In Scripture the Olive, the Fig and the Vine symbolically set forth the children of Israel viewed from different aspects. Not a great deal is said about any of them, but what is said, is very illuminating.
The first mention of them fell from the lips of Jotham in the first parable recorded in the Scriptures, when be addressed the men of Shechem. Doubtless Jotham thought of the olive and fig tree and the vine simply as belonging to the world of nature. But in the light of the whole of Scripture, whilst he may have had no more than that in his mind, he used them in a way that speaks of God’s mind as to Israel. Indeed it sets forth in a striking way the unity of Scripture, that writers, separated by long centuries, and with no knowledge of each other’s contributions to the sacred canon, should each add a part, which fits in exactly with the whole, thus showing the hand of Divine inspiration behind it all.
Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal (Gideon) wished the men of Shechem to make him king. He received from them seventy pieces of silver with which he hired vain and light persons, and murdered his brethren, slaying threescore and ten, save Jotham, who escaped his hand.
Jotham hearing of his brother’s design to be King, stood on Mount Gerizirn, and uttered his parable. It was a very pithy parable with a very sarcastic note in it.
The trees wanted to anoint a king over them. They approached the olive tree, saying, “Reign thou over us.” The olive tree replied, “Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?”
They then said to the fig tree, “Come thou and reign over us.” The fig tree replied, “Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?”
They then approached the vine with the same request. The vine replied, “Should I leave my wine, which cheers God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?”
Baffled in turn by these wise answers, to the effect that the safe and right course was to stay as God had placed them, the trees lastly made their request to the bramble. The bramble replied, “If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon” (Jud. 9:15).
It is not our purpose to expatiate on this parable, save to glean an idea or two from the answers of the olive and fig tree and the vine. We may permit ourselves, however, to make this remark. The utter sarcasm employed in the expression, the “shadow” of the bramble, and fire coming out from the thin straggling weed called the bramble to consume the mighty cedars of Lebanon, is irony at its best.
In Jotham’s parable, the great thought connected with the olive tree, was fatness. With the fig tree it was sweetness and fruit. With the vine it was wine which cheers the heart of God and man.
THE OLIVE TREE
Romans 11:17-24 is the great Scripture which sheds light on this subject. There it speaks about the firstfruit, the fatness and the root of the olive tree. To be permanently in this tree speaks of faith—not a mere profession, but reality. What then does the olive tree stand for symbolically? We begin with the root, that is Abraham, the repository of all the promises from God of blessing to Israel. Abraham was a man of faith, and found righteousness imputed to him on that ground, and on none other.
It is interesting how this is emphasized in Romans and Galatians In the fullest sense the root is Christ Himself. Abraham got his blessing from Christ, though unknown to him on earth, for the Son of God had not been revealed. It is written to Christians of this dispensation, “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3:29). The fatness, that is spiritual enrichment, did not come to a man because be was lineally descended from Abraham as a Jew, but because he shared Abraham’s faith, and shared in the blessing that he enjoyed, and this is open to Gentiles as well.
We find some branches were broken off. Why? “Because of unbelief they were broken off.” Doubtless this refers to the history of the Jewish nation. Though outwardly standing in relation to God’s promises to Abraham, there was no living faith in the nation as such, and therefore because of unbelief the natural branches were broken off.
Wild branches were set in their place, showing the sovereign work of God’s mercy among the Gentiles, bringing them by the Gospel to enjoy the fatness, the spiritual enrichment set forth in this symbolical way.
But they, as not continuing in God’s goodness, will in their turn be cut off, and Israel, represented by the natural branches, will be grafted in again. They will not abide in unbelief for ever. Thank God, the spirit of grace and supplication will be given to them, and they shall look upon Him, whom they have pierced, and mourn for Him as a man mourns for his only son. So reads the royal prophecy of Zechariah 12. God’s promises to Abraham will be literally and nationally fulfilled, but on the ground of faith, where Abraham, the first one to be called out, found the blessing.
The Apostle Paul used this illustration, “contrary to nature.” In nature the root is wild, and by the introduction of a good graft, good fruit is obtained. But the Apostle reverses this for the sake of the teaching involved. The root is good, the wild branches are grafted in, and, contrary to nature,” the fruit is good. How wonderful is the grace of God, that He can take wild branches—sinners of the Gentiles—and incorporate them by faith in that system of things in which alone blessing is to be found, a system that owes its “fatness” to our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament this was all prospective in anticipation of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ into this world and the results flowing from His sacrificial work on the cross.
