Allegory of the Olive Tree

The following talk was given in Murray, UT, on December 14th, 2024.

Okay, we’ll start.

The only people who will be saved are Israel. Period. Hopefully, by the time we get done with this, you’ll understand better what that means. 

In the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, when the first great get-together that was attended by the Lord took place, Adam offered a prophecy, when he was foretelling everything that would happen to his posterity down to the end of time, and it included the statement that this same Priesthood which was in the beginning shall be in the end of the world also (Genesis 3:14). So that seems like an interesting thing, and it seems like it’s, you know, related to, maybe, someone performing ordinances or something like that. But it’s a little more expansive a statement than just limited to what we regard as a priestly function. 

The initial genealogical tracking of the patriarchs through the book of Genesis came to an end at the time of Shem (who was given a new name of Melchizedek), because following him, there were generations that fell away from the truth. It wasn’t until Abraham came to Melchizedek and became an heir that could likewise perpetuate what had been there in the beginning that the line resumed again. More so, perhaps, for us than Adam, Abraham represents a prototype, because he comes out of apostasy, and he secures himself back in the line and becomes a patriarch. And he does so through adoption, which is the way that latter-day Israel is gonna be reassembled. Abraham had this promise given to him by the Lord: 

I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you above measure, and make your name great among all nations. 

…which sounds interesting in the context of Abraham’s life, because “all nations” would include people over the horizon and far away, some of whom he’d only heard of distantly. And now the promise is that “your name is gonna be great among all nations.” 

And you shall be a blessing unto your seed after you, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto [and again] all nations. And I will bless them through your name, for as many as receive this gospel… 

And now he’s talking about something incredibly specific and comprehensive and big that resembles what had been in the possession of Adam and Eve at the beginning and handed down through the line of the patriarchs. So “this gospel,” anyone that receives it, 

…shall be called after your name and shall be accounted your seed…  

…“seed” being genealogical, familial, the same sort of thing that the outline of the patriarch lineage is designed to define or clarify. He’s saying, “They’re gonna be your seed.”

…and shall rise up and bless you, as unto their Father.

Distant nations, people over the horizon, including ALL of them, are gonna call you, Abraham, their father.

And I will bless them that bless you and curse them that curse you. And in you (that is, in your Priesthood) and in your seed (that is, [in] your Priesthood) — for I give unto you a promise that this right shall continue in you and in your seed after you (that is to say, the literal seed or seed of the body) — shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of [eternal life]. (Abraham 3:1, emphasis added)

So Abraham not only secures the initiation/ordination that Melchizedek could administer, [but] independent of that, just like the patriarchs, where they get ordained at one point and they encounter God at some point later (Enoch, for example, was conferred priesthood at age 20, and it was at 65 that he encountered the Lord; so there was this 45-year gap between the time of ordination and the time of the Lord visiting with him), the promise that Abraham received did not coincide with the moment that he was receiving initiation into the order that Melchizedek had. So Abraham now is in a covenantal relationship directly with God and an inheritor, also, of the patriarchal descendancy. 

After him, the Lord told Sarah about her son, Isaac. And God said: 

Sarah, your, wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him…for an everlasting covenant with his seed after him. (Genesis 7:33)

So Isaac is designated as someone that would likewise receive the same status. And directly to Isaac, God said:

Unto you and unto your seed I will give all these countries. And I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham your father. And I will make your seed to multiply as the stars of heaven and will give unto your seed all these countries. And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. (Genesis 9:4)

So now the Scriptures are talking about the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac because it is the same relationship that God restores in Isaac—through covenant and direct communication—the link that was intended to have been preserved from the beginning. And then after him, his son, Jacob. God said unto him: 

Your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be called anymore Jacob, but Israel should be your name. And he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall be of you, and kings shall come out of your loins. And the land[s] which I gave [to] Abraham and Isaac, to you I will give it, and to your seed after you will I give the land. (Ibid. ¶55)

So now it is the “God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” and the Scriptures are clear—because that is a covenantal relationship that that title gets used. It’s not the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” We sometimes refer to Him as that, but it is the “God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” that enters into these relationships. 

Well, Israel has been scattered, sent to every corner of the earth and lost, because most of Israel (the ten tribes) are called the lost ten tribes. So, I mean, when we refer to the lost tribes of Israel (the majority—the overwhelming majority—of Israel), we’re simply saying that they’re gone. Well, Lehi had something to say about the phenomenon of what will happen to Israel; and Lehi—trying to convince his posterity about what the future was going to hold—begins to tell them about the necessity of what THEY were going through, because what they were going through was going to set up vindication on behalf of the entire family of Israel:

My father spoke extensively about the Gentiles and about the house of Israel… 

It’s about the house of Israel. 

…comparing them [Israel] to an olive tree whose branches would be broken off and scattered throughout the earth. Therefore he said it was part of God’s plan for us to go to our promised land, to fulfill the Lord’s word that we would be scattered across the earth; and after the house of Israel has been scattered, they would be gathered back together; or in other words, in the end, after the Gentiles receive the fullness of the gospel, that the olive tree’s natural branches (meaning the remnants of the house of Israel), would be grafted in or learn to worship the true Messiah, their Lord and their Redeemer. (1 Nephi 3:4 CE)

[coughing] Excuse me. So now we’ve got Lehi talking about how Israel is going to fulfill this destiny, but in order to do so, they have to be broken up and scattered, just like their family was being done at that moment. But everything he’s going to say is about Israel, of which his family knew that they were part. But if you’re going to accomplish what the Lord intended to do with the olive tree, necessarily it’s going to involve the Gentiles. The scattering is intended to accomplish a purpose, and the purpose includes Gentiles. Well, Lehi is speaking long before we ever get to the Allegory of the Olive Tree that Jacob includes in his book. But from what I just read you about what Father Lehi was saying, I think it’s fairly obvious what he drew from. 

There’s a lot we don’t know about Zenos, who wrote the Allegory of the Olive Tree. We don’t know when he lived, what his tribe was, or the time when the Allegory of the Olive Tree was first presented. At one point, I took the Book of Mormon and I did a search for everything that was quoted in the Book of Mormon that directly attributed the material to Zenos. There’s probably a lot more that is in the Book of Mormon that was drawn from Zenos—either paraphrasing or quoting him—but because they didn’t give attribution, I don’t know if we’re looking at Zenos or not. But from the things that have been identified, there were over 3000 words directly quoted from Zenos in the Book of Mormon. 

His prophecies undoubtedly influenced what Isaiah would later prophesy. But Isaiah put much of the same kinds of prophetic foretelling in obscure language and in imagery, and Zenos just did it bluntly. He didn’t play around with language that you have to interpret to figure out that unto us a child is born, unto us a [king] is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder[s] (Isaiah 4:1), that could be Herod, that could be Hezekiah, that could be Saul. Zenos comes right out and says he’s talking about the Messiah, and he’s talking about what will happen to Him and how He will be treated. And he was direct. 

Now, Isaiah—who came after Zenos—Isaiah has some prophetic language that th