Jacob 5:3

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3 For behold, thus saith the Lord, I will liken thee, O house of Israel, like unto a tame olive-tree, which a man took and nourished in his vineyard; and it grew, and waxed old, and began to decay.

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What is the significance of an olive tree? No tree was more important to the economy and culture of the Middle East: it was a fruit whose meat, oil, and seed were all consumed, utilized, or traded. It was and is a tree known to all persons. The olive tree is a natural symbol or metaphor for Israel. It requires almost constant care before its fruit will have a texture and taste that is acceptable; continued pruning and digging and fertilization are essential before proper growth and fruitage can take place. The olive tree lives for centuries and almost never dies. Many of the older olive trees, for example, in what is believed today to have been the Garden of Gethsemane, would probably have been roots in the days when Jesus and his Apostles walked and talked and prayed there almost two thousand years ago.

"Olive oil," wrote Truman G. Madsen, "was used both internally and externally. It was a cooking oil, made better by heating, and was a condiment for salads and breads and meats. The pure oil had other vital uses: it was an almost universal antidote, reversing the effects of a variety of poisons. It was often used in a poultice believed to drain infection or sickness. As an ointment, olive oil-mingled with other liquids-soothed bruises and wounds and open sores." Further, "the image of pouring oil on troubled waters, and the associated olive branch of peace-such as the offering of peace and relief to Noah after raging seas-were common in Bible lore. In other spiritual contexts oil was the token of forgiveness. And hence Paul speaks of it as 'the oil of gladness.'" ("The Olive Press," Ensign, December 1982, pp. 58-59.)

And perhaps there is a typology not so readily apparent in the olive tree and its fruit, one which, like all things to the spiritually attentive, points toward and bears witness of him who is Eternal. One Jewish legend identifies the tree of life as the olive tree. (See Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews 1:93; 2:119.) It was during the closing hours of our Savior's mortal life that he "[trod] the winepress [or, we might say, oil press, since the word Gethsemane means literally “garden of the oil press”] alone, even the oil press "of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God" (see D&C 76:107; D&C 88:106; D&C 133:50; Isaiah 63:3). "He who never took a backward step from the will of the Father, he who was supersensitive, could and did feel. For us. With us. The pressure worked upon him, as the olive press worked upon the olive." After his death on the cross, "at the last, a spear was thrust into his side. Out of it flowed water and blood, as oil flows from the purged and pressed olive." (Madsen, "The Olive Press," p. 61.)

Thus the olive tree-the fruit of which is a symbol of light, peace, healing, nourishment, and of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit- lends itself naturally to a representation of a people ordained, even in the councils of heaven, to a mission as vessels of spiritual light and peace and healing and nourishment, and of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to all the world. Such was the covenant God made with Abraham.

Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 4 vols., 2:, p.49-50