Out of Dry Ground

Hello Friends and Family!

It seems like forever since I've sent a group email.  I wanted to be sure to write some thoughts from this week and send it out, instead of sharing experiences with you like I usually do, I felt that it would be better to write something that I learned from one of my personal studies this last week. 

At a Missionary Leadership Council (MLC) several months ago, Sister Grayson shared a scripture from Mosiah, which reads, "For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him." (Mosiah 14:2)  We know that this scripture in Mosiah comes from Isaiah 53 and teaches a powerful lesson about who the Savior Jesus Christ is, and what role he played as a mortal man "subject to man in the flesh" while he walked on the Earth nearly 2,000 years ago. (2 Nephi 9:5) After reading this verse at that meeting, I couldn't seem to get that passage out of my mind. What did it fully mean? I felt like there was something more to be understood from Isaiah, and what he was trying to tell us about the Christ. 

This past week I came across that verse in Mosiah again, and I felt strongly to pray for more

understanding regarding what I was to learn from it. A part of the verse, specifically, flooded my mind after praying: "Out of dry ground".  I began searching the scriptures for answers, and quickly learned how Isaiah was using this as a symbolic meaning for the Olive Tree. Why? The statement "out of dry ground" was referring to the Olive Tree because olive trees only grow in rough, mountain regions.  Nearly every Olive Tree, or grove of Trees, grows on the slopes of rough Mountains. 

It is interesting to note how the word "Mountain" or the "Mount" in scriptures often

symbolizes the Temple. It is as if the Lord is teaching us that on our journey through the temple (or the mountain) we must pass through a grove of Olive Trees (or the Atonement of Jesus Christ).  As another symbolic meaning, we know that the Olive Tree most times symbolizes the Gathering of Israel at the Lord's Temples.  We can see how it would also be fitting that the Olive Trees (or Israel) is growing out of the Mountain (or the Temple). Or in other words, "out of dry ground".

I continued to ponder these thoughts throughout the day, praying for additional understanding. It was interesting that through a lesson Elder Taylor and I had, we learned that Olive Trees were often the lifelines from which ancient Israel survived for a living. Conditions permitting, nearly every village in Palestine had its olive grove.  Its failure, constituted a grave disaster for the people. (Amos 4:9) The mountain ridge to the E of Jerusalem was about “a sabbath day’s journey” distant was noted for its olives in King David’s day and, by Zechariah’s time, was already called “the mountain of the olive trees.” (2Sa 15:30; Zec 14:4; Lu 19:29; 22:39; Ac 1:12) This would later be the same Olive Grove that the Savior Jesus Christ would enter to perform the Everlasting Atonement for all Mankind. 

There was another beautiful, and extremely symbolic, representation of the Olive Tree. The fruit, or olive berry, is green when immature but ripens into a deep purplish to black color. When Harvest time comes, the ancient method of beating the tree with rods is still frequently employed throughout most vineyards. (De 24:20; Isa 24:13) As I learned these new things regarding the Olive Tree, the beauty and Spirit of Mosiah 14:2 seemed to fill my heart. 

It was incredible to see how Christ (representing the Olive Tree) grew out of dry ground, on the outskirts of a Temple in Jerusalem.  Much as an Olive Tree grows on the outskirts or sides of a Mountain.  As Christ Grew, he would submit himself to perform the single greatest event that has ever occurred: The Atonement for all Mankind. It would then only seem fitting that Christ would, to perform such a gift for mankind, remove himself to a Grove of Olive Trees outside of Jerusalem's walls to be, again, "on dry ground".  We call this the Garden of Gethsemane. 

It was in these last moments of Christ's life that he would literally be pressed by the weight of all mankind's sins, shortcomings, and weaknesses; much as an olive press would harvest oil.  Instead of Olive Oil, however, He literally (not symbolically) spilled His own "precious blood for us".  Much as an Olive Tree during a harvest, they would then literally beat, whip, and crown Him with a crown of thorns and write above His lonely cross, "Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews". This would explain why in Mosiah 14:5 we read the words, "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." What we once understood to be a "tender plant out of dry ground", we now see as an aged Olive Tree being beat for the harvest. 

This is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

While researching more about the symbolism of the Olive Tree, I came across this quote from President Nelson:

"Jesus came to the base of the Mount of Olives to effect the first component of the Atonement.  This He did at the Garden of Gethsemane. The word Gethsemane comes from two Hebrew roots: gath, meaning ‘press,’ and shemen, meaning ‘oil,’ especially that of the olive." 

“There olives had been pressed under the weight of great stone wheels to squeeze precious oil from the olives.  So, the Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane was literally pressed under the weight of the sins of the world.  He sweat great drops of blood—His life’s ‘oil’—which issued from every pore. (See Luke 22:44; D&C 19:18.) 

“… Remember, just as the body of the olive, which was pressed for the oil that gave light, so the Savior was pressed. From every pore oozed the lifeblood of our Redeemer. Throughout the joyous days of your mission, when your cup of gladness runs over, remember His cup of bitterness which made it possible. And when sore trials come upon you, remember Gethsemane.” (Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “Why This Holy Land?” Ensign, Dec. 1989, 17–18.)

I have a testimony and a witness that Jesus is the Christ. He is the literal Son of the Living

God, and He will come again to reclaim His vineyard. I know that at last, and in great representation of His Everlasting Sacrifice, that the Olive Tree will become the Tree of Life. 

About this, the Tree of Life, we read that at some future day it will be the centerpiece of the New Earth, "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations...And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever." 

What started as a tender plant "out of dry ground" has become the healing for us all.

Until Next Week-

Elder Robb