Gospel Doctrine, Lesson 13: The Allegory of the Olive Trees Jacob 5-7

To download past handouts, go to: highlandvalleysundayschoolnotes2012.blogspot.com

#1: If the green slip of an olive tree is merely planted and allowed to grow, it develops into the wild olive, a bush that grows without control into a tangle of limbs and branches producing only a small, worthless fruit. (David J. Ridges, Your Study of the Book of Mormon Made Easier, 370) #2: To become the productive tame olive tree, the main stem of the wild tree must be cut back completely and a branch from a tame olive tree grafted into the stem of the wild one. With careful pruning and cultivating the tree will begin to produce its first fruit in about seven years, but it will not become fully productive for nearly fifteen years (Ibid.) #3: Elder Bruce R. I do not think I overstate the matter when I say that next to Isaiah himselfwho is the prototype, pattern, and model for all the prophets there was not a greater prophet in all Israel than Zenos. (Monte S. Nyman and Robert L.
Milliet, The Joseph Smith Translation, The Restoration of Plain and Precious Things, 17)

#4: Joseph Smith explained the way to understand parables and allegories: I have a key by which I understand the scriptures. I enquire, what was the question which drew out the answer?. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 276-77) #5: Apostasy is an act of choosing self over direction and nourishment from the appropriate and righteous channels God has instituted. And because it is an act of agency, God does not prevent it. (Paul Hoskisson, The Allegory of the Olive Tree in Jacob, http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/
publications/books/?bookid=124

#6: Elder Hugh B. Brown in his allegory of The Gardner and the Currant Bush wrote: Do not cry...What I have done to you was necessary.You were not intended for what you sought to be. If I had allowed you to continue...you would have failed in the purpose for which I planted you and my plans for you would have been defeated. You must not weep, some day when you are richly laden with experience you will say, He was a wise gardener. He knew the purpose of my earth life.I thank him now for what I thought was cruel. ...Help me, dear God, to endure the pruning, and to grow as you would have me grow; to take my allotted place in life and ever more to say, Thy will not mine be done. (The Gardener and the Currant Bush, Eternal Quest, 243)
Other thoughts too great not to include:

President James E. Faust: The scattering of Israel throughout the world sprinkled the blood that believes, so that many nations may now partake of the gospel. (CR Oct., 1982)

When they gave themselves to their God for pruning and grafting the Israelites prospered and bore much fruit, but when they turned from Christ, the Master of the vineyard, and sought to become their own source of sustenance, they became wild and unfruitful. (David J. Ridges, Your Study of the Book of Mormon Made
Easier, 370)

Hugh Nibley: The long and puzzling story of the olive orchard in the fifth chapter of Jacob seems to present an endless combination of tactics to preserve the orchard. The point is that any combination is possible; God will try any scheme, general or local, to redeem the people [S]ixteen times the trees are given a last chance to get growing againthere is no end to the Lords patience. (Prophetic Book of Mormon, 498) President Spencer W. Kimball: ...The branches have overcome the roots thereof, behold they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves. Behold, I say, is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted? (Jacob 5:47-48; italics added). It seems some [Latter-day Saints] among us have this same problem; they want bountiful harvestsboth spiritual and temporalwithout developing the root system that will yield them. There are far too few who are willing to pay the price, in discipline and work, to cultivate hardy roots. Such cultivation should begin in our youth. Little did I know as a boy that daily chores in the garden, feeding the cattle, carrying the water, chopping the wood, mending fences, and all the labor of a small farm was an important part of sending down roots, before being called on to send out branches. Im so grateful that my parents understood the relationship between roots and branches. Let us each cultivate deep roots, so that we may secure the desired fruits of our welfare labors (CR Oct, 1978) Ed J. Pinegar: This is more than historyit is inspired history that can be likened unto ourselves. We can gain perspective on how to magnify our offices and callings in the vineyard of the Lord, trimming away the moribund, nonproductive growth from our lives, and cultivating vitality of spirit and fruitfulness of serves. The allegory of Zenos is a kind of covenant handbook of horticulture for spiritual gardening. (Teachings and
Commentaries on the Book of Mormon, 160)

