1 Nephi 10:12

[HoosierGuy]

1 Nephi 10:12

12 Yea, even my father spake much concerning the Gentiles, and also concerning the house of Israel, that they should be compared like unto an olive-tree, whose branches should be broken off and should be scattered upon all the face of the earth.

QUOTES FOR DISCUSSION

The Lord chose an olive tree to dramatize the destiny of his chosen people. An olive tree almost never dies. It may be pruned and worked with over numerous generations before the fruit is such as to satisfy the owner of the vineyard; this is often after many and varied cuttings and trimmings and replantings. So it is with the house of Israel. That house is stubborn and often requires constant and enduring care. It frequently requires chastening and pruning, actions painful at the time but ultimately accepted as a blessing and perhaps the only means of preservation. As it is with the dedicated gardener, so it is with the Lord—his mercies and tender regard will simply not allow him to let his chosen people go: he pleads with his people to cleave unto him as he cleaves unto them. (Jacob 6:5.)
Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 4 vols., 1:, p.69
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[Hemidakota]

Reminds me of Jacob chapter 5

Lehi's indebtedness to Zenos is most obvious in two texts: in his prophecies about the House of Israel and his final blessings to his posterity.

The earliest use of Zenos's allegory in the Book of Mormon is by Lehi. After telling his sons about his vision of the tree of life, "he spake unto them concerning the Jews" (1 Nephi 10:2). To illustrate his prophecy about the Jews and Gentiles, Lehi uses language from Zenos's allegory. When he teaches his sons that the Jews would dwindle in unbelief, he says that the house of Israel "should be compared like unto an olive-tree, whose branches should be broken off and should be scattered" (1 Nephi 10:12). To explain that the house of Israel would later be gathered together again, he says that "the natural branches of the olive-tree, or the remnants of the house of Israel, should be grafted in" (verse 14). Lehi connects the breaking off of the branches to dwindling in unbelief and interprets the scattering of the branches in Zenos's allegory to mean, in part, that "we should be led with one accord into the land of promise, unto the fulfilling of the word of the Lord, that we should be scattered upon all the face of the earth" (verse 13). He interprets the grafting of the natural branches back into the olive tree as regaining knowledge of Christ: "The natural branches of the olive-tree, or the remnants of the house of Israel, should be grafted in, or come to the knowledge of the true Messiah, their Lord and their Redeemer" (verse 14). These themes reappear in later Nephite interpretation of Zenos.

Edited December 23, 2008 by Hemidakota