Jerry Shugart
Well-known member
"And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree" (Ro.11:17).
The "Olive Tree" does not represent the Church, which is His Body. Neither does it represent Israel. Instead, it represents the "service" of believers under the Abrahamic Covenant. The Olive Tree analogy is in regard to "bearing fruit", or "service". At the time when the nation of Israel was bearing fruit the Lord called them an Olive Tree:
"The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, [and] of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken" (Jer.11:16).
The Olive Tree was an important tree for the Israelites because it was a source of food and light for them. For hundreds of years the olive was eaten as a staple food and olive oil has been used for cooking and in lamps for light. The oil of the olive was also used for anointing in religious ceremonies.
Israel remained an Olive Tree as long as that nation continued under the Abrahamic covenant in her duty to serve the Lord:
"The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life" (Lk.1:73-75).
By serving Him the nation was to be the "light of the world". The Lord Jesus told that nation:
"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid....Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Mt.5:14,16).
Since that nation crucified the Lord Jesus and later persecuted His disciples most of the Jews were "broken off" from serving Him. The Jews were the "natural" branches of the Olive Tree since they were the natural descendants of Abraham:
"Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee" (Ro.11:20,21).
The Gentile believers are described as branches from the "wild Olive Tree":
"For if thou were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree" (Ro.11:24).
The Gentile believers are described in this way because Abraham is not their "natural" father but instead he is their father because they "walk in the steps of that faith" of Abraham:
"And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised" (Ro.4:12).
So now both the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers are the branches of the Olive Tree:
"And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree" (Ro.11:17).
Again, the Olive Tree represents "service for the Lord" or "fruit bearing for the Lord."
