THE RESTORATION OF THE OLIVE TREE
Paul uses the typology of Israel as the Olive tree it in the new covenant scriptures when speaking to the Romans to bring out what Yahweh has purposed in opening the door to the “Gentiles”.
When the House of Israel went into complete harlotry from Yahweh, He divorced them and they became “not My people”. They no longer carried the name of “Israel” and therefore were regarded as part of the nations of the world into which they were assimilated. Even those who retained a knowledge of their identity could not bear that name outside of covenant relationship with Him. Therefore for them to be restored to Him, a new covenant had to be made with them and they had to be grafted back into the Olive tree.
In the letter to the Romans, Paul addressed the issue of those that are being grafted back into Israel, the Olive Tree. He is saying to them not to be arrogant against those that were at that time broken off and discarded, “do not boast against the branches .... remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you” (11:18); and that, “God has not cast away His people which He foreknew” (11:2), but that He is able to graft them back in again. Paul’s discourse in Ch’s 9-11 is speaking to both Jews and Grafted-in Israelites from the nations (9:9:24, 30-31; 10:12; 11:11-15, 25) as either could be broken off and severed from the tree again.
The Olive Tree typology which Paul is using, is from Jeremiah’s prophecy of judgement which would come upon both Houses because of their sins against Him if they did not repent. He says, “Green Olive tree covered in fine fruit, was Yahweh’s name for you. With a shattering noise, He has set fire to it, its branches are broken. And Yahweh Saboath, who planted you has decreed disaster for you because of the evil the House of Israel and the House of Yehudah have done, provoking Me by burning incense to Baal” (Jeremiah 11:16-17)
He is prophesying that the branches that have been broken off are going to be burned i.e. judgement is going to come upon them. It came upon both Houses but Yehudah’s was a temporary judgement.
Yeshua said, “Any branch which does not bring forth fruit, He takes away” (John 15:1 NJB)
and, ... “Unless a man abide in Me, he is cast forth like a branch that is withered and they pluck it and place it in the fire that it may burn” (John 15:6 NJB)
That is exactly what Jeremiah prophesied would happen and it came down upon Ephraim because they did not repent - they were plucked off from the Olive tree and cast into the furnace of His wrath by a great tumult - the Assyrian army marching them off as captives into a foreign land.
Ezekiel, who was specifically assigned as the prophet to the House of Israel, said, “Take up a lamentation for the leaders of Israel, (19:1) “Your mother is like a vine in her blood. Her size was exalted among the thick branches and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches But she was plucked up in anger, she was cast to the ground, and an east wind (Assyria) dried up her fruit: her strong branches were broken and withered; the fire consumed them. And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land. Fire has come from a rod of her branches and devoured her fruit, so that she has no strong branch - a sceptre for ruling.” (Ezek.19:10-13 NKJ)
The broken branches of the Olive tree was the House of Israel. Her “strong branch” which was a God-given sceptre to reign over herself as a separate nation from the House of Yehudah, was taken from her and with her right to govern herself taken away, she was placed under the dominion of a foreign power and then planted in the wilderness. When planted in the wilderness she became a wild olive tree (an olive of the desert).
This is how Paul addressed the House of Israel, as a “wild olive tree” (Rom.11:17). The Aramaic literal translation of this is, “an olive tree from the desert” - i.e. a wild olive tree that was planted in the wilderness of the nations. Paul is identifying for us in allegory, that it is some of these branches that were planted in the wilderness that are being grafted back into the cultivated Olive tree that is growing upon its original rootstock. The cultivated Olive tree had a very small portion of all the tribes in it, and so it represented all Israel.
THE OLIVE TREE AND THE MENORAH
It is an agricultural fact that you can only graft things of the same specie onto one another. You can graft different varieties of the same specie onto the same rootstock, but you can’t for instance, graft a stone fruit onto an olive. But it is surely possible to graft a wild olive onto a cultivated olive tree, because they are both olive trees - of the same specie. The common practice is to graft a cultivated specie onto a wild type of rootstock, and so, what is done here is contrary to what is normal which Paul points out. It is a demonstration of Yahweh’s grace that He takes the wild olive and contrary to what would be agricultural profitable and grafts the wild growth back into the cultivated tree.
The root of the Olive tree was formed by the patriarchs seeking and searching for life in Yahweh and putting the foundation of their lives in Him. They drew their nourishment from faith in Him and His promises and established the family of God in Him. Therefore what grew from that was a rootstock which grew into a trunk, or stock/stump from which would come the nation of the twelve tribes, as well as the promised Seed, Messiah.
“There shall come forth a rod/shoot out of the stem/stump of Jesse, and a new shoot/blossom will grow from his roots” (Isaiah 11:1) The stump represents the main-stock of the tree before the separation of Yehudah and Ephraim into two Houses. From this stem/stump comes the Messiah, who is called “the Branch”. Messiah comes from Jesse’s lineage, and he fulfils prophetically the typology of David’s life, Jesse’s son. He is the shoot that will grow from those roots, including all that are in Him by faith - i.e. in covenant relationship with Him.
“and the (1) Spirit of Yahweh shall rest upon him. The spirit of (2) wisdom and (3) understanding, The Spirit of (4) counsel and (5) might, the Spirit of (6) knowledge and of the (7) fear of Yahweh.” (Isaiah 11:2)
The Spirit that rests upon Messiah is the seven spirits of Yahweh God - i.e. the fullness of the Spirit. This can be represented by a seven-branched Menorah being formed through Him which are seven spectrum’s of Yahweh’s glory manifested in an earthly vessel. It has a main center stem which is the Spirit of Yahweh and then three branches on either side, which are wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and the fear of Yahweh God. These qualities were demonstrated in their fullness in Messiah. The Olive tree produces the fruit for oil - the anointing of His Spirit. An olive tree is chosen to represent Israel because she was meant to produce the fruit that would bring forth the anointing and enable her to be a light-bearer to the nations, a testimony and a witness to His reality, His nature and His glory, His priestly nation.