The Olive Press

TRUMAN G. MADSEN Truman G. Madsen was a professor of philosophy at Brigham Young University when this fireside address was given on 9 May 1982. All things bear record of me (Moses 6:63). So we have been taught. But when my feet first touched the ground of Israel more than a decade ago, I still cherished the fallacy that the Masters words were the main vehicle for his gospel message and that environment and circumstance mattered little, if at all. I soon learned otherwise. Throughout scripture, the Teacher of teachers and his prophets have invoked their surroundings to verify revelatory acts and sayings. The cosmos is their visual aid. In the very rocks and trees of Israel, Gods meaning is lodgedmeaning that can reach the center of the soul. Amid all those surroundings, no figure looms larger on the landscape than does the olive tree. Religious literature, ancient and modern, is replete with images of a tree of life that is to be planted in a goodly land beside a pure stream. Some typologies regard it as the link at the very navel of the earththe source of nourishment between parent and childand place it at the temple mount in Jerusalem, where heaven and earth meet. Nephi was taught that both the tree of life and the fountain of living waters that sustain it represent the love of God. This love, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men, was, he was inspired to say, the most desirable above all things. But even that superlative did not satisfy the angel-narrator of the vision, who responded, Yea, and the most joyous to the soul (1 Nephi 11;22023). Such a tree has symbolized Israel, the family of the faithful, and the Redeemer of Israel. Prophets have sung of the time when the branches that have been rent from that tree and dispersed to the ends of the earth would somehow be gathered. Then, by graftings and prunings, the tree would be renewed and become exquisitely productive (see 1 Nephi 10:12-14) One Jewish legend identifies the tree of life as the olive tree, and with good reason. The olive tree is an evergreen, not a deciduous tree. Its leaves do not seasonally fade nor fall. Through scorching heat and winter cold they are continually rejuvenated. Without cultivation the olive

