Tame and Wild Olive Trees - Romans 11:4-17

I’ve been thinking a little bit about Elias feeling completely alone in his belief and desire for righteousness, and how God had “reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.” I honestly feel like there are no good men left, and I know that just by saying that or feeding in to that belief, I’m wrong, but really, I don’t think that my standards are that high, I’m just looking for a temple worthy man with a job, I don’t think my standards are that high. I don’t care what job he has or how old he is, or anything like that, but apparently it is slim pickings around here. He doesn’t even have to be temple worthy, just want to be temple worthy, I’ve done my time in the dirt, I don’t expect perfection, I know what it’s like to do the walk of shame into the bishop’s office.

Anyway, I clearly have some baggage, like assuming that every man cheats of his wife and abandons his family, that isn’t a helpful belief going into a relationship, so I need to work on that. And really, it’s fine, but it’s been nice to remember that God sees all and His ways really are better than anything I could ever do for myself. Sometimes I need reminders like that, because no matter what I think will be good for me, I make poor choices pretty consistently and it’s helpful seeing other people yield to God’s will and be happier for it.
Paul makes an interesting statement in verse 13 where he says that he “magnify mine office.” This is interesting to me because I always imagined “magnifying” your calling to be something that was said about you, instead of saying it yourself. I don’t know why I thought that, maybe because it seemed like arrogance to me to say that you are magnifying your calling, but ultimately, if you are trying your best, then you would be “magnifying” your calling, or at least allowing God to enlarge your efforts.
The IM quotes President Monson as saying, “How does one magnify a calling?  Simply by performing the service that pertains to it. An elder magnifies the ordained calling of an elder by learning what his duties as an elder are and then doing them.” In the same verse Paul referenced his calling as an Apostle, and then said that he “magnified” it, so I guess by that definition his statement wouldn’t be hubris, it would be an accurate statement of fact. Paul is an apostle and he does what he’s supposed to do as an apostle.
Paul also gives an analogy of the wild and tame olive trees, the tame olive tree being Israel and the trunk thereof being the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is basically the same metaphor as in all the other allegories of olive trees and Israel, where the natural branches of the tame olive trees die and are removed. This is compared to Israel when they reject the gospel and are removed from God’s covenant. Then branches from wild olive trees are grafted into the natural tame trunk, and they thrive. This is comparable to when the gentiles are given the gospel and they accept it.
The interesting part about this, though, is that the IM gives some interesting background on olive tree husbandry, saying “this analogy from agriculture described a process that was contrary to nature, for in the natural world, grafted branches control the destiny of the tree. A branch of a tame tree that is grafted into a wild tree makes the wild tree become tame. Paul described a process of wild branches being grafted into a tame tree, with the tree remaining tame.”
This difference is quite remarkable in the symbolism of the analogy. Using this example, I could totally understand why some were hesitant to let gentiles into the gospel, believing that somehow the integrity of the gospel would be compromised by outside influences. That would be a very serious mistake. But the point that Paul made is that the gentiles wouldn’t change the nature of the gospel, but that the gospel would change the nature of the gentiles. It’s a really powerful concept when considered this way.