Barking Up the Wrong Tree
The term “barking up the wrong tree” is a hunting term, but it can also be said that Adam and Eve were barking up the wrong tree when they ate fruit from the tree from which God had told them not to. Join Pam today as she reveals that just like Adam and Eve, we too have the choice to partake of fruit that can either lead us into conflict and frustration or into peace and rest.
Have you ever heard the phrase “barking up the wrong tree?” It’s when hunters would send their dogs ahead to chase the squirrels and raccoons in hopes that they would chase them up the tree. Then the hunter would run to that tree and look up in hopes of finding a raccoon, squirrel, or something for dinner. Well, that's how that phrase got started, and it is originally credited to Davy Crockett. But I really don’t think he was the first one to say it. I think it was actually God in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. God said “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:16b-17 (NASB)
Well, you know the story. Adam and Eve ate from the tree and they did die. They died spiritually. They lost their connection with God. God was still present, but because of their choice, they were now living from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
They had to rely on what they knew as good and what they knew was evil. They were trusting in what they knew in order to do life. They no longer had their previous connection with God. As Believers, we have the Tree of Life in us, but we still make that same choice. Even though the Tree of Life, Jesus Himself, indwells us, we sometimes don't listen to Him and eat from that tree. We oftentimes partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; which is what I know, what I want to do, or what I think will work. That usually causes a lot of conflict, unrest, and exhaustion.
When we eat from the Tree of Life that indwells us, we have a sense of peace and rest.
The fruit we can experience when we trust Jesus is the fruit that Paul told us about in Galatians, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)
The Psalmist wrote about this in the first chapter of Psalms when he said we will “be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.” Psalm 1:3 (NASB) I know that's the fruit that I want in my life. Instead of me trying to figure out how to do life on my own, I can experience love and joy, peace and rest, calmness and that sense of security with Christ.
My hope for you today, is that you won’t choose the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but in those everyday moments of decision, you will choose the Tree of Life.