is a wild, unruly, easily corrupted tree. Only after long, patient cultivating, usually eight to ten years, does it begin to yield fruit. Long after that, new shoots often come forth from apparently dead roots. As one stands in the olive groves and is struck by the gnarled tree trunks that are at once ugly and beautiful, it is hard to avoid the impression of travailof ancient life and renewing life. Today some trees, still productive on the Mount of Olives, are 1,800 years old, and perhaps older. The olive tree appears almost immortal. To this day, preparing the rock-pocked land of Israel and then planting, cultivating, pruning, grafting, and harvesting olive trees is an arduous process. Even after the harvest, olives are bitter, useless to man or beast. To make them edible, one must place them in a large stone box, layer them with salt and vinegar, make more layers of olives, and add more purgatives. Slowly the bitterness is purged from them. These refined olives are a delicious staple food that graces the tables of the common people and of the rich. To produce olive oil in ancient times, the olives had to be crushed in a press. Seasoned olives were placed in strong bags and flattened on a furrowed stone. Then a huge, crushing, circular rock was rolled around on top, moved by a mule or an ox encouraged by a stinging whip. Another method used heavy wooden levers or screws twisting beams downward like a winch upon the stone with the same effect: pressure, pressure, pressureuntil the oil flowed. Olive oil was used both internally and externally. It was a cooking oil, made better by heating, and was a condiment for salads and breads and meats. The pure oil had other vital uses: it was an almost universal antidote, reversing the effects of a variety of poisons. It was often used in a poultice believed to drain infection or sickness. As an ointment, olive oilmingled with other liquidssoothed bruises and wounds and open sores. Oil and wine were poured by the Good Samaritan into the wounds of the robbed and beaten traveler near Jericho. Oil and wine were also poured by the temple priests on the altar of the temple. Olive oil was also the substance of light and heat in Palestine. Into olive lampssmall vessels with a hole at each endone poured the oil. Even in a darkened room one lamp, one thin flame of light, was enough to lighten the face. A Jewish oral teaching says the drinking of olive oil is likewise light to the mindthat it enhances intellectual processes. The mash that remained after repeated crushings of oil was a household fuel, needed even in the summer in the Judean desert after sunset. The image of pouring oil on troubled waters, and the associated olive branch of peacesuch as the offering of peace and relief to Noah after raging seaswere common in Bible lore. In other spiritual context oil was the token of forgiveness. Hence Paul speaks of it as the oil of gladness (Hebrews 1:9). Did Jesus know all this? Surely all thisand more. Was there, then, significance in his climactic resort to the Mount of Olives? Is that mount, all of it, symbolic and sacred? On that mount and the nearby temple mount four holinesses came together: the place, the time, the person, and the name. First, the place. The mount of Olives overlooked the templewhich by now had been desecratedthe temple that Jesus first called, on a day of cleansing, my Fathers house, but later, My house (see John 2:16; Matthew 21:13). Beyond the Herodian courts of the temple was a Holy of Holies. Two olive-wood pillars stood before its entrance. Nearby stood the seven-branched Menorah, the perpetual lamp, the everlastingly burning tree. The heaviest and the purest oil, from vessels with the high priests seal, burned day and night in the Menorah. For use in the tabernacle in the wilderness Moses had been instructed, And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always (Exodus 27:20). Later, the rabbis interpreted this to mean that a man, like the olive, must be beaten and bruised, but all in order to glow with light. We learn in the newly translated Temple Scroll (one of the Dead Sea Scrolls) that by at least 150 B.C., a segment of Jewry envisioned a future messianic temple wherein the New Wine Festival was to be followed by a New Oil Festival. One-half hin (about three-fourths of a gallon) of oil from each tribe of Israel was to be brought to the temple to light the lamps. The climax was to be the eating of olives and the anointing with new oil. The purpose was to ransom (kapper) the years oil crop for its use by the people and on the temple altar. A Jewish tradition says that when Adam was about to die, he sent Eve and his son Seth back to the garden for healing oil. At the threshold they were met by an angel who said, There will be no oil again until the meridian of time when the Messiah comes, and then the oil will be from the olive tree. This tradition saw its fulfillment when Jesus went in his final hours to the Mount of Olives. Jesus went onto the mount overlooking the temple as he was wont (Luke 22:39). In the last days of his life, he lodged or abode there (Luke 21:37). On that hill (perhaps halfway up) was a vineyard of olive trees, reminiscent of the allegory of the tame and wild olive tree in the book of Jacob. The trees in that allegorical vineyard would have been hewn down and cast into the fire were it not for the pleading of the servant (Jacob 5:50). The Lord of the vineyard would be grieved to lose even one tree. The Lord of the vineyard, according to one interpretation, was the Father of us all. The servant in the vineyard was the Messiah. The task, the weightiest in all history. The garden on the mount is called Gethsemane. Gat (geth) in Hebrew means press. Shemen means oil. This was the garden of the olive press. Remnants of ancient olive presses near cisterns that preserved the costly oil can still be seen in upper Galilee and in Bethany. As one stands in this garden of the olive pressthe setting for the Atonementit is sobering to visualize the purgation of the olive and the intense, seemingly unending pressure that caused the precious oil to flow. Indeed, the symbolism of the place is inescapable.

