Jacob 5 Introduction

[pam]

An allegory is a story with more than one level of meaning. An allegory uses symbolic representations to stand for moral or spiritual ideas, which generally have far more significant meaning than appears on the surface of the allegory. Almost everything in al allegory represents something else….

…in telling these short stories was not to present the truths of his gospel in plainness so that all his hearers would understand. Rather it was so to phrase and hide the doctrine involved that only the spiritually literate would understand it, while those whose understandings were darkened would remain in darkness.

BYU BOM Student Manual, p. 135-136

We have something in the Book of Mormon that, if we did not have any other truth expressed in it, would be sufficient evidence of the divinity of this book. I have reference to the fifth chapter of Jacob….I think this is one of the greatest passages in the Book of Mormon….No greater parable was ever recorded.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, 4:203

The parable of Zenos, recorded by Jacob in chapter five of his book, is one of the greatest parables ever recorded. This parable in and of itself stamps the Book of Mormon with convincing truth. No mortal man, without the inspiration of the Lord, could have written such a parable. It is a pity that too many of those truths which it conveys in relation to the history, scattering, and final gather of Israel….

In brief, it records the history of Israel down through the ages, the scattering of the tribes to all parts of the earth; their mingling with, or being grafted in, the wild olive trees, or in other words the mixing of the blood of Israel among the Gentiles by which the great blessings and promises of the Lord to Abraham are fulfilled (see Gen. 22:16-18)….

This remarkable parable portrays how, as branches of the olive tree (Israelites) were carried to all parts of the earth (the Lord’s vineyard) and grafted into the wild olive trees (the Gentile nations). Thus they are fulfilling the promise that the Lord had made.

Today Latter-day Saints are going to all parts of the world as servants in the vineyard to gather this fruit and lay it in store for the time of the coming of the master. This parable is one of the most enlightening and interesting in the Book of Mormon. How can any person read it without feeling the inspiration of this ancient prophet?

Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, comp. and ed. By Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr. [salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1972], 4:141-142

I tell you, my brothers and sisters, Joseph Smith did not write it. That was written by the inspiration of the Almighty.

Now there is your answer. That is the answer to those people who approach me with the question, what’s the use of going out among the Chinese, the Japanese, the Koreans, and the people of the Far East to preach the gospel to them? The answer: because they are branches of the tree, grafted them into the wild olives, the Gentiles, and is bringing the Gentiles into the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When you read that chapter through if you cannot say in your soul, “This is absolutely a revelation from God,” then there is something wrong with you. That tells you of history. Are we going to preach the gospel in Korea, in Japan, in China? Yes, we are. Why? Because the blood of Israel is there. And the Lord did just what he said he would do with Abraham and his posterity. He scattered them over the whole face of the earth. So now the Gentiles are sanctified by the blood of Abraham.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Question, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., 5 vols, (1957-66) 4:201-207

Zenos: Quoted 12 times in the Book of Mormon. Quoted by Alma, Amulek, Nephi, Samuel, Mormon and Jacob.

Zenos was a prophet in ancient Israel, living before 600 B.C. He is quoted often in the Book of Mormon (see 1 Nephi 19:10-17; Alma 33:3-15; Helaman 15:11; 3 Nephi 10:16). Zenos was killed because he testified boldly of Jesus Christ (see Helaman 8:19). Elder Bruce R. McConkie said, “I do not think I overstate the matter…when I say that next to Isaiah himself…there was not a greater prophet in all Israel than Zenos.”

Cited in Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr., eds., Second Nephi, 210-11

House of Israel – Israel means prince of God, one who has contended successfully with God.

House of Israel is used three ways:

1. Blood Israel – literal descendants of Jacob, grandson of Abraham (12 tribes, Jews, Nephites, Lamanites)

2.Land of Israel – land of Palestine and surrounding area. After King Solomon died, the Kingdom of Israel divided into North (Israel) and South (Judah).

3.Covenant Israel

BYU BOM Student Manual, pp. 135-138

We learn from the scriptures that the Lord made his covenant first with Adam and then renewed it with the righteous patriarchs from Adam to Abraham. (See JST, Genesis 8:23.) Many think of Abraham as the father of the covenant because the covenant was renews with him and it is in connection with him that the most detailed description of the terms of the covenant are found. For these reasons it is often called the Abrahamic covenant. But we should remember that it did not first begin with him.

Speaking of the sacred promises or covenants that the Lord made with Abraham, Elder Bruce R. McConkie has said:

“Abraham first received the gospel by baptism (which is the covenant of salvation); then he had conferred upon him the higher priesthood, and he entered into celestial marriage (which is the covenant of exaltation), gaining assurance thereby that he would have eternal increase; finally he received a promise that all of these blessings would be offered to all of his mortal posterity. (Abra. 2:6-11; D&C 132:29-50.) Included in the divine promises to Abraham was the assurance that Christ would come through his lineage, and the assurance that Abraham’s posterity would receive certain choice, promised lands as an eternal inheritance. (Abra. 2; Gen. 17; 22:15-18; Gal. 3.)” (Mormon Doctrine, p. 13.)

