Zenos’s allegory helps us understand that the scattering of Israel all over the world was a blessing to Israel and to the rest of Heavenly Father’s children. President Joseph Fielding Smith taught: “In that parable the olive tree is the House of Israel. … In its native land it began to die. So the Lord took branches like the Nephites, like the lost tribes, and like others that the Lord led off that we do not know anything about, to other parts of the earth. He planted them all over his vineyard, which is the world” (Answers to Gospel Questions, 4:204).
President James E. Faust (1920–2007) of the First Presidency explained the purpose of scattering Israel throughout the world: “The scattering of Israel throughout the world sprinkled the blood that believes, so that many nations may now partake of the gospel plan” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1982, 127; or Ensign, Nov. 1982, 87).