Another holiness converged on that eventa holiness of time. It was the hour, the week of Pesach,, Passoverthat long-honored sacred celebration of Israels divine deliverance from Egypt. After the destruction of the temple in A.D. 72, the ritual was modified. But at the time of Jesus this was the appointed day when they brought the lamb, the unspotted lamb, down that very mount, the Mount of Olives, to the altar. It was roasted and the blood of the lamb was sprinkled on the altar. The person was holy. This was Yeshua ha-Mashiach, Jesus the Messiah. As Isaiah foresaw, invoking yet another image of a tree, he was the stem of Jesse, from the stump or root of the house of David (Isaiah 11:1-5); D&C 113). To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he had been the Holy One of Israel. In the flesh he sat at Jacobs Well, and to a despised woman of Samaria announced for the first time, I...am he (John 4:26) who would give to all living water (John 4:10) Finally, the name was holy. The root word for Messiah in the book of Daniel means anointed one, with connotations of coronation and ordination. In Gethsemane was the night when in the hardest of hard ways, Jesus would become the anointed one. The word messias, as used by John, has another Hebrew root: yishar (SHR) meaning to glow with light as one glistens when one is anointed with olive oil. To merit that name, to take it upon him, to seal it everlastingly upon himselfto become the Light of the worldsJesus was required to tread the press. In eventual triumph the Messiah was to say, I have trodden the wine-press alone, and none were with me (D&C 133:50). In this case it is the wine press, not the olive press, but the two merge in allegory as in life. The Lamb of God hath overcome and trodden the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. It is one thing to take off ones sandals and trample the grapes in the stone vat. It is another to be trodden upon, trampled, crushed until the very tissues of the heart cry out for relief and release and until mercy hath compassion on mercy and claimeth her own (D&C 88:40), that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people (Alma 7:12). Mine hour, he had said often, is not yet come (John 2:4). But now it had come. As Jesus prayed that night, the motion was internal. It was destruction, not distraction that he threw himself against. Somehow he purged the ultimate bitterness, as bitter as gall, the consequences of death-dealing iniquity of all sons and daughters of Godnot just of this earth, but of other earths also. How? we ask. But a child can understand. Did he not commend little children to us, promising that the mightiest, the greatest in his kingdom would be as they? Unashamedly little children, without full understanding, wince and weep with others, and they dance in the contagion of joy. Painespecially the pain of abandonmenthurts, even the intimation of it. In those of us who are far away, even two thousand years and ten thousand miles away, it hurts enough to unstiffen he neck and melt the heart and bring contrition to the spirit; it hurts enough to make us sick. Or, if we are moved enough to receive Himwho could and did feel, for us with usit hurts enough to make us well. The pressure worked upon him as the olive press worked upon the olive. In glorifying the Father, Jesus suffered with a suffering so great that drops of blood came from his pores (Mosiah 3:7; Luke 22:44; D&C 19:18). It is not a spectacle one wishes to recallrather we recoilbut we are commanded each week to remember that hour. What must it have been like, to have been promised the power to summon legions of angels to end the ordealand not to summon them? When was it enough? During the same night, he was betrayed, accosted, abusedpurged like the olive. With lashes he was ripped into, pierced. The descending weight begun on the olive mount was weightier than the cross he was to carry. As the cross ruthlessly held him, he groaned, I thirst! And whether in trivial aid or mockery, someone thrust a sponge full of vinegarone of the purgatives added to olives in the stone boxesto his lips. It is finished, he said (John 19:28-30). Thy will is done (JST, Matthew 27:50). At the last, a spear was thrust into his side. Out of it flowed water and blood, as oil flows from the purged and pressed olive. Simeon bowed down with age, as he held the infant Jesus in the temple, had prophesied of that last wound, that proof of the full measure of his giving. To Mary he had said, A sword shall pierce through thy own soul also, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed (Luke 2:35). Today, as we stand amidst the olive groves, the heart hears the promise of modern revelation that the parable of the wise and foolish virgins is yet to be fulfilled: Wherefore, be faithful, praying always, having your lamps trimmed and burning [alight and afire], and oil with you [reserves equal to days of affliction and of glory], that you may be ready at the coming of the Bridegroom (D&C 33:17) And as we stand before the ancient olive press, the heart is invaded with a never again: Never again in indifference will I speak or hear the words, I anoint you with this oil which has been consecrated. Jesus Christ is the veritable tree and olive beaten for the light, and there flows from him unto this whole earth, and beyond, the redemptive power of healing and soothing and ministering to the needy. When the life of attempted faithfulness is bludgeoned and become wearing and wearying, we are to remember that no great and good fruit comes easily. If one is to become like the Savior, the light of the world, it will be necessary to endure the days of affliction and be prepared for joyous reunion with the master-servant of the Lords vineyard. http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=124&chapid=1465 An earlier form of this essay was published in Speeches of the Year (Provo: Brigham Young University, 1983). Another EXCELLENT essay called: The Allegory of the Olive Tree in Jacob by Paul Y. Hoskisson can be found here: http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=124&chapid=1469

