Today's Thought: Olive Tree Symbolism

08/23/2022

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Psalms 52:8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.

The olive tree is one of the most vivid and enduring metaphors in scripture. All throughout the Bible it used to convey deep meanings about God, about us, and how our relationship should be. I hope to always be like a green olive tree in the House of God. The olive tree is a generational tree. It takes about forty years before its first harvest can be gleaned. But once it begins fruiting, it can continue bearing fruit for thousands of years. In Jerusalem today, there is a tree which is over three thousand years old. It truly was planted before David ever became King of Israel, it was there when Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, and it very well may still be a witness of the day he returns to this earth. Olive trees are incredibly hard to kill. Drought, pestilence and even fire won’t fully kill an olive tree. As long as there is a remnant of a root, the tree will grow back and once again be fruitful. Olive trees are able to be grafted onto very easily. Wild olive trees are non-fruit bearing trees. But if you take a wild branch, and then graft it onto a natural tree, the natural tree’s DNA will invade the wild one and transform it into a fruit bearing branch. This is the beautiful picture of everyone who is grafted into our Messiah Yeshua. Without him as the root, none of us will ever be able to bear fruit for our God. Lastly the New Testament calls us to be the “netzrim”. This is a Hebrew word which describes young olive shoots which grow at the base of a mature tree. Over time those shoots will wrap around a branch and meld into the tree, becoming one. God asks us to be like this with him. May you everyday discover what it is like to be an olive tree planted in the Lord. May you thrive, persevere, and become one with Jesus.