In Rev.1:4 we see the seven spirits before the throne of God In Rev.1:12 we see seven Menorahs with Messiah in the midst In Rev.1:20 we learn that the Menorah represents an assembly of believers, a corporate testimony/witness the seven ‘stars’ are the seven messengers/elders to those seven assemblies
Therefore, a Menorah is a representation of an assembly of believers - any assembly/group of people with a testimony of His life. They are light-bearers reflecting the full-orbed anointing of His glory - i.e. through the seven spirits of God. The Menorah then, is a representation of that which has come forth from the Olive tree being channelled through its branches to give the full-orbed manifestation of His ministries in His glory.
In Rev.11:3-4 we have two Olive trees/branches and two Menorahs. The two Menorahs here are the two Houses of Israel - His two witnesses. “And I will give power to My two witnesses (testimony-bearers), and they shall prophecy 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two Olive trees and the two Menorahs standing before the God of the whole earth.”
This is an endtime reflection of a similar representation in Zechariah 4. Zechariah was shown a Menorah with two olive trees, one on each side of it (4:2-3). In this picture here in Zech.4, we only have one Menorah as the House of Yeshudah was standing alone at that time and the House of Israel was dispersed and swallowed up among the nations. So there is only one Menorah, although there are still the two Olive trees, the two anointed ones of Yahweh. The two olive trees in Zech.4 are identified as: “These are the two anointed ones, who stand before the Lord of the whole earth.” (Zech.4:14)
In Zechariah we have one Menorah and two Olive trees. In Revelation we have two Menorahs and two Olive trees. The two Menorahs being present, indicates that the House of Israel has been fully restored to its place as His witness in the earth. “I will give power to My two witnesses” (Rev.11:3). Once again He has the testimony of His two witnesses in the earth (Isaiah 43:10-12). Rev.7 shows that 12,000 from each tribe are sealed for protection from the “winds” that are going to come and ‘blow’ upon the earth and bring judgements. That means that this group have been restored to their tribal identity and function.
THE TWO WITNESSES
In Exodus 25:17-22 we have the instructions for making the cherubims which were beaten out of one piece of solid gold and part of the mercy seat on top of the Ark of the Testimony. “And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you (High priest) above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are in the Ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel." (verse 22) In Exodus 37:5-8 it tells us that they covered the mercy seat with their wings.
Everything in the Tabernacle of Moses represented spiritual realities of Messiah and His dwelling place in His people. Moses was told to make everything according to the pattern shown him in the mount. There were to be two cherubim, or living beings, on the Mercy Seat, in the Holy of Holies where Yahweh spoke to His High Priest. It was literally called “the speaking place” - i.e. the place where He spoke, the place of intimate communion.
In Kings 6:23 we have the instructions for making the cherubim in Solomon’s temple, but there is a difference. Solomon’s temple was different to Moses’ tabernacle and was to represent in typology, the kingdom age, and instead of the cherubim being made of solid gold - i.e. completely of divine substance, they were made of olive wood, each 10 cubits high (6:23); and they were to be overlaid with gold (6:28). This represented two living creatures made of natural (olive) wood overlaid with gold. Two natural beings who were covered in divine glory. These are His two witnesses that stand before the Lord (who is the High Priest, Melchizedek) of the whole earth. who have had their natural substance overlaid with divine glory.
This is the remnant overcomers of the Two Houses of Israel when they have come into His glory in the kingdom age, in the Holy of Holies with Him, in the “speaking place" of intimate communion with Him where they will receive commissions from the throne room of Almighty God to be sent throughout all the earth, by His special ambassadors - His “rod of iron" - the 12 tribes who form His government upon earth on the natural level.
Rev.11 shows them when they have just come into their endtime calling, anointed with power to exercise judgement upon the Beast and his Antichrist system of world government, at the threshold of the kingdom era.
From this last “church” age, the Laodecian church age, which is an age of affluence and worldliness with Yeshua outside the door of His House, to them is given the promise: (Rev.3:20-21) “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be jealous and repent. Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” - that is, have intimate communion in the very Presence of God. “To him that overcomes I will grant to sit with me on My throne as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.”
The promise is to be enthroned with the Messiah, to rule and reign with Him - it is only for the overcomers of the two Houses - Yehudah and Ephraim, His two witnesses.
In Ephesians Ch.2:4-7 Paul says of our position in Messiah: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ....... “made us alive together with Christ .......... and raised us up together (with Him) ...... “and made us sit together (enthroned) in heavenly places (the spiritual realm) in Messiah Yeshua, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Messiah Yeshua.”
That is the spiritual position which we were given in Christ, to be enthroned with Him so as to be able to rule and reign with Him, but it only becomes a reality by overcoming the power of our flesh, our carnal human nature - the wood that needs to be overlaid with the gold of His glory.
Exceeding great and precious promises are given to us that we might become partakers of the divine nature and enter into His glory (2 Peter 1:2-11). But we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling lest we fall short of the grace of God and do not measure up to the calling that is placed upon us as His holy nation.
“And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgement was committed to them. “And they lived and reigned with Messiah one thousand years” This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.” (Rev.20:4-6)