The Palm Tree in the Bible (3)
Sign
of God’s presence and speaking
André H. Roosma
31 January
2012 (NL orig.: 16 Jan. 2012)
As we discussed the previous time, the Bible has a lot of
symbolism featuring the palm tree.
   1 - תמר - tamar, Hebrew for
‘palm tree’ is literally: ‘the sign
of water/abundance of the other One (God)’!
The Bible records that the great Jerusalem temple was decorated extensively
with images of angels and... palm trees ! (See 1 Kings 6: 29-35; 7: 36; 2 Chronicles 3: 5; and Ezekiel 40:
16-37; 41: 18-26.)
What was the reason for this display of angels and palm trees?
Could it be, because the palm tree, just like an angel, was associated with
the presence of God? I do think so.
The temple served - among others - to bring the presence
of God closer to the people, without portraying Himself.
To this end, the walls were decorated with images of Angels and palm trees.
Think also of what I stated in Part 1 about
the association of the palm tree with the Tree of Life from paradise.
About the prophetess Deborah it says in Judges 4: 4-5:
Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth,
was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah
between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the people of
Israel came up to her for judgment.
She led Israel and administered justice, from below
her palm tree. I wondered, why that was added? Could it be, that she,
or her audience, could hear the speaking of God better?
(Note: I believe that God can speak to people anywhere.
But we humans can often perceive His voice better in certain circumstances.
A large mountain, a palm tree that we highly look up to – they will
often help us to direct our eye and ear and heart upward...)
The remarkable thing is that also linguistically there is a relationship
between -
tamar - palm tree, and  - ’amar - speaking,
especially the speaking of God.
In fact tamar can be read as the -sign of God’s speaking.
One can also read: the palm tree is the personal
signature or underlining of God’s speaking.
Could this be related to the way in which God sometimes revealed
Himself, when He spoke to or with people?
More about that in the next part!
I do conclude here that the Bible sees the palm tree symbolically
fundamentally in relationship with God: His
presence and His speaking. It directs our attention upward!
Hallelu YaH !
Outside that relationship, the palm tree, as the Lebanon cedar, will soon
deteriorate to an ever-green tree below which idolatry takes place (compare 1 Kings 14: 23; 2 Kings 16: 4; 17: 10;
2 Chronicles 28: 4; Isaiah 57: 5; Jeremiah 2: 20; 3: 6, 13; 17: 2;
Ezekiel 6: 13; 20: 47)2...
Notes
| 1 |
More information on the old Biblical script, as referred
to here, in the Hallelu-YaH Draft Research Report:
‘The Written Language of Abraham,
Moses and David – A study of the pictographic roots and basic notions
in the underlying fabric of the earliest Biblical script’  , a
living document by André H. Roosma, 1st
English version: 18 April 2011 (1st Dutch original: January 2011). |
| 2 |
Phoenicia, situated at that time in the coastal area
of present day Lebanon, was notorious for its palm trees (the name Phoenicia is related to the Greek phoinix - palm tree) and for its great, strong Lebanon cedars. They associated both of these
with their idols and worshipped them. A small, remaining, many ages old
forest of cedars there is still known as ‘Forest of the Cedars of
God’. |
The other articles in this series on the Palm Tree in the Bible are: ‘(1) - Symbol of the
Tree of Life’, ‘(2) - Full of Rich
Symbolism’, ‘(4) - Moses and the
Big Fire in the Palm-Top’, ‘(5) - The
‘language’ of the palm tree’, ‘(6) - Pole and Palisade’, ‘(7) - More on the word
Tamar and a very young Palm Tree’, ‘The great golden Menorah – Sign of
God’s Presence’.
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