The fertile rocky hills there are covered in ancient terraces making them ideal for growing olives. Trees are such a precious gift from our Creator. They not only provide oxygen for us to breathe, but also food to eat, wood for building, pulp for paper, fuel for light and warmth as well as shade for comfort. In their great variety, trees provide natural beauty for our eyes to behold. Perhaps the most remarkable fruit tree is the olive tree. Most of us in the West are not too familiar with olive trees because they don't grow nearby although olive farms are even now springing up in central Texas. The olive is considered the most important of all the trees because over the years it has provided food, light and healing. The following facts on olives is compiled from various sources. This robust olive tree can live for centuries, even scattered in dry, barren, and rocky wilderness. To harvest the olives in Biblical times, a green olive tree would be beaten with sticks to knock the fruit from its branches. In spite of that, the tree would continue to produce new fruit.
That is because the strength of this tree is not in its branches but comes from its roots which go deep into the earth. A green olive tree’s roots are so deep and so strong that they survive even if the tree's trunk is burned or cut down to the ground. The root survives deep down and it will send up new shoots, and over time they will bear fruit. The green olive tree can survive and thrive even in the harshest of environments. They are virtually indestructible, even though they may appear dead, the tree will revive even appearing to have been dead for years. The remarkable olive tree is an evergreen. After the flood, when Noah sent the dove out to determine if dry land had appeared, the dove returned with an olive leaf in its mouth. Even the flood's devastation did not kill that olive tree! In biblical times, four pressings were made of the olives for oil. Each pressing produced a different quality of oil used for distinct purposes. Heavy stones were used to extract the oil. The purest oil from the first pressing (one stone) was reserved for Temple worship. The oil produced in the second pressing (two stones) was used for cooking and eating. The oil produced from the third stone was used for lamp oil, and the fourth pressing was used to produce soap and medicine. So how should we be like an olive tree? We should be rooted in Messiah and faithful to Him at all times (evergreen) and always bear fruit (Gal. 5:22). Our lives should be a pure offering to the Lord (like the first pressed oil) and a light to the world. We should recognize that just as the fruit of the olive is released through pressure or crushing, that God may also allow stress or strain, even tribulation to produce the character traits He desires. "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (James 1:2-4). Description of an Olive Tree Characteristics... The young olive tree generally only bears olives after seven years of growth and proper grafting, but it will take at least two years to germinate due to the fruit-bearing pattern of olive trees.
If you have an olive tree that you want to clone, you can accomplish it with grafting.
Believe it or not, grafting can take more than 2 years to produce olives. Because of the injurious method of harvesting the olives by using sticks to knock off the fruit, the trees only bear a full crop every other year. Some twenty gallons of oil are often derived from the olive harvest of a single tree.
The fruit is harvested in the Fall Feast season, generally during the month of October. After the olive tree reaches its maturity, its fruitfulness lasts for many, many years. Its longevity is one of the most remarkable characteristics of the tree. Many 1,000 year old olive trees survive today. An old olive tree is often seen to have several young shoots springing up all around it from its roots.
It was that picture that the Psalmist had in mind when he wrote: "Thy children like olive plants round about thy table" (Psalm 128:3). Even the "song of Moses" alludes to the tree that can survivie and grow in rocky soil: "He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock" (Deuteronomy 32:13). Scripture often speaks of the beauty and elegance of the olive tree and it is always concerning a metaphor of God's people.
The prophet Jeremiah wrote: "the Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit" (Jeremiah 11:16). The prophet Hosea said, "His beauty shall be as the olive tree" (Hosea 14:6). And David asserted: "I am like a green olive tree in the house of God" (Psalm 52:8). Olive trees have a remarkable number of blossoms, many of which fall to the ground without ever maturing into fruit. When a wind storm blows, many blossoms simply fall to the ground. The Book of Job makes a comparison to this: "And shall cast off his flower as the olive" (Job 15:33). With that foundation let's look at grafting an olive tree... In a natural state left unattended, the olive tree will grow wild, so the trees are must be cultivated; first they must be grafted to bear fruit. A graft of a cultivated olive tree is inserted into the stem of the wild olive tree, and then the wild olive tree is cut down close to the ground.
