Rebecca Holt Stay 17
July 2020
Males and Females have been represented metaphorically as
plants all throughout Jewish and Christian scripture, beginning with Genesis 1
where the herbs bearing seeds and the trees bearing fruit in v.12 are
paralleled with males (who bear seed) and females (who bear fruit) in v.
27.
In Genesis 3, which focuses on the tree of life and the tree
of knowledge of good and evil, the consequence for eating of the tree of knowledge
for women is sorrow and labor in bearing children. For men, the consequence is sorrow and
laboring to bring forth herbs and seeds to feed his family (v. 16-18).
Later in Genesis, the promise of seed – meaning sons and
daughters – is central to the Abrahamic covenant.
In the New Testament, Jesus often spoke to the 12 (all
males) using parables about seeds, often to teach them about growing the
kingdom of God (see parables of the sower, the mustard seed, the field white
and ready to harvest, etc.)
We read a similar parable in Alma 32 about planting a seed
and nurturing it to harvest from the tree of life. Reading it as an extended agricultural
metaphor is a male reading of the parable.
But Alma 32 can also be read very differently, from a female
perspective.
My * comments will alternate with the numbered verses from
Alma 32.
26 Now, as I said concerning faith—that it was not a perfect
knowledge—even so it is with my words. Ye cannot know of their surety at first,
unto perfection, any more than faith is a perfect knowledge.
*Knowledge, repeated twice in this verse, is used in the
Bible euphemistically to mean sexual intercourse, as in Genesis 4:1 “And Adam
knew Eve his wife and she conceived.”
27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties,
even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea,
even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you,
even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my
words.
*Eve was told in the garden that her DESIRE would be toward
her husband (Gen. 3:16).
28 Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye
give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true
seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will
resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your
breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within
yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good,
for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my
understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me.
*Imagine, instead of a garden scene, a woman giving place
that a seed may be planted in her womb.
If it is a good or true seed, and if she does not immediately abort the
child, her breasts will begin to swell, preparing to produce milk. As the
seedling grows for a months, the woman finally feels swelling motions – the movement
of the child within her. This is commonly called ‘quickening.’ With those feelings the previously almost
theoretical child begins to become real to her.
Her body continues to enlarge and her understanding of childbearing is
enlightened.
29 Now behold, would not this increase your faith? I say
unto you, Yea; nevertheless it hath not grown up to a perfect knowledge.
*The child, however, is not yet perfect. In Hebrew, perfect is the word thummim, meaning complete or whole or
finished.
30 But behold, as the seed swelleth, and sprouteth, and
beginneth to grow, then you must needs say that the seed is good; for behold it
swelleth, and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow. And now, behold, will not this
strengthen your faith? Yea, it will strengthen your faith: for ye will say I
know that this is a good seed; for behold it sprouteth and beginneth to grow.
31 And now, behold, are ye sure that this is a good seed? I
say unto you, Yea; for every seed bringeth forth unto its own likeness.
*The growing child is real and good and carries the genetic
likeness of her parents.
32 Therefore, if a seed groweth it is good, but if it
groweth not, behold it is not good, therefore it is cast away.
*Sadly, some seed is imperfect, physically or genetically
flawed, and the child fails to thrive and dies.
We call this miscarriage. Upwards
of 1/5th of all noticed pregnancies end in miscarriage.
33 And now, behold, because ye have tried the experiment,
and planted the seed, and it swelleth and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, ye
must needs know that the seed is good.
34 And now, behold, is your knowledge perfect? Yea, your
knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your faith is dormant; and this because
you know, for ye know that the word hath swelled your souls, and ye also know
that it hath sprouted up, that your understanding doth begin to be enlightened,
and your mind doth begin to expand.
*If the seed is good, it implants itself into the newly
formed placenta, the good earth from which the new fruit will grow. Picture the veins and arteries in the
placenta as the roots, the umbilical cord as the trunk which carries nutrients
to the child, the ripening fruit.
35 O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it
is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible,
therefore ye must know that it is good; and now behold, after ye have tasted
this light is your knowledge perfect?
36 Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither must ye lay aside
your faith, for ye have only exercised your faith to plant the seed that ye
might try the experiment to know if the seed was good.
37 And behold, as the tree beginneth to grow, ye will say:
Let us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up,
and bring forth fruit unto us. And now behold, if ye nourish it with much care
it will get root, and grow up, and bring forth fruit.
*As the child grows, it needs nourishment. Mom needs to eat plenty of healthy food, take
pre-natal vitamins and visit her midwife or OB regularly.
38 But if ye neglect the tree, and take no thought for its
nourishment, behold it will not get any root; and when the heat of the sun
cometh and scorcheth it, because it hath no root it withers away, and ye pluck
it up and cast it out.
39 Now, this is not because the seed was not good, neither
is it because the fruit thereof would not be desirable; but it is because your
ground is barren, and ye will not nourish the tree, therefore ye cannot have
the fruit thereof.
*But if the mother neglects the child within, if she tries
to stay slim and not gain weight, if she smokes, drinks alcohol, or takes
addictive drugs, then the child begins to wither (results include death from
failure to thrive, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc. with triple the normal risk of
stillbirth).
*Or, even worse, the mother may choose to pluck up the fruit
and cast it out. We call that
abortion. Most abortions today are not
necessary, are not because malformation of the child or a threat to the health
of the mother, but are performed because the parents themselves are
barren. They have no living faith that
even an unplanned child could be a great blessing.
40 And thus, if ye will not nourish the word, looking
forward with an eye of faith to the fruit thereof, ye can never pluck of the
fruit of the tree of life.
41 But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as
it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience,
looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall
be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.
*But if the mother continues to nourish the child within
with great patience – consider that the final month of pregnancy can seem like
a year of discomfort – then, she, the woman as the Tree of Life (see Proverbs
3:18 “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her”) finally bears
fruit. Nephi saw this in his vision of
the Tree of Life (see 1 Nephi 11: 4, 8. 13, 15, 18-20).
42 And because of your diligence and your faith and your
patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold,
by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is
sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea,
and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until
ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst.
*The fruit of that tree, the perfect newborn baby, is
precious, sweet, and pure. Birthing a
child may be the closest any human comes to reenacting the Atonement of
Christ. Each birth brings forgiveness,
innocence and new beginnings. A parent’s baby hunger is finally satisfied as
the child feasts at the mother’s breast.
43 Then, my brethren, ye shall reap the rewards of your
faith, and your diligence, and patience, and long-suffering, waiting for the
tree to bring forth fruit unto you.
*All it takes to reap the rewards of your efforts is faith,
diligence, patience, long-suffering (think of 20 hours of labor) and waiting
(think of parents with fertility issues and the years they may wait for children). But have faith: it is so worth it.
