BF&Q pp 217-308
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IN GOD’S GARDEN
Facts 6 The rose was not known in Israel in Old Testament times. In some translations of Solomon’s Song of Songs, the loved one’s lips are compared to a “rose of Sharon.” The red tulip or scarlet anemone may be the reference to that flower. The rose seems to have been introduced into Palestine just before the Christian era. In A c t s , L u k e t a l k s o f a s e r v a n t g i r l c a l l e d R o s e ( R h o d a ) . Olives were cooked, or pickled in salt water; the juice was extracted for cooking, for burning in lamps, for putting on wounds, for rubbing into the skin and hair (as a refreshing beauty treatment), for pouring on offerings given to God and for anointing kings and priests. Olive wood was hard and could be rubbed into a high polish. The cherubim in the temple were made of wild olive wood. The fig-tree was often grown with the vine (1 Kings 4:25), and its broad leaves gave a welcome shade. A fig-tree stood for peace, and it was customary to sit and meditate under its branches (John 1:48). Papyrus is a marsh plant that grows in the Huleh swamp in northern Palestine, and used to grow in the Nile delta. Not only was paper made from papyrus, but also boats (Isaiah 18:2). The land of Canaan was God’s gift to the Israelites. The land was allocated to the tribes by lot. God determined the fall of the lot, so each tribe’s area of land was God-given. Within the tribes, each family was given its own plot of land which was to be treasured by the family for all generations (Isaiah 34:17). When Naboth refused to sell his land to King Ahab, he was not being churlish. To sell would have been to rebel against God, who had given the land. Queen Jezebel, who was a foreigner, did not understand this. If a family fell into debt and had to sell its land, the nearest relative bought it, to keep it within the family. Every fifty years all land had to be returned to the f a m i l y. This preserved equality.
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In the time of the kings, rich families bought the lands of poor people, and built up large estates, while the poor, unable to grow their own crops, became very poor. The prophets spoke out against this (Micah 2:2).
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