Thursday, September 13, 2012

The Lifespan of the House of Israel

This past weekend I came up on Jacob chapter 5 - that's right, Zenos' allegory of the olive tree. Because it is nearly 100 symbolism-rich verses long I decided to skip the Book of Mormon reading for that night and wait until the next evening when I would have a little more time to devote to studying the allegory.

A verse I read in Chapter 4 stuck out to me. I had never really thought about the relationship between what Jacob had been talking about and the allegory. Turns out there was a reason Jacob quoted the allegory (I think I should probably pay closer attention when I study the Book of Mormon... This is probably not news to anyone but me). In verse 17, Jacob poses the question, "How is it possible that [the Jews], after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it, that it may become the head of their corner?"

I'd say this is a valid question for anyone who has rejected the Savior at some point in their lives.

Honestly I didn't get very far in Jacob 5 because I got stuck on verse 3 where Zenos says the House of Israel is like a tame olive tree and then he says "and it grew, and waxed old, and began to decay." And I couldn't help thinking "How long does a normal olive tree live?"

So I looked it up. According to various sources (i.e. a Google search) an olive tree lives to be about 2,000 years old.


Image CreditYellow.Cat


And that got me thinking some more - how many years was it from the time of Jacob (also known as "Israel") and the time of Christ? (we know the House of Israel was in a state of apostasy by that time).

So I looked that up, too. According to the LDS Seminary Old Testament bookmark (you know the cool plastic bookmark with the chronology on one side and the scripture mastery verses on the other?) it was a little under 2,000 years.


Hmmm... So the House of Israel had about the same life expectancy as an olive tree.

It made the olive tree allegory that much more meaningful to me.

I haven't studied the rest of the allegory yet, but I am interested to see what other connections I will make reading it in the light of the house of Israel having the same lifespan as an olive tree.

Have you ever been reading the scriptures and had a thought - or a question - come to your mind that eventually helped you get more out of what you were studying?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

5 comments:

  1. Wow! That bit about the correspondence of life spans is uncanny! I never realized that! Thanks for sharing it, and keep it up!

    On your thought question, I often have questions come to my mind about what I am reading, and usually pursuing the answers does help me get more out of the text. Very often I ask myself, "What does that really mean?" and follow it up with, "Why is that important to know?"

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  2. Wow! That bit about the correspondence of life spans is uncanny! I never realized that! Thanks for sharing it, and keep it up!

    On your thought question, I often have questions come to my mind about what I am reading, and usually pursuing the answers does help me get more out of the text. Very often I ask myself, "What does that really mean?" and follow it up with, "Why is that important to know?"

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  3. Very interesting discovery. I love how the Lord speaks in such symbolism and comparisons. Nothing is "coincidental" to the Lord. It all ties together and to us! It seems everyday that I read, the Lord sneaks in a lesson or message that I need that day to answer a question and to strengthen my faith. I loved this post.

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  4. Thanks for sharing this Becca! The symbolism is amazing...it takes an Olive Tree around seven years before it gives fruit, I don't know if that has anything to do with this but an interesting tid bit nonetheless. I had forgotten about that card from Seminary too, thanks for reminding me about it!

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  5. This is awesome... YOU are awesome! I LOVE symbolism. I'm so excited to read more!!! :D

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