Whose Leaves Do Not Wither

Outside my dining room window, stands a beautiful century-old Oak Tree which I have fondly named Old Man, for in this tree's response to Earth's seasons year after succeeding year it has, indeed, grown old according to time's demand. Each Spring has brought tender new growth to its skeletal arms. By summer, leaves have matured, and show aged strength. When our September gale blows, the leaves begin to shed their color, though only the weak ones succumb to the forceful north wind. With November's arrival, the leaves of this mighty Oak give up their elasticity and toughness, ultimately falling to earth to decay and return to the clay from which its parent Oak so long ago came.

Most flowers are short-lived, but leaves? Leaves are more enduring. Because of their nature, we have but to watch, and in so doing, we are able to follow our own life cycle from the delicacy of new birth, to maturity, and finally, like a wrinkled, brittle, and falling leaf we return to the dust from which we came. Therein, we can see in a leaf's life cycle similarities to our own.

But in Scripture, all importance is given to the olive tree. Its leaves are also used as a metaphor and simile for the delicacy and constancy of life. It also stands for Israel. The first mention of a leaf in the Bible is found in Genesis 8:11, where the Word tells us that the dove returned to the ark after the flood returning an olive leaf to Noah.

Visualize for a moment the image of an olive tree, whose leaves never "fall off, either in the heat of the summer or the rains of winter." Even evergreens drop leaves now and then and die, but the olive? The olive is forever. The flood had destroyed all life on earth, but somehow, the olive tree did not die. In the same way, olive leaves represent the Jewish seed which will never die. In Scripture, the olive is an image of God's eternal covenant with the Nation of Israel.

There are many biblical references which compare the righteous to "a tree planted by the water whose leaves do not wither". Ezekiel mirrors this image as he looks into a messianic future when trees will bear fruit every month and the leaves will not wither - "their fruit shall be for food, and their leaves for healing" (Ezekiel 47:12).

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