Question: My question is about how the regrafting of the branches from the three natural olive trees into the mother tree and from the mother tree into the tree daughter trees in Zenos’ allegory might come about. Does Isaiah throw any light on this?
Answer: The part of Zenos’ Allegory that pertains to the final regrafting process of the trees of the vineyard in Zenos’ allegory reads as follows: “And it came to pass that they took from the natural tree which had become wild, and grafted in unto the natural trees, which also had become wild. And they also took of the natural trees which had become wild, and grafted into their mother tree. And the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant:
“Pluck not the wild branches from the trees, save it be those which are most bitter; and in them ye shall graft according to that which I have said. And we will nourish again the trees of the vineyard, and we will trim up the branches thereof; and we will pluck from the trees those branches which are ripened, that must perish, and cast them into the fire. And this I do that, perhaps, the roots thereof may take strength because of their goodness; and because of the change of the branches, that the good may overcome the evil” (Jacob 5:55–59).
Quoting Isaiah, Jacob adds a key to this regrafting of the olive trees in the next chapter: “And the day that he shall set his hand again the second time to recover his people, is the day, yea, even the last time, that the servants of the Lord shall go forth in his power, to nourish and prune his vineyard; and after that the end soon cometh” (Jacob 6:2). That day of power is a future, not current event:
“In that day the sprig of Jesse, who stands for an ensign to the peoples, shall be sought by the nations, and his rest shall be glorious. In that day my Lord will again raise his hand to reclaim the remnant of his people—those who shall be left out of Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the islands of the sea. He will raise the ensign to the nations and assemble the exiled of Israel; he will gather the scattered of Judah from the four directions of the earth” (Isaiah 11:10–12).
Word links in this passage connect it to Isaiah 49:22–23: “Thus says my Lord Jehovah: I will lift up my hand to the nations, raise my ensign to the peoples; and they will bring your sons in their bosoms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. Kings shall be your foster fathers, queens your nursing mothers.” In other words, when the Lord raises up his end-time servant—the “sprig of Jesse,” alias his “ensign” and “hand”—then is the time the spiritual kings and queens of the Ephraimite Gentiles gather Israel or the natural lineages of the house of Israel.
That end-time physical gathering of Israel doesn’t occur, however, until they come to believe in Christ, their Savior: “Thus saith the Lord God: When the day cometh that they shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh, upon the earth, unto the lands of their inheritance. And it shall come to pass that they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion, from the isles of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in carrying them forth to the lands of their inheritance. Yea, the kings of the Gentiles shall be nursing fathers unto them, and their queens shall become nursing mothers” (2 Nephi 10:7–9).
Speaking of the Jews, Jesus adds that their physical gathering in an exodus from the four parts occurs after the Gentiles as a whole reject the fulness of his gospel and the Jews begin to believe and pray to the Father in his name., “I will remember the covenant which I have made with my people; and I have covenanted with them that I would gather them together in mine own due time, that I would give unto them again the land of their fathers for their inheritance, which is the land of Jerusalem, which is the promised land unto them forever, saith the Father. And it shall come to pass that the time cometh, when the fulness of my gospel shall be preached unto them; And they shall believe in me, that I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and shall pray unto the Father in my name” (3 Nephi 20:29–31).
In short, it is the end-time ministry of the spiritual kings and queens of the Gentiles—when led by God’s servant—which results in the natural lineages of Israel converting to Jesus and being physically gathered to the old and new Jerusalems. While the first phase of their ministry is “to bring as many as will come to the church of the Firstborn” (Doctrine & Covenants 77:11)—that is, to an elect spiritual level that qualifies them for God’s deliverance—its second phase in their literal, physical gathering during God’s Day of Judgment that is then coming upon the earth (cf. Matthew 24:31; cf. Doctrine & Covenants 77:9).