The Allegory of the Olive Trees

Jacob 5 SYMBOL
Vineyard Master of the vineyard Servant Servants Tame olive tree Wild olive tree Branches Fruit Gentiles Groups of people Souls of men as they have be come good or bitter through their works (Good fruit is souls that have been sanctified by the atonment) Gospel covenants, (or the Word of God) Divine structuring of ones environment for individual tutorials Digging Pruning Painful experiences in which we feel stymied as the divine will operates against our own Fertilizing Transplanting branches Grafting natural branches into wild trees Grafting wild branches into tame olive tree Decaying branches Casting branches into fire Spiritual nourishing Scattering or gathering Branches of Israel dispersed among the gentiles Gentiles adopted into Israel through baptism, bringing to Christ Wickedness and apostasy Judgment of God Prophets, (or Jesus Christ) Prophets and others called to serve House of Israel The world Jesus Christ, (or Heavenly Father)

The Allegory of the Olive Trees

POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION

Jacob 5 POSSIBLE INTERPRETATION

The world Jesus Christ, (or Heavenly Father) Prophets, (or Jesus Christ) Prophets and others called to serve House of Israel Gentiles Groups of people Souls of men as they have be come good or bitter through their works (Good fruit is souls that have been sanctified by the atonement) Gospel covenants, (or the Word of God) Divine structuring of ones environment for individual tutorials Painful experiences in which we feel stymied as the divine will operates against our own Spiritual nourishing Scattering or gathering Branches of Israel dispersed among the gentiles Gentiles adopted into Israel through baptism, bringing to Christ Wickedness and apostasy Judgment of God Roots

SYMBOL

Vineyard

Master of the vineyard

Servant

Servants

Tame olive tree

Wild olive tree

Branches

Fruit

Roots

Digging

Pruning

Fertilizing

Transplanting branches

Grafting natural branches into wild trees

Grafting wild branches into tame olive tree

Decaying branches

Casting branches into fire

Basic Outline of Allegory of the Olive Tree Basic Outline of Allegory of the Olive Tree
See The Allegory of the Olive Tree in Jacob by Paul Hoskisson

See The Allegory of the Olive Tree in Jacob by Paul Hoskisson

FIRST PERIOD: The Founding and Aging of the House of Israel, Jacob 5:3. Between 2100-1600 B.C., the Patriarchal Age, beginning with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

FIRST PERIOD: The Founding and Aging of the House of Israel, Jacob 5:3. Between 2100-1600 B.C., the Patriarchal Age, beginning with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. SECOND PERIOD: The Scattering of the House of Israel, Jacob 5:4-14. 1600-600 B.C. Moses, Samuel, Elijah and Isaiah attempt to reclaim the House of Israel with minimal success. Assyrian & Babylonian wars, transplanting of Lehis family, Mulekites, and others. THIRD PERIOD: The Day of the Former-day Saints, Jacob 5:15-28. The only time Israel with Gentile grafts produced good fruit came in the decades following Christs mortal ministry. Paul, Peter and others sought to spread the gospel throughout the known world. FOURTH PERIOD: The Great Apostasy, Jacob 5:29-49. Ended in 1820. Universal production of bad fruit. The mother tree had brought forth much fruit, and there is none of it which is good. Verse 34 seems to describe the destruction of the Nephites by the Lamanites. FIFTH PERIOD: The Gathering of Israel, Jacob 5:5074. Our day. This is a time of slow growth of good branches and slow clearing away of the bad. It will continue until there is no more corruption anywhere in the vineyard, when the next period begins. SIXTH PERIOD: The Millennium, Jacob 5:75-76. No corruption for a long time. Then bad fruit begins to appear again. SEVENTH PERIOD: The End of the World, Jacob 5:77. The good and bad will be separated, the Lord will take the good fruit to himself, and the bad he will destroy by fire along with the world.

SECOND PERIOD: The Scattering of the House of Israel, Jacob 5:4-14. 1600-600 B.C. Moses, Samuel, Elijah and Isaiah attempt to reclaim the House of Israel with minimal success. Assyrian & Babylonian wars, transplanting of Lehis family, Mulekites, and others.

