Trees of the Desert: ACACIA

There is another tree in the desert I would like to introduce to you.

ACACIA
This tree is called the acacia.  It is probably the most recognizable and most commonly thought of tree in the desert.  You find different relatives of the acacia tree all around the deserts of the world.  The acacia that's found in Israel has some interesting characteristics.

For starters, the acacia is known for being incredibly resourceful.  The bedouins (people native to the Palestinian desert) claim that you can use the tree for everything from sustenance to fuel and even healing agents.  This tree is incredibly useful.  It's also significantly bigger and casts a much larger shade area.  The tree will often lie dormant for years until the rains come and the area around it is flooded.  At that point, after lying dormant for years, the tree will spring to life and bear its fruit, the buds looking like little white flowers.

One of the biblical references to this tree is found in Psalm 1 and again in Jeremiah 17.  Let's look at Psalm 1 for this post and we'll look at Jeremiah 17 in the next one.

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

Now, first of all, let's look at what makes a person like this tree.  They meditate on the law of the LORD.  The word for meditate in the Psalm is the word hagah.  Let me show you another place where hagah is used:

          “As a lion growls,
               a great lion over its prey—
           and though a whole band of shepherds
               is called together against it,
           it is not frightened by their shouts
               or disturbed by their clamor…”   Isaiah 31:4

The Hebrew word for “growls” (bolded above) is hagah.  It is a case of onomatopoeia — where the word sounds like the very thing it describes.  You say the word hagah with a fierce tone and a little roll of the ‘g’ sound.  It should sound like the deep, murmuring growl of a lion, hunched over its prey, proclaiming to the world around it that it means business.

Believe it or not, the word for meditate is also hagah.  Contrary to the popular idea that we should pull up a chair to the corner of the porch (with a good cup of coffee, maybe) and silently contemplate the scripture, this Psalm speaks of one who devours the Text with a fierce, hungry appetite.  (My goal is certainly not to downplay the importance of the other forms of meditation; these are good and beneficial as well.)

If we devour the Text, we become like an acacia in the desert.

But do you catch the image?  The Psalm said that the man who intensely devours the Text is like an acacia that bears its fruit in season.  But the acacia only comes to life once every decade or so.  You see, our discipline of becoming people of the Text is not a quick-fix formula.  It is a deeply rooted passion that pulls us through our deserts.  We hagah and hagah and hagah and one day — when the season is right and when the rains finally come — we bear our fruit.

And we are incredibly useful when we bear our fruit.   And we provide great shade.  But if you were to have looked at that tree two years ago, it looked as dead as could be.  So we had to stay true to our calling.  We couldn't walk with the wicked or stand with the sinners or sit with the mockers.  We had to hagah on God's voice (that is, God's word) and keep on walking.

These are the lessons of the desert.  One foot in front of the other, trusting the story, following the voice of the shepherd.  Just enough.  Patience.  Persistence. 

One foot in front of the other. Through our deserts.