Courtesy of the Director, Galilee Study Center

For two thousand years, the Church has been busy trying to chop down the olive tree of Israel, not realizing that the Church itself is grafted into the tree and somehow even supported by it. What insanity! For two millennia, the Church often thought she was the olive tree. What pride and arrogance - the very thing Paul warns against in this passage.

Christians have roots. Have a heritage. That heritage is inseparably linked with Yerushalayim (Israel), the Land, the People and the Tenach (Hebrew Bible). Let us look at some implications of this olive tree heritage.

In ancient times, olive oil was used for healing. Oil soothed and mollified the skin and was thus a healing agent. When the Good Samaritan found a wounded man, he poured on oil and wine (Luke 10:34). Wine, of course, was the basic antiseptic of the ancient world.

This use of olive oil for healing is probably reflected in James 5:14-15. The writer says:

"Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven."

This is G-d's pattern for the saints. When we are really sick, we need to call for the elders of the church. They need to come, anoint us with oil and pray for our healing. This does two things. It puts us under the authority of G-d's local designated leadership, and it puts the pressure on that leadership to pray the prayer of faith. Healing is the "children's bread" as we see in Matthew 15:26. Jesus spent a good part of His ministry healing the sick. From the Gospels, I would estimate that at least a third of His time was spent in this way. He also committed this same ministry to His followers (Matt. 10:8).

Through Yeshua, we have been grafted into the revelation tree. The True Light is now shining. It is a shame however, that we seem to have so little revelation today. The Bible says in Proverbs 29:18, "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint..." or as the King James Version says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish..."

Can we even imagine what the last two thousand years would have been like had Sha'ul (Paul) not received and acted upon this glorious revelation? Because of it the gospel has gone out to all nations and salvation has come to each of us. Today, in the churches, we do not need new programs. We need a new revelation of G-d. We need to pray for each other just as Sha'ul prayed in Ephesians 1:17-18 that our spiritual eyes might be opened and that we might receive that life-giving revelation.

There is one last thing about the olive tree. It is a tree of anointing. In biblical times, kings and priests were commonly anointed for the LORD's work. They were anointed by the means of olive oil poured upon their heads. Today, every Believer is meant to be an anointed one - a spiritual king and priest before G-d (Rev. 1:6). We are grafted into the tree of anointing.

One thing we should remember about the anointing is that it is rather messy. The Hebrew word "anointed one" which we translate "Messiah", means one smeared with oil. When Aaron and his sons donned the beautiful garments of the priesthood, garments designed by G-d Himself, all Israel must have stood in awe at their beauty. Moses promptly came up to Aaron and poured the anointing oil out on Aaron's head (Lev. 8:12). In Psalm 133:2, we get a full description of this:

"...the precious oil upon the head, running down on the beard, the beard of Aaron, running down on the edge of his garments." Aaron was a holy mess!

Today, we should not be afraid of G-d's anointing which is made available to us through His Holy Spirit. That anointing destroys the yoke of bondage (Isa. 10:27). We should get all of it we can because we are going to need it. The Bible speaks of a day when gross darkness will cover the earth and its people (Isa. 60:2). The passage tells us at that time the light will dawn upon G-d's chosen ones. This is also pictured for us by Yeshua in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Matt. 25:1-13). They went out into the dark night to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise and five were foolish. What was the difference between them?

They all had lamps. They all had oil in their lamps. They all had their lamps lit. However, five of them had an abundance of oil - extra vessels full of it. We can surmise by this that we will need all the anointing (Holy Spirit) we can get in the last days. We need to be filled with the Spirit as we are commanded (Eph. 5:18). We need to walk in the Spirit as we are also commanded (Eph. 5:16). This is the heritage of those grafted into the olive tree.

There is much more to learn about the olive tree. Let's pray that G-d will give us eyes of understanding so we may fully appreciate our spiritual heritage.

You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your G-d. Ezekiel 36:28