Post by Joseph –
Let me summarize Zenos’ allegory and then we’ll discuss what it means and why Jacob likes it so much.
1 – A tree gets planted – this represents the founding of the House of Israel – which Jacob so clearly points out, we are part of.
2 – The tree gets old and starts to decay – the decay is apostasy.
3 – The Lord of the vineyard sees the decay and does what He can to get rid of it. The Lord of the Vineyard is obviously God.
4 – This pruning and dunging only partially works. Because of bad leadership, God can’t fully clear out the decay. (Jacob pointed out that I need to clarify it wasn’t God’s leadership that was bad, it was bad leaders in the House of Israel. There were lots of leaders with hearts and minds like my brothers Laman and Lemuel.)
5 – To preserve this tree (the House of Israel) God made some real drastic moves.
a. He destroys the most apostate parts of the tree.
b. He grafts some wild branches in – in other words He mixes some non-Israelites into the struggling House of Israel.
c. He takes some good parts of the tree and plants them in other parts of the vineyard. Jacob wants me to use the word “Scattered” – which seems to happen a lot to the people of the House of Israel. This scattering is done in two ways – one, some of the branches are planted among non-Israelite people, two, some branches are taken and planted in a whole different place in the vineyard – all by themselves.
When Jacob pointed out that this second scattering referred specifically to our family being brought to this promised land, the allegory got real personal for me. Zenos was careful to quote the Lord of the vineyard saying “these will I place in the nethermost part of my vineyard, whithersoever I will, … and the Lord of the vineyard went his way, and hid the natural branches of the tame olive-tree in the nethermost parts of the vineyard, some in one and some in another, according to his will and pleasure.” Then later in the allegory Zenos says “And thou beheldest that I also cut down that which cumbered this spot of ground, that I might plant this tree in the stead thereof.”
Since this is the most interesting part of the allegory to me and my children, let me elaborate here. This vineyard is the world, God plants a tree that goes bad and my father Lehi, who is one of the few good branches of the apostate tree gets plucked out and taken to what God says is the choicest place in the world. If I read this right, before we got here, the Lord of the vineyard had to cut down a branch of His tree which He had previously planted in this choice spot. He said that it “cumbered this spot of ground” which means it also went bad and He had to clear it out. Hopefully one day you will be able to learn about this branch of the tree that was here before we were and you can see what caused their apostasy.
I guess you can understand Jacob’s anxiety about the apostasy he sees going on around us. He knows God is not giving idle promises when He says if we don’t obey, He will wipe us out. He has done it before in this very land.
Let me conclude this particular post (not the allegory -there is more about it) with what I love about the Lord of the vineyard. He says it grieves Him when we reject Him and His sole objective is our being fruitful and doing well. When He says He is doing all this “according to His will and pleasure,” He is saying He wants to do all this work and it gives Him pleasure to have brought our little family to this choice spot of ground. To really make is simple – God loves us and He thinks we are worth all the work. Well, I love Him.
(Book of Mormon | Jacob 5:44)
(Book of Mormon | Jacob 5:13 – 14)