“God has set forth [Christ] to be a propitiation [mercy-seat] through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God [that is of Old Testament saints]: to declare I say, at this time, His righteousness: that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believes in Jesus [believers in this dispensation]” (Rom. 3:25-26).
THE FIG TREE
Sweetness and good fruit are what marked the fig tree in Jotham’s parable. Israel was chosen nationally among the nations to bear fruit for God, as is shown in Luke 21:29:“Behold the fig tree, and all the trees”—the fig tree is differentiated from the rest. The failure of Israel’s response to all God’s goodness is seen in our Lord cursing the barren fig tree. This was the only miracle our Lord performed that was not beneficent. It tells us that whilst grace and blessing are what God delights in, yet judgment must find its place for God is righteous and must uphold His name.
For three years the dresser of the vineyard had come looking for fruit and found none. For long centuries God had looked for fruit from Israel, but found none nationally. Three years was ample time to prove the fruitfulness or barrenness of the fig tree. For three years our Lord had walked up and down the length of the land, performing His acts of mercy, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom to the nation; with what result? They crucified the Lord of glory.
When the decree went forth in the parable to cut down the barren fig tree, the dresser pleaded for another year of trial, digging and dunging to be tried. Still the tree was fruitless. After our Lord had been rejected and cast out, another chance was given to Israel in the testimony of the Holy Spirit of God, but the only answer to this was the murder of Stephen, and the defiant message sent with him, “We will not have this Man to reign over us.” Consequently the barren fig tree has been cut down. Israel as a nation has been set aside by God. “Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not My people, and I will not be your God” (Hos. 1:9), is true of Israel today.
But is Israel to be cut down for ever? What of God’s promises to Abraham? Are they to be fulfilled? Has God ever failed in His word? The Lord’s parable provides the answer. “Behold the fig tree and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.” “Verily I say to you. This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled” (Luke 21:29-30, 32). Do we not see signs today of the shooting forth of the once barren fig tree, and all the trees, in a remarkable way? The result of the last great war was to produce a wave of nationalism all over the world. Kings fled and republics were born in a day. As to the Jews, since then they have been going back in streams to their own land. Jeremiah 16:16 seems to be in process of fulfilment under our very eyes. First the Lord has sent many fishers to DRAW Jews out of the many lands to which they have been scattered for nigh two millennia. The hunger for their own land has gathered strength through the Zionist movement. Next the Lord sent hunters to DRIVE His people back to their own land, for the wave of cruel, sadistic persecution, springing from anti-semitism, has swept over Europe like a mighty flood.
The fig tree is about to flourish again. “If the casting away of them [the Jewish nation] be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Rom. 11:15).
THE VINE
The great thought of the vine is that it ministers wine, which cheers the heart of God and man. Not the blessing of God to man, as set forth symbolically in “the root and fatness of the olive tree;” nor the special place among the nations, and being for God nationally to bear fruit as set forth in the fig tree; the vine has a special thought attached to it symbolically, that is of cheer for GOD, as well as for man. It is not the blessing of God to man so much as the response to GOD. Wherever there is response to God, man is blessed in making the response.
Psalm 80:8-19 tells us that the Lord planted a vine in his own land, a vine brought from Egypt, from among the heathen. The Lord prepared room for it, caused it to take deep root, and it filled the land. Alas! the boar out of the wood wasted it, and the wild beast devoured it. In other words Israel failed to minister joy to God, and to be blessed themselves in ministering to Him. They turned aside to idolatry, and were deaf to the calls of repentance from the lips of one prophet after another. Last of all God sent His Son. The last and final test was made. Alas! they rejected Him and cast Him out.
Where then is recovery? When can blessing be found? The Psalm ends with a prayer, “Let Thy hand be upon the Man of Thy right hand, upon the Son of Man, whom Thou madest strong for Thyself. So will we not go back from Thee: quicken us, and we will call upon Thy name. Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.”
Where do we get the answer to that petition? It is a real spiritual S.O.S. We get the blessed answer in John 15. There our Lord said, “I am the true Vine, and My Father is the husbandman.” Branches, that is believers on the Lord, abiding in Him bear much fruit, and herein is the Father glorified. There is no breakdown here. The Vine is Christ. The Dresser or Husbandman is the Father. His knife makes no mistakes. The vitality of the Vine cannot be weakened. Our part is to abide in Him, to draw all our sap and fruit from the life of the Vine. If we display the life of Christ down here on earth, we are bringing forth fruit that will cheer the heart of God and man.