THE OLIVE TREE

Deut 8: 7-10 "For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs,
flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you".

The olives have been used in the anointing of kings (1 Sam. 10: 1), and priests (Ex. 29: 7). Its oil was a pleasing offering to God in the Tabernacle (Ex. 29: 40). It was used as medicine too (Isa. 1: 6; Mark 6: 13; Luke 10: 34).

PROMEGRANATES

In colour and form, the pomegranate may vie for the title of the most beautiful of all fruits in the Land of Israel. Pomegranate with gold bells hung from the hem of the High Priest's robe (Ex. 28: 33-34). They also decorated the pillars in the temple that stood outside the Holy of Holies in the First Temple (1 Kings 7: 18; 2 Chron. 3: 16).

DATES

As a symbol of life, palms adorned the First Temple (1 Kings 6: 29) and they appear often in ancient synagogue decoration and modern ones).

Psalm 93:12-15 says, "The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree…."

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