The Fallen Tree

Moses was God's chosen one to lead the nation Israel out of bondage into a land filled with milk and
honey. Everything was going fine for him until he used his staff to strike a rock. His life changed
because of it.

The nation Israel, rescued from Egypt: Everything was going great until they fell out of favor with God.
Because of their unbelief they ended up walking around in the desert for 40 years with the original generation
not seeing the Promised Land.

David, anointed of God, truly blessed through many hard times, was finally made King over Israel.
This man had everything then decided he wanted something that did not belong to him, another mans wife.

In the 11th chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes we find written in verse 3... and whether a tree falls toward
the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it lies... (NASV). The NIV says ...Whether a
tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it be. The question is why did
God put direction on that fallen tree? Why not just say where a tree falls there it will be.

God gave direction to that fallen tree, and when we look at the lives of those involved in the illustrations
above we see the direction their lives took after the events. It was significantly different than where they
were originally headed. Moses would have gone into the Promised Land. Egypt would have gone to the
Promised Land. King David would have lived out his life with a family, and obviously grown to greater
heights. You can read the Bible and find out what all happened to them then draw your own conclusions.
Basically all of them lost it because; Moses, his ego got in the way (at least that’s the way I read it).
Israel because of unbelief, and David because of physical lust.

What about us. We make decisions everyday. The results carry us someplace, either physically in our
thinking process, and often both. And we often look back and say man if only. We may attempt to gloss
things over, pretend they are not the way they are, and attempt to make them the way they were.

We blame God and wonder why it happened while all the time we know exactly why it happened.
Often circumstances crop up that are out of our control, and things happen, but quite often we
cause things, and then try to deny them, push them off to someone, or something else. Course if it’s
a good thing then we will be the first to stand in line to claim victory and let everyone pat us on the back.
Other times we cause things to happen that are really an embarrassment, and can cause a lot of
emotional, and often physical, pain.

The tree falls in a certain direction and there it lies. We do something and there we go. David did
something. What he did was pointed out to him through the use of a what if this happened in your
kingdom David sort of scenario. David came back with a” this man deserves to die” statement.
Nathan went on to tell David “You are the man”. God reads David the riot act, and told him what
all will now happen. David admitted he sinned against the Lord. With that, Nathan told David, God
 has taken away your sin; you shall not die. God forgave David but David’s tree had fallen in that
certain direction and he had to pay the consequences. Once David realized he had been exposed
to what he did he freely admitted it. Wonder what things would have been like if David had not been
exposed? Well he was, and did indeed pay by a change in lifestyle and the losses of family members.
You can read all about it in second Samuel.

The points that we are attempting to make here is when that tree falls in our lives it points in a
certain direction and that’s the way we will be going with that particular event in our lives.
Sometimes the event will have lifelong consequences.

Someone caused that tree to fall, and acknowledgement to the ownership of it must be given.
With admission comes Gods forgiveness. With admission comes the sure knowledge that God
will be with you on this new journey. The most difficult of these steps is admitting to God,
ourselves, and those we affected, that we are the one to cause the tree to fall.

The composition of natural man is not geared to forgiveness. It takes a lot of effort, and very
often will not happen. Most often it’s a conditional forgiveness. One that requires certain things
happen, or not happen. Pick an incident, event or what ever you would like to call it and give it some
thought.

We can honestly admit to our guilt and ask God to forgive us, and like David he will, but we cannot
expect those caught up in the incident to be so compassionate. Even if they are there will never be a
full return to “the way it was” because that way is gone forever. Has anyone in your family ever done
anything to cause you to be a little leery of them when they are placed in that situation again?

Once the tree is down, and everyone knows it, we have a strong desire to minimize the impact it had
on ourselves, and others, by “whitewashing” blaming in on everything from a genetic disorder to “the
way I was brought up” to “guess it wasn’t all that big of a deal” to “I didn’t know what I was doing”, and
on and on. Everything but “Yes I did it, and I did know what I was doing and it was wrong and now I
must  pay the consequences”. That’s where God will step in and say He will forgive you. You will still
have that new direction but God will be with you. He will give you the strength to go on. How can this be?
Who is the most important in your life? If it isn’t God then put him there. He is the Rock, the Savior, the
Salvation, the Forgiver, the Redeemer (there’s more). With Him on the top of the list you will have a solid
 foundation to stand on. One who, regardless of your circumstances, will keep providing you with the
 where
withal to continue?