Joyce Kilmer wrote a poem entitled “Trees.”
I like the way she has used her talent to lift up God as the only one who can make a tree. God is also the only one who can make humans into “living trees.”
Olive trees are used by God in the Bible to portray believers, both Jewish and Gentile, as living trees, producing living fruit for God’s Kingdom.
“I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowering breast;
A tree that looks to God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.”
The Olive Tree is a tenacious tree which can grow in all kinds of soils, and under all kinds of circumstances. You can even cut it off at the roots, or burn the stump completely, and it will still sprout new growth from its deep root system.
It starts producing olives from six to ten years and is at its peak production at 40 to 50 years, and is still producing olives into its hundreds.
Job 14:7-9, Job says that the olive didn’t die when it was cut down, but sprang to life again, producing more olives.
Job 24:16 says, “The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.”
Believers get knocked down, and sometimes it seems knocked out, but the root system is still there, and believers sprout to new life in spite of all that the devil can throw at them.
Jesus said that no man and Paul said no demonic power can remove us from God’s hand, or His love!
Mt. Olive was important to Jesus-
- Jesus spent much time on Mt. Olives. Luke 22:39 says, “And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. ” Jesus had established a custom, or a habit of going to Mt. Olives to spend the night in prayer, or to teach His disciples away from the crowds.
- Each time He visited Mary and Martha, Jesus was on the Mt. of Olives. Lazarus was raised here, as well as Simon the Leper being healed on Mt. Olives.
- Jesus gave the Olivet Discourse, taught the Lord’s Prayer, wept over Jerusalem, rode a donkey into Jerusalem, agonized in prayer over dying on the cross, and ascended into heaven all from Mt. Olives.
- Jesus will return to the Mt. of Olives for the Rapture of His church.
The fruit of the Olive Tree has to be crushed with a heavy weight to get the oil from the Olive.
Jesus was crushed under the weight of the sins of the whole world in the Garden of Gethsemane. Gat and Shemen are Greek words meaning the place of the Olive Press. Jesus prayed with such intensity that He sweated great drops of blood.
This is called hematidrosis.
National Institute of Health says,
“that around the sweat glands, there are multiple blood vessels in a net-like form, which constrict under the pressure of great stress. Then, as the anxiety passes, the blood vessels dilate to the point of rupture and goes into the sweat glands.”
Just as Jesus had to be crushed to release the pure olive oil, so we as His believers have to be crushed by the trials and tribulations of a lifetime. Submitting our will to His, asking for His help, depending on His grace, and growing into a personal relationship with Christ releases His anointed olive oil in our life, breaking every yoke of bondage of this life, freeing us to live abundantly now and for eternity.
Olive trees were beaten with poles to knock the ripe olives off the branches, or they were stripped by hand. It was rough treatment for the tree, for the branches, but had to be endured for the olives to drop.
The olives had to go through rough treatment also before the oil could be released.
They then were stomped with feet or with a pestle, separating the pulp from the oil. In the New Testament times, a circular basin was used with a great millstone pulled either by hand or an animal to crush the olives and separate the oil. The first oil was the finest oil.
Then the pulp was heated and crushed again to gain even more oil.
The fragrance of olive oil could be smelled from miles around the crushing mill.
Could this be what is happening in your life?
What seems like God’s wrath to you, is actually His discipline in love. It is not judgment, but the only way to release your fragrance and your fruit, as well as release your children and generations to also bear fruit for Him.
Could part of the incense of Revelation 5:8 & 8:4 be the fragrance of those who are tortured or slain (crushed) for their faith in Jesus Christ?
The leaves of the Olive Tree shimmer in the wind gracefully. Could God be watching you and I as He blows the wind of His Holy Spirit over us from time to time?
Psalm 52:8 says, “But I am like an olive tree, thriving in the house of God. I will always trust in God’s unfailing love.”
Jesus sprang from the stump of Jesse, and He was crushed in Gethsemane and on the Cross to release life into His children.
Isaiah 11:1 says, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.”
Psalm 128:3 says, “Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table.”
Maybe the reason you have suffered so much, have suffered so many things in your life, is to crush you in order to release the life of Christ in you, into your children?
Israel was cut off for unbelief, yet they will be grafted in again, and all of Israel will be saved. This will take place because of Jesus being crushed and being able to intercede for Israel, releasing the power of His Holy Spirit, His Holy Anointing Oil into their hearts.
The same could be happening for those children who seem to be cut off, and living more for the world than for God. The Olive Tree has deep roots, some roots goes back several generations. No matter how the devil tries to cut the tree down, or burn the stump, the roots are too deep for him to destroy!
The children that seem to be unresponsive to His love and your prayers, will one day sit around your table in heaven with you and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Just as Israel will all be saved and welcome their King to Jerusalem as the City of God, so God is able to graft all lost loved ones again into His stump of Jesse!
“A tree that looks to God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;”