In other words, all who are willing to accept and keep the gospel covenant become the sons and daughters of Abraham either through lineage or by adoption. This seems to be the symbolic meaning of the twelve oxen that hold up the baptismal fonts in the temples. When we enter the waters of baptism, we make covenants with the Lord and become spiritual Israel—that is, persons who have made and keep the covenant to be the Lord’s chosen people.

This idea of covenant Israel is the most significant meaning of the term Israel. Of what spiritual and eternal value will it be to be of blood Israel if one rejects or disobeys the covenant? Paul understood this concept perfectly when he said, “They are not all Israel, which are of Israel: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children…but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” (Romans 9:6-8.) In other words, blood descendancy is no guarantee of spiritual favor with God. (However, to be a descendant of Israel gives one the responsibility of leadership and sharing the gospel. [see Abraham 3:22, 23.] Unfortunately too many of blood Israel ignore this responsibility.) Therefore a descendant of Jacob, even if his ancestry were absolutely unmixed with any gentiles, would not necessarily be a true Israelite in the spiritual sense. Note how clearly Nephi taught this important concept: “For behold, I say unto you that as many of the Gentiles as will repent are the covenant people of the Lord; and as many of the Jews as will not repent shall be cast off; for the Lord covenanteth with none save it be with them that repent and believe in his Son, who is the Holy One of Israel.” (2 Nephi 30:2.)

BYU BOM Student Manual, pp. 135-138

Olive Trees

It is obvious that the olive tree is a symbol of Israel, but why should the Lord inspire his prophets to choose that particular tree to symbolize his chosen people?

In his infinite wisdom, God chose symbolic forms that are like deep wells of water. From every level, one can quench his thirst for knowledge; but the deeper one plunges the bucket, the cooler and more sweet the water becomes. As one examines the use of the olive tree as a symbol for Israel, several things come immediately to mind. The olive tree is a living thing and produces much good fruit. The house of Israel was selected and set apart from other nations to produce good works to nourish and sustain the world. Like some other trees, the olive tree provides shelter from the burning rays of the sun and requires constant nourishment to survive. Here again the symbolism of Israel’s purpose and her need to rely on the Lord is evident. However, many trees have similar characteristics—the apple tree is as fruitful, the cottonwood provides more shade, the citrus tree depends more on the soil for nourishment than does the olive. We must look deeper.

For centuries the olive branch has been associated with peace. When the dove returned to Noah in the ark, it carried in its beak an olive leaf, as though to symbolize that the earth was again at peace with God. (See Genesis 8:11.) The olive branch was used in both Greece and Rome to signify peace, and it is still used in that sense in the great seal of the United States where the American eagle is shown grasping an olive branch in his talons. Warfare and its grim attendants of destruction, rape of the land, siege and death, were hardly conducive to the culture of olive orchards, which require many years of careful husbandry to come into full production. This may explain why the olive tree came to be associated with peace, but whatever the source, the symbolism is apparent. The house of Israel is the source of true peace for the world—its God, Jehovah, is the Prince of Peace. Someone once said that Israel was not chosen to be an “uplifted” people but an “uplifting” people….

If the green slip of an olive tree is merely planted and allowed to grow, it develops into the wild olive, a bush that grows without control into a tangle of limbs and branches that produce only a small, worthless fruit. (See Harold N. And Alma L. Moldenke, Plants of the Bible, p. 159.) To become the productive “tame” olive tree, the main stem of the wild tree must be cut back completely and then a branch from a tame olive tree must be grafted into the stem of the wild one. With careful pruning and cultivating the tree will begin to produce its first fruit in about seven years, but it will not become fully productive for nearly fifteen years. In other words, the olive tree cannot become productive in and of itself; it requires grafting by the husbandman to bring it into production….

The olive tree is remarkable for two other characteristics that are quite unlike other fruit-bearing trees. First, though requiring nearly fifteen years to come into full production, it may produce fruit for centuries. Some trees now growing in the Holy Land have been producing abundantly for at least four hundred years. The second amazing quality of the tree is that as it finally does grow old and begin to die, the roots send up a number of new green shoots which, if grafted and pruned in regular fashion, will mature to full-grown olive trees again. Thus, while the tree itself may produce fruit for centuries, the root of the tree may go on producing fruit and new trees for millennia. It is believed that some of the ancient olive trees in Israel today come from trees that were ancient when Christ was alive on the earth. The root of the tree will send up shoots even after the tree is cut down. In their work Plants of the Bible (p. 159,) the Moldenkes state: “It is very difficult, however, to kill an olive tree by cutting it down, because new sprouts are sent up from the root and all around the margins of the old stump, often forming a grove of 2 to 5 trunks, all from a single root, where originally was only one tree.”

BYU BOM Student Manual, pp. 138-139