From Book of Mormon Sunday School Manual
http://www.lds.org/manual/book-of-mormon-gospel-doctrine-teachers-manual/lesson-13-the-allegory-of-the-olive-trees?lang=eng
From Bible Dictionary
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/olive-tree?lang=eng&letter=o
From 1 Nephi
http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/10.12-14?lang=eng#11http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/1-ne/22.3-5?lang=eng#2
From CES Institute Manual (Old Testament)
(C-14) One truth may be taught by numerous symbols; one symbol may convey numerous truths; and, whereas the Lord may change the symbols He uses to teach truths, the truths never change. Sometimes when one finds an interpretation of a particular symbol, one tends to be satisfied with that interpretation and does not explore it further, or one may be confused when one finds another symbol conveying the same truth. The vastness and the depths of the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ are such that a myriad of images, types, and similitudes is required to convey them. For example, there are so many varied aspects of Jesus’ life and mission that He is typified or symbolized as the Lamb (see John 1:29), the Light (see John 1:7–8), the Advocate (see D&C 45:3–5), the Rock (see 1 Corinthians 10:4), the Good Shepherd (see John 10:11, 14), the True Vine (see John 15:1–5), the Word (see John 1:1, 14), the Lion (see Revelation 5:5), the Cornerstone (see Ephesians 2:20), the Living Bread (see John 6:51), the Amen (see Revelation 3:14), the Bright and Morning Star (see Revelation 22:16), the High Priest (see Hebrews 3:1), the Bridegroom (see Matthew 25:1–13), the Treader of the Winepress (see D&C 133:50), and a Consuming Fire (see Hebrews 12:29). Careful pondering of the connotations of these titles can provide significant enlightenment about the Savior and His mission.
Likewise, one symbol can convey numerous spiritual truths. For example, the olive tree was used as a symbol of the house of Israel (see Jacob 5:3). Applying the guideline of looking at the nature of the symbol, one finds many significant things in an examination of the olive tree:
1. The olive tree is a living thing and produces much fruit.
2. The olive tree requires constant pruning by a husbandman if the young shoot is to be brought into production. Without this constant pruning, the tree would grow into the wild olive, which is little more than a bushy tangle of limbs and branches that produces only a small, bitter, worthless fruit.
3. To become productive, the wild olive must be cut back completely and then a branch from a tame olive tree must be grafted onto the stem of the wild tree. With careful pruning and cultivating, the tree will begin to produce fruit in seven years and become fully productive in about fourteen to fifteen years.
4. Although it takes a long time to bring the tree into production, once the tree begins to produce it continues to do so for a remarkably long time. Some trees in the Holy Land have been producing abundantly for over four hundred years.
5. When the tree finally grows old and dies, the roots send up a number of new, green shoots which, if properly cultivated, will each grow into a mature olive tree. Thus, the same tree may go on reproducing itself for millennia. (One cannot help but see a symbol of the Resurrection in this phenomenon, and also think of the numerous times when the various groups of the house of Israel seemed to have died and yet new shoots sprang forth from the root to become Israel again.)
6. The fruit of the tree provides the staple of the Middle Eastern diet. In addition to its use as a food, the olive and its oil were and are used for lighting lamps, anointing the body, cooking, as ingredients in cosmetics, and as medicine. Many of the signs and tokens given under the Mosaic covenant have been replaced, but that fact does not imply that they were inferior. The Lord commanded the Israelites to put fringes on the borders of their clothing as a reminder of their relationship to the Lord (see Numbers 15:38–39; Deuteronomy 22:12). In response to one scholar who called such peculiar dress the coarse rudiments of a spiritually immature people, a Bible commentator wrote: “Men dress in diverse and strange ways to conform to the world and its styles. What is so difficult or ‘coarse’ about any conformity to God’s law, or any mode God specifies? There is nothing difficult or strange about this law, nor any thing absurd or impossible.” He then made this significant point about such symbols: “It [the wearing of fringed garments] is not observed by Christians, because it was, like circumcision, the Sabbath, and other aspects of the Mosaic form of the covenant, superseded by new signs of the covenant as renewed by Christ. The law of the covenant remains; the covenant rites and signs have been changed. But the forms of covenant signs are no less honorable, profound, and beautiful in the Mosaic form than in the Christian form. The change does not represent an evolutionary advance or a higher or lower relationship. The covenant was fulfilled in Jesus Christ; but God did not treat Moses, David, Isaiah, Hezekiah, or any of His Old Testament covenant people as lesser in His sight or more childish in ability and hence in need of ‘coarse rudiments.’” (Rushdoony, Institutes of Biblical Law, p. 23.)
(C-15) Before one can fully understand what a symbol is meant to convey, one must understand the spiritual truths being conveyed. The Old Testament is full of types, symbols, metaphors, and similitudes of Christ, and yet for the most part the leaders of Judah in Christ’s time rejected Jesus when He came among them. They knew the language, the culture, the idioms, and yet they rejected the significance of what the scriptures taught, and they refused to be converted. They were ignorant of the truths of the gospel which gave the symbols their real meaning. One author emphasized this point by use of an interesting analogy: “The most perfect representation of a steam-engine to [someone living in a totally undeveloped part of the world] would be wholly and hopelessly unintelligible to him, simply because the reality, the outline of which was presented to him, was something hitherto unknown. But let the same drawing be shewn to those who have seen the reality, such will have no difficulty in explaining the representation. And the greater the acquaintance with the reality, the greater will be the ability to explain the picture. The [person] who had never seen the steam-engine would of course know nothing whatever about it. Those who had seen an engine but know nothing of its principles, though they might tell the general object of the drawing, could not explain the details. But the engineer, to whom every screw and bolt are familiar, to whom the use and object of each part is thoroughly known, would not only point out where each of these was to be found in the picture, but would shew, what others might overlook, how in different engines these might be made to differ.” (Jukes, Law of the Offerings, pp. 14–15.) The reality behind Old Testament types and symbols is Jesus Christ and His teachings of salvation. The better one understands Him, the more clearly one will see the meaning of the symbols. Without that understanding, the message will be lost.
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