I didn’t realize how sick we were, as a people, until I started to take this seriously. We talk about Jesus as if He were all there were to know. As if the fruit, desirable to make one happy, could exist in a vacuum. And we create all these explanations for why ecclesiastical authorities never talk about or teach about the tree, itself. The tree is too sacred to talk about. You don’t need the tree to be saved, you only need the fruit. If the tree were important, they would tell us about it. It’s idolatry to worship the tree, but it’s not idolatry to worship the fruit.
I like how the story of Miriam in the Old Testament is an allegory for how the tree was treated:
This is the oft repeated story of the woman fleeing to the desert in escape of the dragon; it’s the story of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil being chosen over the Tree of Life. It happens time and again. We are no different.The Bible says she (Miriam) was the older sister of Aaron the high priest and Moses the law giver ( 1 Chronicles 6.3 lists the children of Amram, boys first, but Exodus 2.4 shows the sister was older than her brother Moses). In other words, Wisdom was older than the high priesthood and the Law of Moses. Moses claimed to be the only one who spoke the words of the LORD. Miriam disagreed with him and was punished with leprosy. She was sent outside the camp for seven days. Then she was cured and returned, but had no further role in the life of her people (Numbers 12.1-16). People remembered what those stories really meant; that Wisdom was rejected when Moses and his disciples became dominant. She died and was buried in the desert (Numbers 20.1) ~ Margaret Barker
It is Wisdom’s anointing oil that imparts vision to her priests. She is the Queen Mother who is the throne of her Son. The Son does not reign without her and yet we behave as if He did. What do we lack because we, like so many before us, have rejected Wisdom?
It is Wisdom that orders all things well. We are out of order.The politics of Church history have obscured her real identity and sometimes even banished her from the Church. She is needed now as much as she ever was. Knowledge is increasing all the time, but it is destroying the creation. It is not the Lady’s wisdom that now rules our world, but the knowledge of good and evil that the snake, the great deceiver, offered to Adam and Eve as something better. ~ MB