This is a customary process of grafting, but the Apostle Paul speaks of a different method in his comparison. He writes of GOD grafting the wild olive branch onto the cultivated tree. (see Romans 11:24). Here we learn once again that God's ways are not man's (see Isaiah 55:9). Harvesting the olive crop... The harvest of a crop of olives in the Holy Land is still accomplished by beating the trees with sticks in order to knock off the fruit. This is very significant. Instead of hand picking them, they beat the branches making the fruit to fall. The tender shoots that would ordinarily bear fruit the following year are usually damaged during the harvest. So much so, the harvest greatly interferes with the next year crop. This is likely the reason for olive trees yielding a good crop only every other year. Isaiah also speaks of the obtaining fruit left by olive harvesters. The use of the term grape harvest in Revelation is actually a metaphor for the olive. Isaiah writes: "Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof" (Isaiah 17:6). The process of making olive oil... Years ago, stone olive mills were used for making oil. They used oil presses in addition to the vat, and an upright stone with a large hole in it. In this hole a wooden beam was inserted. This beam rested on the olives which were to be pressed, extending far beyond the receptacle containing the olives, and weights were hung on the end farthest from the stone. The Garden of Gethsemane is in reality an olive orchard, and believe it or not the word, "Gethsemane," means "Oil-Press."
It was in the Garden of Gethsemane (Gat Shemen in Hebrew, literally, the place of the "olive press"), where the Jesus aka Yeshua spent much of His time in Jerusalem with His disciples. "Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him" (Luke 22:39). Another ancient way of making oil was to tread the olives with the feet. This primitive method was mentioned by the prophet Micah: "Thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil". (Micah 6:15) Olives and olive oil... Most people eat the pickled berry of the olive, but the bulk of the fruit' harvest is used to make oil. In the Mid East, olive oil usually takes the place of butter, and is largely used in cooking meals. A survey of several Scriptures will indicate how important olive oil has always been considered. Remember the widow who fed Elijah?
She said to him: "I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse" (I Kings 17:12). She was depending largely on bread and oil for her food, but the supply of both was about gone. The miracle of Elijah was the multiplication of that supply, "And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Elijah" (1Kings 17:16). The "meal" offering first described in Scripture at Mount Sinai calls for unleavened fine flour mingled with oil baked in a pan (Leviticus 2:5). The prophet Ezekiel in reciting to Jerusalem all its past blessings from The LORD said of its citizens: "Thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil" (Ezekiel 16:13). The wide use of olive oil in Bible lands... Olive oil was considered to be one of the great sources of wealth in the days of King Solomon (1Kings 5:11; 2Chronicles 2:10). As they built the Temple, Solomon gave to Hiram each year in return for services rendered by his men, among other things, twenty thousand baths of oil, one bath being about seven and one-half gallons. Thats 150,000 gallons of olive oil as payment.
The prophets Ezekiel and Hosea make prophetic note of the exporting of olive oil to other lands (see Ezekiel 27:17 and Hosea 12:1). As you can see, olive oil has been used for a great variety of purposes in the Mideast. It largely took the place of butter in eating, and for cooking purposes it was used in place of animal fat. At night is was used to provide light. Ezekiel mentions three important items of diet of which oil is one, and flour and honey are the other two (Ezekiel 16:13). For thousands of years, long before Thomas Edison, olive oil was used almost exclusively as a fuel for light in lamps. Because of that, its oil is a metaphor for the Spirit of God. A weel know example of this is the parable of "the ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom" (Matthew 25:1). The Spirit of God metaphor is the reason kings were annointed with oil by priests. Pouring the oil over one's head provides the graphic picture of God's indwelling Spirit.
Tday, olive oil is also used in Bible lands in the manufacture of soap, and it is quite likely that it was the same in earlier Bible days. Not only that, olive oil was often used for anointing the body. Naomi told Ruth, "Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor" (Ruth 3:3).
Back then olive oil was used in various forms of worship becuase it provided a physical picture of spiritual reality. That's why it played a big part in the Altar meal offering (Leviticus 2:1). The prophet Elisha was anointed with oil when he took over his duties (1 Kings 19:16) as priests were anointed with oil when they took over his duties (Leviticus 8:12). As noted kings were anointed either by a prophet or by a priest (1 Samuel 16:13 and 1 Kings 1:34). The sick were also anointed with the purest olive oil for the healing of their bodies (Mark 6:13 and James 5:14). Olive trees, their fruit and their oil have long played an important part in the Bibe and the daily life of Israel. For nearly 6,000 years, olives have been eaten as a Mediterranean staple food and as noted olive oil has been used for cooking, in lamps for light (Exodus 27:20, Leviticus 24:2), for medicine and for anointing (Exodus 30:24-25). By the time of the Roman conquest of Judea, the olive had become one of the most basic dietary items, even of the poor. It was an olive leaf that a dove from Noah's ark brought to Noah and since the time of Julius Caesar, one of the universal emblems of peace has been the olive branch. At one time, olive oil was so plentiful in Israel that it was one of the first products ever exported when Solomon sent Hiram, the King of Tyre all that olive oil (1Kings 5:11).
