What is the significance of the olive tree in the Bible?

The parable of the two olive trees illustrates great dispensational facts and contains solemn warnings for Christendom. The good olive tree typifies Israel in covenant relation with God in the Abrahamic covenant. The olive tree is evergreen; and so is the covenant, unchangeable. Israel 's faithlessness and disobedience cannot annul it. The root is Abraham, who was holy, separated unto God. On account of unbelief some of the branches were broken off. They are now separated from the good olive tree and are withered. The wild olive tree is a picture of the Gentiles. The branches of this wild olive tree are grafted among the branches of the good olive tree to partake of the root and fatness of the good olive tree. The wild olive tree branches grafted upon the good olive tree do not represent the true church. The Gentiles are meant by it, who are, after Israel 's unbelief, put upon the ground of responsibility which Israel had, to partake now of the promised covenant blessings. The grafted in branches represent the Christian profession, Christendom, as we call it. The grafted in branches are solemnly warned. They are not to boast, not to be high-minded; they must abide in goodness. If the warning is unheeded they will not be spared but cut off. And when that happens God will graft in again the natural branches into their own olive tree if they no longer abide in unbelief. God is able to do this. He can and will put back Israel into their former relation. It is prophetic. Christendom is exactly that which is here warned against--boasting, high-minded, not abiding in goodness, in one word, apostate. The unbelief and failure of professing Christendom is as great, if not greater than the unbelief and failure of Israel. The time will come when God will not spare, but execute judgment upon Christendom. He will spew Laodicea out of His mouth (Revelation 3:16). Then the hour of Israel 's restoration has come.

In the eleventh chapter of Romans the apostle shows, that, though God deals in righteous government, He is never unfaithful to His promises, and does not cast off His people; and that whatever His righteous ways may be, there is always a remnant according to the election of grace. Indeed He proves, that all blessing to Israel in the future will be entirely on the ground of mercy, seeing that the nation has forfeited all claim to the promises as a matter of right, and the work of restoration hereafter will be the result of mercy and sovereign grace. He says in verse 7: "Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for: but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded." The olive tree is the tree of promise on earth, and the Jews, as children of Abraham, were the natural branches because of unbelief the natural branches were broken off, and the Gentiles, who are likened to a a wild olive tree, are grafted in, and partake of the root and fatness of the good olive tree. Then the Gentiles are warned against boasting, as if they bare the root. “Be not high-minded, but fear, for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee." We must not confound the olive tree of promise and privilege with the Church which is Christ's body. It is a place of privilege on earth, connected with the line of promise and privilege, and consequent responsibility. The light shines there and God may be known. It is the place of the administration of all blessings consequent on the accomplishment of redemption.

Israel in general is called a green olive tree, fair and of goodly fruit, Jer. 11:16; and a good olive tree, with root and fatness; in contrast to the Gentiles who are compared to a wild olive tree. The fact that the wild olive tree needs grafting gives point to the passage in Rom. 11:17-24. God's two Jewish witnesses in a future day are called the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. They will then be the fruit and light bearers on the earth. Zech. 4:3, 11, 14; Rev. 11:3-4. The Hebrew is zayith, and the Arabic name is zeitun: it is the Olea Europaea.

That it is an olive leaf which the dove brings is expressive. A leaf is emblematic of profession or testimony ("so Noah knew." Gen. 8:11). In Eden and in the case of the barren fig tree it was mere empty profession and was accursed; but quite otherwise in the first Psalm, "his leaf shall not wither." The leaves contain the mouths and lungs of plants, and surround it like so many tongues to make known what tree it is and what fruit is (or should be) thereon. Here the testimony borne is of Righteousness, and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost. The olive tree is, in Scripture, a very important symbol of the position of favour and responsibility occupied by those who are in the place of witness for God. Rom. 11 explains it — see also Zech. 4:3; Rev. 11:4. The tree is a very remarkable one: its chief feature being the oil (Judges 9:9), — that is the vessel of testimony is chiefly characterized by its containing the Holy Ghost as the source of light. There are many other suggestive features: it is fruitful, the egg-shaped fruit, disagreeable at first to the natural taste, is afterwards greatly relished, wholesome and medicinal: the bark is "bitter, the wood is beautiful, the blossom is cruciform. It is evergreen, and will grow in the most barren and stony soil, yet Egypt cannot produce it. It was on the Mount of Olives that the Lord spent many of His most sacred hours. There Gethsemane was situated, the meaning of which name (oil-press) can hardly be without a solemn significancy. [ "Omne vivum ex ovo."]

