2. the Olive and the Vine
WE have spoken a little about the time of thorns, that followed the time of the trees of life and knowledge of good and evil.
You will remember that during the time so peculiarly characterized by thorns violence and corruption continued on the earth till at last the wickedness became so great, that God swept all away by a flood. But
in the mist of judgment God remembers mercy, and it is sweet that “Noah found grace in His sight.”
After the deluge a new period of God’s ways with man commenced; and we connect with two trees, the OLIVE. The dove plucked off an olive leaf and brought it to Noah in the ark, while the judgment were yet on the earth. So the olive is the first mentioned after the flood. In Jotham’s parable, the first on record (Judges 9), it is mentioned. You will see that the tree first invited to take the place of king over all the other tree is the olive. The tree said, “Come thou, and reign over us.” But the olive tree said unto them, “Should I leave my fatness were with by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?”
There are to kinds of olive trees spoken of in the Bible; one is wild and natural, the other under cultivation. The cultivated tree is of a moderate height, its trunk knotty, its bark smooth and ash-coloured; the leaves are oblong, somewhat like those of our willow, of a green colour, dark on the upper side, and light on the under. In the month of June it puts out white flowers, which grow in bunches; each flower is one piece, widening upwards, and dividing into four parts. The fruit is oblong and plump; it is first green then pale; afterwards, when it is ripe, it is black. Within is enclosed a hard stone filled with an oblong seed. The wild olive is smaller in all its parts.
The cultivated olive is identified with the period or dispensation when Israel was as a people Under God’s continual care.
The wild olive tree represents man in a wild, lawless state. St. Paul says to the Roman believers and to professing Christians, that we were of the wild olive tree, but were grafted in the cultivated and fruitful tree. And he foretells the time when once more the broken off branches of the cultivated tree shall be graffed in once more by God. All is of grace to us Gentiles, and let none take matter of course the favour of God in giving us an open Bible and the words of salvation, but let us thank God for His favour. God, since the flood, has imposed outward restraint upon man, by means of human government, and this has continued to this day. National government was at first put by God into the hands of Israel. But when Israel forfeited their country through their sins, and through want of subjection to God, the government of the earth was committed to the Gentiles, in whose hands it still remains.
The VINE is significant of joy, as you may see by looking at Jotham's parable. “The vine said unto them, 'Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man?'" Alas! Noah abused the goodness of God in connection with this tree. A warning, that the good things of this world are to be used to God's glory, and not abused to man's shame. H. N.