One thousand years later, during the time of Jesus (Yeshua), olive oil was mentioned in writings of that day as the only export of the Jerusalem region. The Mount of Olives is front and center to the Temple Mount. It's located just east of the Old City of Jerusalem and even today it attests to the ages long prevalence of olive trees around the city of God. There is a blessing from this magnificent tree in God's own words... Deuteronomy 24:20. When thou beatest thine olive tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. Lessons from the Psalms... The olive tree symbolizes faithfulness and steadfastness. Psalms 52:8 says, "But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I trust in the mercies of God forever and ever." This Scripture passage reminds us that no matter the tribulations of life, we should remain steadfast as the olive tree in the presence of God, evergreen (faithful) and bearing fruit. The olive tree is mentioned over 30 times in the Bible, it is one of the first plants mentioned and the most significant. In Psalm 1 the Lord promises that the godly will flourish like a tree planted by streams of water. The Psalmist seems to have enjoyed considering certain trees, learning about them, and then making spiritual application from their characteristics. In Psalm 52 David was concerned that Doeg, the Edomite, would reveal his hiding place to King Saul who was seeking to kill him. David considered Doeg’s wicked condition and his end under God’s punishment, then he turned his mind from his enemies and declared, “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy (steadfast love, undeserved favor) of God forever and ever.” We should review the characteristics of the olive tree and apply them to our lives. The olive was a basis of life in the Mediterranean world. (Is Jesus-Yeshua the basis and root of your life?) Like us, it takes the olive tree 17 to 30 years to reach full vintage, and its best fruit is harvested in later years. It lives for centuries. The fruit is used for eating, its oil for cooking and for lighting lamps. The wood is richly grained and sturdy. (Can God use me to bring glory to Himself?) Throughout the ages the olive has stood for peace, for steadfast love, for undeserved favor (mercy) and newness of life. (Is this quality of mercy being manifested in my life?) No wonder God diverted David’s mind from his enemies to the green olive tree. Although we, too, live in a world of hardship, adversity and disappointment, let us seek the Lord so that we may flourish like the green olive tree, and like David, have our hearts and minds rooted in the Lord. We will then be able to claim the promises in Psalm 1. More olive tree Scriptures...
- Deuteronomy 6:11 And houses full of all good [things], which thou filled not, and wells digged, which thou digged not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou planted not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full. - Hosea 14:6 His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. - Jeremiah 11:16 The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, [and] of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. - Judges 9:8 The trees went forth [on a time] to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us. - Psalms 52:8 But I [am] like a green olive tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever. - Zechariah 4:3 And two olive trees by it, one upon the right [side] of the bowl, and the other upon the left [side] thereof. - Romans 11:17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; - Romans 11:24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural [branches], be grafted into their own olive tree? - Revelation 11:4 These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.To conclude, let's look at the beautiful word picture of the "restored" olive tree from Batya Ruth Wooten’s book, Redeemed Israel and think of the purpose and use of the fruit of the tree as described in Scripture.
Then answered I, and said unto him, What [are] these two olive trees upon the right [side] of the candlestick and upon the left [side] thereof? And I answered again, and said unto him, What [be these] two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden [oil] out of themselves?
These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. Zechariah 4:3; Jeremiah 11-12 Revelation 11:4
The fruit of the olive is used for two purposes in God’s wilderness Tabernacle: 1) it provides the oil which is for “anointing” and 2) the “virgin” oil is used for a “light”, to the Menorah. But the oil is only to be used for these holy, set apart purposes if the fruit is “pure” and “beaten”.
The word beaten in Hebrew is transliterated as “kathiyth”. This is the Hebrew word God chose to use in Exodus 27 while speaking to Moses. It is very important and it is no coincidence God used this word a total seven times in five Scripture verses. Seven is perfection and completion, five is His number representing His instruction and teaching, His Torah.
In Hebrew script, "kathiyth" is written as כָּתִית and it appears in the following Bible verses that all reference pure oil from beaten olives: 1) Exodus 27:20; 2) Exodus 29:40; 3) Leviticus 24:2; 4) Numbers 28:5; and 5) 1Kings 5.
Shalom.
2 comments:
Well done
So full of wisdom and truth I’m sharing this with family and friends thank you for your research
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