The Olive Tree Connection ~ Part Two

The Olive Tree Connection

In part two of this article we are going to study the scripture and find that the Olive tree is connected to the people of God in the both the Old and New Testaments.  We will discover God’s plan to bring His people Israel and Judah and their companions (Christians and Jews) together in One Tree with Messiah Yeshua as the root system.

Olive Tree Theology

Psalm 52:8   But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever

Jer 11:16  Yahweh called your name, Green Olive Tree, Lovely and of Good Fruit. With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire on it, And its branches are broken.

Ezek 37:15   The word of Yahweh came to me: “Son of man, take a stick of wood and write on it, ‘Belonging to Judah and the Israelites associated with him.

Zech 4:11  “What are these two olive trees at the right of the lampstand and at its left?”

Rom 11:16-17  For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,

Notice: David, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Paul talk about trees, sticks of wood and branches of trees

§  David refers to himself as an Olive Tree

§  Jeremiah speaks of branches of the Olive Tree being broken off

§  Ezekiel writes about two sticks (from an Olive Tree)

§  There are TWO Olive Trees in Zechariah's vision

§  The Root is Yeshua.

§  The Fatness is oil or the anointing which is the Holy Spirit.

Paul knowing all of these scriptures teaches us about the New Covenant assembly which he refers to as an Olive Tree with natural and wild branches.  The branches from the wild Olive Tree are grafted into the natural Olive Tree.  This Olive Tree is another name for the Body of Messiah.

Rom 11:17   And if some of the branches be broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

Rom 11:24  For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which are the natural [branches], be grafted into their own olive tree?

 

Olive Tree Theology teaches that God only has one group of redeemed people.  They are made up of wild branches and natural branches.  Both wild and natural branches are groups of people.  These two groups of people form ONE tree.  These groups of people are in the process of coming together as Ezekiel wrote about in chapter 37 when speaking of the two sticks becoming ONE in the hand of Yahweh.

The Root of the Olive Tree is Yeshua

Isa 11:10  And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

Isa 53:2    For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him

Rom 11:16-17  For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,

The wild branches become Holy because of the root (i.e., Yeshua) and fatness (i.e., Holy Spirit) of the tree. 

Grafting into Israel

Eph 2:11-16/19&22  Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit

Two Trees

In Romans chapter 11 Paul writes of two Olive Trees, one is natural and one is wild.  These two trees are a picture of two types of people that belong to the House of God.  The natural Olive Tree is born from the biological House of Israel and is cultivated by obeying Torah.  The wild Olive Tree is a stranger or sojourner who has faith in the God of Israel and His Messiah Yeshua and has not been cultivated by Torah.

One Olive Tree is natural and cultivated by the Torah.  The other Olive Tree is wild not cultivated by Torah.  Even though the wild Tree is not cultivated by Torah, Paul still calls it an Olive Tree.  This means that both trees came from the same kind of seed, Olive Seed. Both the natural and the wild branches have to be grated into the Olive Tree of redeemed Israel which is called the body of Messiah.  This grafting process is commonly referred to as being born again or saved.

The seed is Yeshua

Gal 3:16   Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your seed, which is Christ.

Gal 3:26-27 & 29  For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.   

God only has one group of people and He refers to them as Israel.  They consist of wild and natural Olive branches.  It is through the person and work of the Messiah Yeshua that anyone can become sons of Abraham through the seed of Abraham-Yeshua.  These people are born of the Spirit into the commonwealth of Israel.  They were wild by nature (without Torah) but once they are grafted into the natural tree they partake of the root and fatness of the Olive Tree of Israel, which has Yeshua as the root.

It is the plan of God to bring both Christians and the Jews together into One New Man, One Stick and One Tree, The Olive Tree of Redeemed Israel.