THIRD PERIOD: The Day of the Former-day Saints, Jacob 5:15-28. The only time Israel with Gentile grafts produced good fruit came in the decades following Christs mortal ministry. Paul, Peter and others sought to spread the gospel throughout the known world.

FOURTH PERIOD: The Great Apostasy, Jacob 5:29-49. Ended in 1820. Universal production of bad fruit. The mother tree had brought forth much fruit, and there is none of it which is good. Verse 34 seems to describe the destruction of the Nephites by the Lamanites.

FIFTH PERIOD: The Gathering of Israel, Jacob 5:5074. Our day. This is a time of slow growth of good branches and slow clearing away of the bad. It will continue until there is no more corruption anywhere in the vineyard, when the next period begins.

SIXTH PERIOD: The Millennium, Jacob 5:75-76. No corruption for a long time. Then bad fruit begins to appear again.

SEVENTH PERIOD: The End of the World, Jacob 5:77. The good and bad will be separated, the Lord will take the good fruit to himself, and the bad he will destroy by fire along with the world.

LESSON OUTLINE
Todays lesson is on the Allegory of the Olive Tree, by Zenos. Does anyone recognize this tree? This is the oldest tree in the Garden of Gethsemane today. If you dont mind, Id like to begin by making a list of what you already know about olive trees.

Require constant nourishment to survive Branch = symbol of peace (cant survive in time of war) Must be carefully pruned to be fruitful and productive. Quotation #1 When it grow old and begins to die, it sends up new shoots, which if grafted and pruned will mature into full-grown trees. So the root of the olive tree can go on producing new trees and fruit for thousands of years! Quotation #2 Yields fruit after cultivating for 7-10 years, but not fully productive for nearly 15 years! Evergreen, not deciduous

~Who was the Allegory of the Olive Tree written by? (Zenos) ~Where did Jacob find this parable? (brass plates, book of Zenos) ~Do we have his writings today? (No. But he was quoted 12 times in the Book of Mormon, by Jacob, Nephi, Alma, Amulek, Samuel the Lamanite and Mormon.) ~Do we know what tribe Zenos was from? (Joseph, see 3 Ne. 10:16) ~Do we know when he lived? (Before Isaiah, but after Abraham) ~Was he martyred? (Yes) ~Why? (He testified that the Israelites would crucify their Savior when He came, see Helaman 8:19) Quotation #3 (Bruce R. McConkie gives further insight into Zenos.) ~First, what is the difference between a parable and an allegory? (A parable is a simple comparison. It is short, and says: This is like this. An allegory is an extended metaphor. It is usually longer and says: This is this, this is this, and this is this, etc.) ~Why did so many prophets speak in parables and allegories? (multi-layered interpretations, like an onion) ~What would be the outermost layer interpretation of this story? (Its about how to have a productive olive vineyard.) ~What is the next most common inner interpretation? (Its a history of the House of Israel.) ~Can we personalize it more? (Yes, it is also an individual Israelite being nourished by an attentive God.) Quotation #4

To see what questions Jacob is answering in this allegory, we have to turn to Jacob chapter 4. Jacob 4:12 ~What concept were Jacobs listeners having trouble with? (the Atonement) He then points to the Jews deliberate efforts to create a God who could not be understood: Jacob 4:14 ~What is the mark that the Jews, even in Lehis and Zenos day, looked beyond? (Christ and His atoning sacrifice.) And now lets see the question Zenos allegory answers: Jacob 4:17-18 ~Can you simplify the question in verse 17? (How can the Jews, after rejecting Christ, be reconciled to God through Him?) Now were ready to begin the allegory. Lets begin by reviewing the history of the house of Israel as it is outlined in the allegory. Well divide it into 7 periods: PERIOD 1: is found in Jacob 5:3. So Israel grows, gets old and starts to decay. ~Who was the founder of the house of Israel? (Abraham, see bible dictionary: Abraham is always regarded in the O.T. as founder of the covenant race, which is personified in the house of Israel. He is the father of the faithful. ~What does the tree getting old and starting to decay symbolize? (wickedness and apostasy) PERIOD 2: Jacob 5:4-14. Lets read verse 4. ~What does pruning symbolize? (difficult trials, testing) ~What does digging symbolize? (divine structuring of ones environment for individual tutorials) ~What does nourishing symbolize? (spiritual blessings) ~Weve talked about Abraham, Isaac & Jacob. Who is the next great prophet sent to Israel? (Moses) ~After Moses we have Samuel, Elijah, and Isaiah. Were they successful? (not very) Jacob 5:6 So what to do? In verses 7 & 8 the Lord of the vineyard wants to cut the bad branches off, throw them into the fire, graft the young branches withersoever [he] will, and graft some wild branches into the tree. Remember a few lessons ago we talked about Israel being divided into Northern & Southern Kingdoms? ~Who destroyed the Northern Kingdom? (Assyria, 734-720 B.C.) ~What happened to the ten northern tribes? (scattered and lost) ~Who destroyed the Southern Kingdom? (Babylon, 605 & 586 B.C.)

