Jacob 6: The Olive Tree Allegory and the Strait Gate
I was building a bookshelf last year with white oak. The grain ran straight for most of the board, but near the end it twisted into a knot I didn't see until after the cut. I had a choice. Work around it, reshape the piece, let the board still have a purpose. Or set it aside as scrap.
My father-in-law taught me something years ago that stuck. He said the difference between a good woodworker and someone who just owns tools is knowing when to stop cutting and start shaping. When you've gone too deep into the grain, you don't force it. You adjust. You find another way to make the piece work.
Jacob 6 reads like that moment of adjustment. After five chapters of allegory and prophecy and warning, Jacob looks at his people and says, in effect, the grain has gone somewhere unexpected but you can still make something of this. There's still time.
Meaning of the Olive Tree Allegory in Jacob 6
The allegory of the olive tree in Jacob 5 is the longest single allegory in the Book of Mormon. Jacob spends most of chapter 6 applying it directly to his audience. He tells them the allegory must come to pass. The scattering and gathering of Israel described by Zenos is not a distant prediction. It's a description of what is already happening and what will continue to happen.
Jacob identifies a second time when the Lord will set his hand to recover his people. That is the latter-day gathering of Israel, which for us is not a historical curiosity. It's the work going on around us right now. People coming into the covenant, branches being grafted back into the tree.
Verse 4 is the one that sticks with me. Jacob says the Lord remembers "both roots and branches" and stretches forth his hands "all the day long." That phrase repeats across several prophets. It means God is not sitting back waiting for us to find him. He is already reaching. The question is whether we'll reach back.
Wherefore, how merciful is our God unto us, for he remembereth the house of Israel, both roots and branches; and he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long; and they are a stiffnecked and a gainsaying people; but notwithstanding they have been driven out, they shall be gathered together again. -- Jacob 6:4
Meaning of Roots and Branches in Jacob's Allegory
The roots and branches language goes deeper than a simple metaphor. The roots of the olive tree represent the house of Israel in its original state and the early covenants God made with the patriarchs, while the branches represent the scattered groups that broke off over time.
What I appreciate about the way Jacob uses this is that he doesn't treat the roots and branches as separate. God remembers both. The covenant people who stayed faithful and the people who wandered or were driven away. Both get gathered. Both get grafted back in.
In the shop, I see this sometimes with salvaged wood. You get a bundle of boards that came from different trees, different cuts, different conditions. Some have warp, some are straight. But if you sort them right and work them patiently, they can all go into the same project. The roots and the branches end up in the same piece of furniture.
I wrote about the full allegory in Jacob 5: The Master Who Wouldn't Let the Tree Go. Chapter 6 is what happens when you stop describing the tree and start asking what the tree means for the people standing in front of you.
How to Avoid Hardening Your Heart in LDS Scripture
Jacob gets to the practical application in verses 5 through 7. He tells his people to repent and "cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you." That image of mutual cleaving is striking because it's not casual. It's desperate, two people holding on to each other over a gap.
He warns against hardening their hearts, and he puts a timeline on it. "Today." Not tomorrow, not when it's more convenient. Jacob uses the urgency of a man who knows that hearts don't harden all at once. They stiffen gradually, one small refusal at a time, until one day they don't respond at all.
Verse 7 uses the agricultural metaphor that flows naturally from the allegory. After being nourished by the "good word of God," will the people bring forth evil fruit? The implied answer is no, but only if they stay nourished. A tree that stops getting water doesn't die immediately. It withers, branch by branch, until nothing is left.
There is a similar urgency in the warnings Pharaoh ignored before the final plague in Egypt. I wrote about that pattern of cumulative refusal in Exodus 11: The Final Plague and the Silence Before Midnight. The same principle applies here. The heart that refuses to bend eventually cannot bend at all.
What Is the Strait Gate and Narrow Way in the Book of Mormon
Chapter 6 ends with Jacob's final invitation. He tells the people to repent and enter in at the strait gate and continue in the narrow way. The word "strait" means tight, narrow, constrained. It is not the same as "straight." It's about a fit that barely allows passage.
This is the part of the article where I think about joinery. In woodworking, a strait fit is one where the tenon slides into the mortise with almost no clearance. It takes precision. You have to remove exactly the right amount of material. Too much and the joint wobbles. Too little and it won't go in at all.
Entering the strait gate is like the fit of a well-cut tenon into a mortise. You have to shave off the excess pride and distraction and habits that don't serve you. The gate is not designed to be comfortable. It's designed to fit a person who has let go of the things that make them too wide to pass through.
Jacob says you have to "continue in the way which is narrow" until you obtain eternal life. Not just enter but stay. That is the harder part. I know a lot of people who walked through a door at some point in their lives and then turned around and walked back out. The narrow way is a path you stay on because you keep choosing to stay on it.
The Persistence of the Root
I keep coming back to verse 4. "He remembereth both roots and branches." It's the verse that holds the chapter together for me. Because if God remembers both, then no one is too far gone. The branch that broke off and the root that looked dead both matter in the end. The master of the vineyard keeps working.
Jacob closes with a brief farewell. He says they will all meet before "the pleasing bar of God." That is an interesting choice of words. Pleasing, not frightening. For the people who have stayed on the narrow way, that meeting is something to look forward to. It's the moment the roots and branches come together in the same place.
I don't know what that will look like. But I've seen what happens when salvaged boards get sorted and shaped into something they were never intended to be. The final piece is always better than the scrap pile it came from.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the strait gate represent in Jacob 6?
The strait gate represents the narrow path of discipleship that requires repentance, faith in Christ, and a commitment to follow his commandments. It is strait because it asks you to leave behind the things that don't fit through the opening. Jacob's invitation is to enter and keep going until you reach the other end.
Who are the roots and branches in the olive tree allegory?
The roots represent the house of Israel in its original covenant relationship with God, and the branches represent the scattered groups that separated from the main tree over generations. The key point Jacob makes is that God remembers both. Neither is abandoned. Both get gathered back when the time is right.
What happens if we harden our hearts according to Jacob?
Jacob warns that hardening your heart leads to rejecting the words of the prophets and the power of the Holy Ghost. Over time the heart becomes less responsive until it doesn't respond at all. He says the consequence is standing before God with shame and guilt, not because God rejected you but because you rejected the redemption that was always available.
Why does Jacob say God stretches forth his hands all the day long?
It's a way of describing God's persistence that I've been sitting with for a while. He doesn't give up on his people. When scripture says he stretches forth his hands all the day long, it suggests someone who is actively reaching rather than passively waiting. The image is a father who keeps his arms out even when his children won't take them. That idea appears in multiple books of scripture and it's always about the same thing: God wants his people back.
The bookshelf I was building with that white oak board eventually came together. I reshaped the piece with the knot into a bracket that barely fits but holds exactly what it needs to. My father-in-law was right. You don't force the grain, you adjust.
Jacob 6 is that adjustment. The allegory has been told and the warning has been delivered. Now comes the part where you look at what you have and decide what to do with it. The strait gate is tight, but it opens.
-- D.