The One Being Sweet

And to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, after he had created our first parents, and the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and in fine, all things which are created, it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter. (2 Nephi 2:15)

I find this verse interesting that it seems to paint the forbidden fruit as being the one that is sweet and the tree of life as producing fruit that is bitter… but then again, see how completely consistent it is with doctrine and life experience. In the Genesis account the scriptures record, “when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired” (Genesis 3).

Similarly Isaiah compares the wickedness of the children of men to that of a pleasant plant that will produce much fruit… but that fruit is a heap in a day of grief and desperate sorrow. Isaiah records the following (italics added):

Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. (Isaiah 17:10-11)

It is interesting how the philosophies of Satan are compared to a pleasant plant, or something sweet but that is calculated to have us cast from God's presence. Hedonism is a philosophy that makes the world and the pleasures of this world to our physical senses treasures. Yet our spirit yearns for the treasures of Heaven, namely Light and Truth. In Ancient Jewish tradition the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was a grape vine with fruit that was sweet to the taste and most desirable, with a juice that was by tradition called blood, (Gen 49:11, Deut 32:14) while the tree of Life was an olive tree: bitter to taste, but nourishing, healing and renewing to our life, also producing light and used to anoint and set one apart as sacred, for God’s use. It is interesting to note that when we are baptized and participate in the initiatory covenant we are washed from the blood and sins of this generation, from the ways of this world. Ezekiel shares a metaphor with Israel in which he says, “Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. (Ezekiel 16:9).

Metaphorically speaking after we put away the grape, and only then are we granted access once again to the nourishing olive. Only then do we see its value... and only then does the bitter become sweet to our soul.

What This Work Is All About

Here are a couple of quotes from one of those talks years ago that has in many respects changed my whole perspective on my purpose in life and the work of the Master.

The whole talk can be read by clicking on the following link. http://lds.org/ensign/2002/08/what-this-work-is-all-about?lang=eng

Gordon B. Hinckley, "What This Work Is All About", Ensign, Aug. 2002, 2–7

Our Responsibility
Under the sacred and compelling trust we have as members of the Church of Jesus Christ, ours is a work of redemption, of lifting and saving those who need help. Ours is a task of raising the sights of those of our people who fail to realize the great potential that lies within them. Ours is the responsibility of building self-reliance, of encouraging and cultivating happy homes where fathers and mothers love and respect one another and children grow in an atmosphere of peace and affection and appreciation.
Is not this what the work is all about? Said the Savior, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Without great abundance of the things of the world, these, my friends, live abundantly. People such as they are the strength of the Church. In their hearts is a quiet and solid conviction that God lives and that we are accountable to Him; that Jesus is the Christ, the Way, the Truth, the Life (see John 14:6); that this work is Their work; that it is true; and that gladness and peace and healing come in walking in obedience to the commandments of God (see D&C 89:18), as set forth in the teachings of the Church.
This work of ours is a great work of redemption. All of us must do more because the consequences can be so remarkable and everlasting. This is our Father’s work, and He has laid upon us a divine injunction to seek out and strengthen those in need and those who are weak. As we do so, the homes of our people will be filled with an increased measure of love; the nation, whatever nation it be, will be strengthened by reason of the virtue of such people; and the Church and kingdom of God will roll forward in majesty and power on its divinely appointed mission.

Before this article I found myself complaining about those who didn't seem to catch the same vision I did of cooperation with and participation in the Kingdom of God. I realize now my arrogance, but it took this article to stifle my frustrations and remind me that lifting my neighbor, whether member or not, is what this work is all about. We are all inadequate in some part of our spirituality and one of the great gifts of the gospel is that we have each other to keep pushing and prodding, lifting and building.

I am renewed in my determination to be less frustrated, and seek to build myself, and others, toward Christ, whatever their state may be.