Shir Hashirim 2

3 As the apple tree [tapuach] among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved [dodi] among the sons [banim]. I sat down under his shadow [Betzilloh (in his shade, shadow)] with great delight [chimmadti (I desire)], and his fruit [p'ri] was sweet to my taste.

Among the trees of the wood

In this, the Messiah is likened to an apple tree, and his brethren, the Sons of Deity, to "the trees of the wood."

"To him that overcomes, saith the Spirit, I will give to eat from the wood of life."

A man's victory over the world is not complete so long as he is engaged in the conflict of life. In this state of existence, then, a man does not eat from the wood of the life promised; he is, therefore, in no sense immortal. The promise of life is, that we shall have it when the victory is won.

"I will give to him to eat,"

points us to the future. We must first appear before the throne by resurrection, to learn whether we are accounted worthy of the life; and then, if the verdict be in our favour, we shall be permitted to eat; otherwise, not.

"I will give to eat." Mastication, deglutition, and assimilation, constitute the whole process of eating, which is the conversion of food into blood, which is the life. But the life of the saints in the Millennial Aion is not blood; for "flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" for it is corruptible, and the kingdom of God is indestructible, and not to be left to a succession; hence, "corruption cannot inherit incorruption."

Their life in that Aion is holy spirit. When this is poured out upon their bodies, posterior to their resurrection, it assimilates to itself, "in the twinkling of an eye," all the particles of their flesh and bones; and they become transformed into incorruptible, deathless, and glorious bodies, according to Paul's testimony, who says,

"the Lord Jesus Anointed, shall change the nature of the body of our humiliation, that it may become of like form with the body of his glory, by the inworking of what enables him also to subdue all things to himself" (Phil. 3:21),

that is, of the Spirit.

This in-working, by which the nature of the resurrected body is changed, so that it becomes a spirit-body, or spirit, is the giving to eat of the wood of life. When the victor has thus eaten he becomes an element of the wood, whose leaf shall never fade, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Eureka 2.1.6.