The Olive Tree

The first reference to the olive tree is in the time of Noah and the flood. The ark had eventually come to rest on the mountains of Ararat and the waters of the flood decreased continually (Gen. 8:4-5). At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark and sent forth a raven. Being an unclean bird it never returned, no doubt resting and feeding upon the carcasses floating in the water. It is with the dove that we are more concerned. It was a clean bird and after being sent out the first time it returned again, not finding any place for the sole of her foot. However, the second time it was sent out it came back with the evidence of dry land, and we quote, "And he stayed yet other seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark: And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf, pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth (Gen. 8:10-11). There is a lot more to learn from this incident, but we will leave it here for the moment and emphasise the fact that the olive leaf was a sure witness to Noah that the flood had subsided.

In the New Testament the dove becomes the emblem of the Spirit of God, and the expression used on the first occasion is worthy of note — "no rest for the sole of her foot." As yet the whole scene was a waste of death and corruption. On the second occasion the dove returned with, "an olive leaf pluckt off." Here was the first evidence of life appearing above the waters of death, for it was not a leaf that had been drifting among the debris but plucked off a living tree. Death entered by sin, and "so death passed upon all men" (Rom. 5:12), as much after the flood as before it. The first evidence of real life rising up beyond the scene of death was when Christ rose from the dead. Though the Spirit came at Pentecost as wind and fire, He came as a Witness to Christ risen and glorified.

Next, the dove brings back something from the new earth — an olive leaf, pledge of fruitfulness after the judgment. So the Spirit is for us the earnest of our inheritance — the foretaste and the pledge of what is to come. The olive leaf itself suggests the fruits of the Spirit — the olive producing oil — which are in connection with the new creation. Thus the Spirit would occupy us with "the things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God."

The second sending out of the dove sets forth what is true at the present time. One thing that had been under the waters of judgment had risen above them. One spot was clear of the judgment, and from that spot the dove brought an olive leaf to Noah. There is today one spot that has emerged from under the judgment of God: it is Christ. And because He is free from the load of our guilt and condemnation, we are free too. The Holy Spirit has come down from heaven with the news, and has brought us, as it were, the symbol of peace, the olive leaf, from Christ in glory. "So Noah knew"; and as the result of the testimony which the Holy Spirit bears to the risen Christ, we also may know that our judgment has been borne and our sins put away forever.

"And it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: and he sent forth a raven, which went forth, to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth." The unclean bird made its escape, and found, no doubt, a resting-place on some floating carcass. It sought not the ark again. Not so the dove. "She found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned to him into the ark … and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark: and the dove came in to him, in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf, pluckt off." Sweet emblem of the renewed mind, which, amid the surrounding desolation, seeks and finds its rest and portion in Christ; and not only so, but also lays hold of the earnest of the inheritance, and furnishes the blessed proof, that judgement has passed away, and that a renewed earth is coming fully into view. The carnal mind, on the contrary, can rest in anything and everything but Christ. It can feed upon all uncleanness. "The olive leaf" has no attraction for it. It can find all it needs in a seen of death, and hence is not occupied with the thought of a new world and its glories; but the heart, that is taught and exercised by the Spirit of God, can only rest and rejoice in that in which He rests and rejoices. It rests in the Ark of His salvation "until the times of the restitution of all things." May it be thus with you and me, beloved render; may Jesus be the abiding rest and portion of our hearts, that so we may not seek them in a world which is under the judgement of God. The dove went back to Noah, and waited for his time of rest: and we should ever find our place with Christ, until the time of His exaltation, and glory, in the ages to come. "He that shall come, will come, and will not tarry." ALL we want, as to this, is a little patience. May God direct our hearts into His love, and into "the patience of Christ."

The raven never returns. The earth may be still unpurged, but the unclean nature can take up with it. The "present evil world" will do well enough for fallen, degraded man. Indeed, the ark was rather a place of captivity than security, to the unclean raven. She never returns to it when once escaped. But Noah will not trust her. Beautiful saintly intelligence! The raven may remain outside; but that is no proof to Noah that the earth is clean, or fit for the sole of his foot. Noah will not trust her, but sends out a clean creature after her. And different indeed are the tidings which she bears. It is, in principle, the contest of Caleb and Joshua with their companion spies. The dove returns instinctively. There was no rest for her in a place still under judgment of God, and unpurged. And Noah, conscious that he can trust her and commit the question to her settlement, sends her out a second and a third time. And well indeed he may trust her. Her only sympathy is with the pledges of peace and of a new creation. On her second return she bears an olive-leaf in her mouth, and after her third mission she never comes back.