Whats interesting is that the Babylonians didnt repopulate the Southern Kingdom, and the Jews were allowed to return later under King Cyrus. But the Assyrian M.O. was to im port other people to fill the void left by the conquered. This would explain the cutting and then grafting in of wild, or Gentile, branches. ~How might we interpret the grafting of the tender branches withersoever the Lord wanted? Did the Lord guide some Israelites to other parts of His vineyard? (Lehi, Mulekites, and others) PERIOD 3: Jacob 5:15-28. This period is the day of the former day Saints. Only during this time did the mother tree, with wild or Gentile branches grafted in, produce tame fruit. Jacob 5:18 ~Who are the prophets that helped graft these wild branches? (Paul, Peter, James, John) ~Is it better to be an Israelite or a Gentile? (Doesnt matter, all that matters is the fruit produced. See v. 17) PERIOD 4: Jacob 5:29-49. The Great Apostasy. Jacob 5:32 ~So how do we know there was a complete, universal apostasy? (no good fruit) ~Notice that the roots are still good. (v. 34) What are the roots? (scriptures) PERIOD 5: Jacob 5:50-74. This is the Gathering of Israel. ~What year did this period begin? (1820) Jacob 5:62-65 ~What does in mean in verse 65 that ye shall not clear away the bad...all at once? (Conversion is a gradual process, we shouldnt judge others, just love) ~Who is doing all this work? (All of us) Jacob 5:70-71 ~How long will this process of casting away the bad and preserving the good take? (see v. 75, 1st two linesuntil there is no more corruption in the whole vineyard) PERIOD 6: Jacob 5:75-76. This is the Millennium. ~How do we know its the millennium? (No corruption in the whole vineyard) PERIOD 7: Jacob 5:77. The end of the earth. ~What happens at the end of the Millennium? (Bad fruit returns. Good and bad are separated, and the bad as well as the vineyard are destroyed by fire.) SOME PERSONAL LESSONS FOR US: ~Is God partial? Was there any part of the vineyard He did not care for and nourish? (see vv. 28, 47) God is not distant. He weeps for us! (see v. 41) And He does all he can for our success. Do you know how many times he gives Israel a last chance? 16!!!) ~If we do not produce good fruit, can we blame Heavenly Father?

~But surely some of us have it harder than others. Is life really fair? (see v. 22. The word nourish appears 22 times in this allegory, making this concept one of the main messages.) What is the only thing that can cause us to fail? What comes before a fall? (pride) Jacob 5:last sentence of 47, 48 Through pride the branches took strength unto themselves. They didnt rely on the roots of revelation, but on their own strength and abilities. This always leads to apostasy and destruction. Quotation #5 ~What is the antidote to pride? (see Mosiah 3:29) In John 17:3 it says, And this is life eternal, that they might ____________? (know thee the only true god, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.) ~What, then, constitutes a successful grafting for you and me? (knowing God and Christ) 1 Nephi 10:14 I submit to you that as we, a branch of the tree of the house of Israel, are nourished by revelation (scriptural, personal, and the words of modern prophets), we will come to know the Savior to the degree that we will be like Him, and gain eternal life with Him. Part of that process includes submitting to His careful pruning and digging. Quotation #6