that they were two olive-trees standing close by the God of the whole earth (Rev. 11:4; similarly Zech. 4:3, 11, 12). Also, in David's Psalms:

I am like a flourishing olive-tree in the house of God. Ps. 52[:8].

Also, in Jeremiah:

A flourishing olive-tree with fair fruit has Jehovah called your name. Jer. 11:16, 17.

There are many other passages, too numerous to quote here.


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