The olive tree has always held an important place in the world. You may have noticed that the illustration of an olive branch is still a symbol for peace. It is a very rugged tree with a gnarled trunk, willow-like gray-green leathery leaves and many yellow blossoms. Even with little care it will often still be producing olives, although it may be more than a thousand years old. Some of the olive trees brought to California by the Spaniards in 1769 are still alive.
In Bible times, olive trees had a special part in the lives of people in Palestine and neighboring countries and are often referred to as tokens of God’s blessing on His people. Their fruit, the shiny purple-black olive, not only provides a high-energy food, but its oil has been used for centuries for lighting lamps, cooking, ointment, lubricants, in soap and other things. Kings and priests were usually anointed with olive oil before taking their place of honor among the people. But more importantly, God’s people Israel were carefully instructed to use olive oil in many places inside the tabernacle and temples in connection with sacrifices offered to the Lord, as our opening verse shows us.
Olives in the Mediterranean and Jordan areas ripen from October to January. When finally ripe, entire families often pick together—pulling the fruit off by hand—fathers up on ladders, mothers reaching lower limbs, and children climbing up the trunk for olives they can reach.
Both the seed and flesh contain oil, which is removed by presses. In olden days, donkeys provided the power to crush the oil from the olives by walking slowly in a circle around big millstones. Today this is usually done by modern machinery.
When old trees eventually produce too little fruit, they are cut down, mostly to be used for firewood. However, some selected hard pieces, yellow in color and with patterns in the grain, are more likely to go to skilled artists who make lovely carvings. These sell for high prices in tourist shops as souvenirs.
In the first chapter of Genesis, we learn that on the third day of creation God created fruit trees, and when He looked on this lovely creation He “saw that it was good” (see Genesis 1:11-1211And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:11‑12)). Many years later when King Solomon thought about the beauty and wonder of God’s creation, he wrote, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:11Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; (Ecclesiastes 12:1)).
All of us, young or old, should be glad when we see the marvelous works of creation. They show us a little of the majesty and wisdom of the Lord God, our Creator. How thankful we should be that all things were made by Him for us to enjoy.
ML-03/11/2012