Jacob 5:3-5 -- On Trees and Tameness

"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.
And it came to pass that the master of the vineyard went forth, and he saw that his olive tree began to decay; and he said: I will prune it, and dig about it, and nourish it, that perhaps it may shoot forth young and tender branches, and it perish not.
And it came to pass that he pruned it, and digged about it, and nourished it according to his word."
Jacob 5:3-5


I like the whole story/allegory in Jacob 5, but what struck me today is showing what a long term project this is for the master of the vineyard, who is a representation of God. There are widely varying reports of the olive tree's lifespan, but even the most conservative estimates place the average at 500+ years, while others claim lifespans in the thousands of years or even that olive trees never die, at least not of natural causes. So when we're thinking of this project we have to remember that this is a massive undertaking and every part of the process could consume decades or even centuries. I think that puts an interesting spin on the story, because already, knowing these are olive trees we're talking about, the reader can deduce that the man and his servant who are observing the growth and growing and caring for the trees have to be functionally immortal, or seem so compared to the reader. That gives us a great background where we can see the parts of the vineyard as the world and the trees in it as different populations within it.

I also like the idea that these are trees growing in a vineyard... known and cared for by the owner, and that this one specifically is "tame." In modern terms if we talk about a tame forest, we mean one that is useful to humans in some way... if for lumber, it is watched over and thinned out to give space for new trees to grow and for old trees to be harvested, although in this story it isn't about lumber but the fruit of the trees that is useful. Some of it is, and some is not. This helps us to know about part of the story as well... the end goal isn't about just extending the lifespan of the tree, but to harvest the good fruit, with the fruit I think representing us as individuals coming out of the populations and lands where we grew and proving to be good or evil... not for eating in this case, but we are the fruit as in the culmination of the project... the whole point of the exercise. The trees are loved, but the end goal is the good fruit, which is why later in the story branches are grafted in and out of other trees in order to get better fruit, no matter whether they originated in the tame tree or not. Today, if you haven't read the whole story, maybe give it a read. It is an excellent one. And either way, let's remember that the Lord is taking care of us, moving things around and changing the world in order to give us a chance to be good. Let's take that chance and with his help, learn to be our best selves and help others to do the same.