The Ax on the Ground

When John the Baptist was teaching the people, he gave this warning: “And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire” (Matt. 3:10).  It’s a rather ominous saying, and I’ve been thinking about what is meant by it.  Alma used the same phrase in even more forceful terms when he was teaching the people at Zarahemla: “And again I say unto you, the Spirit saith: Behold, the ax is laid at the root of the tree; therefore every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire, yea, a fire which cannot be consumed, even an unquenchable fire. Behold, and remember, the Holy One hath spoken it” (Alma 5:52).  We find it one more time in the scriptures when the Lord said in this dispensation: “The ax is laid at the root of the trees; and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down and cast into the fire. I, the Lord, have spoken it” (D&C 97:7).  So what is it that we are to learn from this phrase?

               I generally understand the phrase to be referring to our final state at the judgment.  A tree that was cut down represents one who ultimately did not rely on the Savior’s atonement and must endure “the sufferings of his wrath” (D&C 76:38).  It’s interesting to note that in each instance, the words were spoken to the people of the covenant.  John the Baptist spoke it to the “Pharisees and Sadducees” who should have been living righteously but weren’t.  In fact, he went so far as to call them a “generation of vipers” (Matt. 3:7).  When Alma was speaking, he was addressing mainly the “people in the church” in Zarahemla who were filled with “pride and craftiness” and were in an “awful dilemma” according to Alma (Alma 4:19, 7:3).  In D&C 97 the Lord was addressing the Saints in Zion and in the previous verse referred to those “that must needs be chastened” (D&C 97:6).  So the phrase is especially important for the members of the Church; we who have already committed to following the Savior must realize that if we don’t “bring forth good fruit” then there will be serious consequences.  At first the phrase itself seems pretty harsh, but I realized that it doesn’t say, “The ax is in the air ready to swing at the trunk at the first sign of a mistake,” but it is rather laid at the root.  So I picture an ax lying on the ground, perhaps several feet from the tree.  It’s there not to threaten us, but to remind us the purpose of the tree—for fruit.  Without fruit, the tree can only be used for wood in a fire.  In other words, in our lives the purpose is to live righteously, to become more like our Heavenly Father, to grow spiritually and develop in us the kind of character traits that the Savior has.  If we don’t eventually do that, then we have indeed wasted the days of our probation.  But I don’t think the Lord is using the phrase to coerce us into good behavior because we have an ax swinging over our head; rather, He wants to remind us that there will be undesirable results if we don’t ultimately choose to repent and follow what we already know (remember this is speaking to members of the Church) to be right.  In the allegory of the olive trees, the trees also seemed to represent people (or at least groups of people), and we see that He did not destroy the trees at the very first sign of trouble.  He told us, “I have nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and I have dunged it; and I have stretched forth mine hand almost all the day long” (Jacob 5:47).  But even after all of that work and frustration that the trees were not responding to His perfect care as they should, He still allowed them a little longer time: “And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant: Let us go to and hew down the trees of the vineyard and cast them into the fire….  But, behold, the servant said unto the Lord of the vineyard: Spare it a little longer.  And the Lord said: Yea, I will spare it a little longer” (Jacob 5:49-51).  He will not rush putting the ax to the tree or giving up on our chances to repent and change, but ultimately the unfruitful portion of the vineyard was indeed burned in Jacob 5.  The “day of probation” will not last forever, and the ax on the ground should remind us to “not procrastinate the day of [our] repentance until the end” (2 Nephi 33:9, Alma 34:33).