Walnut trees

As I was reading/revising a “Judge Deborah” portion of my book, I had her husband looking for a piece of walnut for some intricate wooden beads he had designed. I realized getting hold of a slab of walnut might have been impossible in Israel around 1250BC so needed to verify the possibility.

I don’t ever remember reading about walnut trees being mentioned in the Bible so I “Googled” the subject. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that although these trees were not mentioned in the same way oaks, sycamores, fig or olive trees were, the walnut tree and better yet, the nut itself has a nifty spiritual analogy.

According to the Midrash, Song of Songs Rabba, the people of Israel are compared to a pile of walnuts—when one is moved or disturbed the entire pile is affected. (Can you tell this is a Jewish website?) This is reminiscent of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians where  in 1 Corinthians 12:12-20 he teaches about the physical unity of the body and how that illustrates the spiritual unity of the Body of Christ and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  

Just as a walnut that is removed from a pile disturbs the cohesiveness of its pile, so are our physical bodies disturbed if one part doesn’t work well, or our spiritual unity is disturbed because a gifted part of the body is not present for somereason.

And the analogies continue. The roots of other trees need to remain covered with soil but the walnut tree roots need to be exposed because the trees are highly susceptible to fungus-borne diseases which are guarded against by ensuring that the roots are exposed to air. Compare our confession of sin and returning to God as baring the roots of our lives. After all, God knows when and how we sin, so why try to hide it. In addition, He is always willing to forgive that confessed sin (see      I John 1:9).  

 There were additional comparison to the walnut tree and the life of a God-follower, but these will suffice. Who knew what I would discover when I merely researched the possibility of a Bronze Age artisan being able to obtain a slab of walnut for his work?