One Word Says A Lot

Simply Trees by God’s Design

Author: Renee Bennett

Publisher: WestBow Press, Bloomington, IN, 2019

This book is unique not so much for what the author says but for what she has done, how she has done it, and the fact that, via her efforts, we are encouraged to duplicate the process – perhaps not with respect to ‘trees’, but with just about any other word of significance found in the Scriptures.

Renee Bennett has taken her passion (nature), combined it with what she believed God was asking her to do, (write about trees) and then simply did it. The result is her delightful book Simply Trees by God’s Design.

Many people study the Bible and its contents. Some take a thematic approach.  Others take book by book approach seeing what God has to say as one studies chapter after chapter (or verse after verse) of any given book or epistle.

Bennett took a different approach. She took a word that described something that fascinated her – trees, and then proceeded to see what the Bible and its divine author (God) wanted to say through the human authors He utilized to record it for us. What good were trees?  How were they utilized?  What did they symbolize?  And so on.

To do this thoroughly requires a lot of patience, sticking to one version of Scripture (in her case, the King James version) and a good and full concordance. For example, my concordance indicates that the word ‘tree’ is found 201 times in 169 different verses in the King James. The plural version ‘trees’ occurs 157 times in 136 verses in the same version.

What Bennett did was take most, if not all, of those references, identify them for us, and then describe what she believes God’s purpose for the word ‘tree’ or ‘trees’ was in each case. Then she invites us to step back and take a look at the ‘big picture’ to determine any trends or patterns of the specific use of the words through the Old Testament, the New Testament, and of course the whole Bible.

It’s a most interesting piece of work, or one could say a piece of art. While she has some interesting thoughts and shares them in her comments on each instance of the word’s use, I believed she could have gone much deeper into the interpretations than she did.  Perhaps that is something she was hoping we would do if we want to take her ‘project’ to the next level.

But Bennett seems to be more interested in getting her readers to follow in her footsteps but with totally different words.  Some that come to mind are blood (447 times in the KJV), murder (9 times), brother (376), forgive (56), and so on.  You get the idea; the list is endless. Just pick a word that fascinates you and go to work.

With some systematic discipline, some creative thinking, and asking God for wisdom in your interpretations, you could write the first or next volume of what could end up a series.

Bennett’s book helped me get a much fuller understanding of what God thinks of trees, and how He used them, and how He intends us to use them.  For example, trees feed us and tempt us.  Trees provided shade to some and were used to hang others. And many more meanings and uses that I had never given much thought to.

Can you imagine how much this kind of research and writing style could add to the understanding of God’s Scripture and world.  I encourage you to pick up a copy of the book, enjoy it, and then pick your ‘word’.

·      Ken B. Godevenos, President, Accord Resolutions Services Inc., Toronto, Ontario, March 8, 2020, www.accordconsulting.com

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.