VERY soon after the flood mankind in general became worse and worse, until at Babel, instead of remaining subject to God and the restraints of His government, men agreed together to build a city and a tower, and to act independently of God. In consequence of this, the Lord scattered mankind abroad upon the face of the earth, and compelled them to give up their wicked designs. Thus did the wild olive flourish and bear fruit, and at length man began to worship demons.
We will now ask you to think of the root of a tree, and to connect it in your mind with a new action of God with men while they were in their wild and evil state.
God called out of the world a single individual to bear witness for Him, and made him the root of a new family on earth.
Abraham was the root from which grew a fair and beautiful tree. We shall now see whom this tree represents. See Jer. 11:1616The 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. (Jeremiah 11:16)," The Lord called thy name a green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit." As you read the chapter through, you will find that the figure applies to Abraham's seed after the flesh, all Israel in fact.
The root, as you know, is the source from which the tree springs, and from Abraham Israel sprung. Indeed as we use the figure of a family tree and trace back our family to its root, so Abraham is the root of the tree of the family of faith, seen on this earth as a witness for God.
The oil which was produced from the olive tree was that which was used in the holy lamps which were always kept burning in the sanctuary as a witness for God, “pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always." (Ex. 27:2020And 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).) Thus every believer, called out from this world, is to let his light "so shine before men that they may see his good works, and glorify his Father which is in heaven."
When man, like a wild olive tree, bore only evil fruit before God, God set Abraham, the man of faith, a root in the earth, from whom the people of Israel sprang. Thus Israel was the cultivated olive tree to which God looked for the witness, in a dark world, of the light of His truth.
How aptly this tree sets this forth we see as we read in Judg. 9:99But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? (Judges 9:9), “My fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man." With David this tree is the emblem of holiness and blessing. He compares himself to a “green olive tree in the house of God” (Psa. 52:88But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. (Psalm 52:8)), and the children of a righteous man to the “olive plants round about his table." (Psa. 128:33Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. (Psalm 128:3).) In Solomon's temple the cherubim was "of olive tree” (1 Kings 6:2323And within the oracle he made two cherubims of olive tree, each ten cubits high. (1 Kings 6:23)) as also the doors and posts, By this imagery we see what Israel— Abraham's seed—ought to have been, namely, a fruitful light bearer for God. Was this so?
Let us now turn to the garden of Gethsemane. The meaning of Gethsemane is "a press for olive oil "—what do we find about the Lord in this? He had come into the world “the true light," but also in love to bring in righteousness and bear the iniquity of His people Israel. Hence “a press for olive oil " is very significant, as we think of Him pressed down for Israel's sake. When the Lord came to earth, the "olive tree," cultivated for so many centuries, had cast off its flowers and its labor had failed. (Hab. 3:1717Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: (Habakkuk 3:17).) And now it is “cut off," as the apostle Paul tells us in Rom. 11 . H. N.