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Tag: deuteronomy

For you will always have the poor – 3

For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’ – Deuteronomy 15:11

Certainly Jesus could have been referring to this command of Moses.

Thus far we have examined two of the three reports of Jesus telling us that the poor are always with us. (Our Lord means no disrespect.) Before moving on to His point in the anointing with oil and returning to the final quote, let’s take a brief Biblical look at the needy.

Psalms

9:18 For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.

10:2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.

14:6 You would shame the plans of the poor,
but the LORD is his refuge.

113:7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap

Proverbs

14:21 Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner,
but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.

19:1 Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity
than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool.

28:6 Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity
than a rich man who is crooked in his ways.

Judge rightly between the words of Jesus and the integrity of the one who remarked that the extravagant anointing of Jesus kept help from the poor.

“And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” tweet=”Luke 6:20

Luke 6:30-36

Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.

And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

Who has the LORD chosen?

Has the Lord not chosen the poor, the humble and the least of those among men a His own servants?

“Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?” tweet=”But you have dishonored the poor man. James 2:5-6a

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. – Colossians 3:12-14

To be continued…

August 7, 2017
for it was not the season for figs – 8
The Fig Tree Languishes

In this concluding part of our 8-part series we draw our conclusions of why JESUS on his way to Jerusalem cursed the fig tree.
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[circa 835 BC]
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The Prophet Joel:

1:3 Tell your children of it,
and let your children tell their children,
and their children to another generation…

Generations recall what has been before.

Sin is always the downfall of the Lord’s chosen nation.

Surely scripture speaks contemporarily to those with ears to hear.

1:12 The vine dries up;
the fig tree languishes.
Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
all the trees of the field are dried up,
and gladness dries up
from the children of man.
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~A.D. 30
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Yesterday they shouted, ‘Hosanna!’

Eight centuries after Joel and other prophets warned Judah to repent, Jesus of Nazareth entered Jerusalem triumphantly. Even the children shouted praises and the crowds witness miracles.

Jesus then returned to nearby Bethany for the night.

A connection of Bethany to figs

Bethany was home to Lazarus, where some in the Jerusalem crowds had known that Jesus had raised him from the dead! Much is expected for this day.

Bethany “place of unripe fig tree near to Jerusalem

Bethany “house, place of unripe figs” is a village located on the E slope of Mt. Olivet, about one and one-half miles from Jerusalem.

It was called also the house of misery on account of its lonely situation and the invalids who congregated there.’ Source

Matthew 21:

18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry.
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'It lies on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, fully a mile beyond the summit. Bethany has been commonly explained "house of dates," but it more probably signifies "house of misery." 
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19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!”
Gospel of Matthew 21:19

And the fig tree withered at once.

Once a withered fig, Jerusalem will wither once more

Israel and Judah had been destroyed.

Jerusalem’s walls and Temple are rebuilt after many years, first by Ezra then built back bigger and better by Herod the Great.

Rome, like other nations, has again captured a chosen people; sons of Abraham, sons of David.

A King rides up to the gates triumphantly and crowds praise Jesus.

Now the Lord returns to Jerusalem and curses a fig tree.

Do these jews praising Jesus know their scripture?

Of course they do.

“Nearly every 1st century jew knew the word of God better than most jews or christians in these last days with abundant access to unread Bibles.”

32:46 וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם שִׂימוּ לְבַבְכֶם לְכָל־הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מֵעִיד בָּכֶם הַיֹּום אֲשֶׁר תְּצַוֻּם אֶת־בְּנֵיכֶם לִשְׁמֹר לַעֲשֹׂות אֶת־כָּל־דִּבְרֵי הַתֹּורָה הַזֹּֽאת׃

and he said to them, “Place in your heart all the words with which I am warning you today, which you shall command your sons to be careful to do, even all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 32:46

Deuteronomy 8:

6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills,

8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.”

Have we forgotten the lesson of the fig tree?
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Just in case you have missed the Prologue and Scripture bringing us to this conclusion: GO BACK to the PROLOGUE HERE
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Even as we have forgotten the Lord in our daily lives, Jesus the Messiah has found no fruit of repentance in Israel — in our nation

— perhaps rarely in our churches — and even in the landscapes and homes of this 21st century christian life.

The Lord found no desire of God’s chosen people to turn back to true worship of the Lord.

God our Father sent the Son to us in the flesh to become a Sacrifice for our sins.

Jesus neared the completion of His time with us on His created earth as Son of Man and then set his face toward Jerusalem and CURSED the fig tree.

‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’”
Deuteronomy 27:26

It was not the season for figs, but a time for sacrifice.

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up – John 3:13

Matthew 21:

²⁰When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying,

“How did the fig tree wither at once?”

²¹And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. ²²And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
What season is your faith?

+ Do you worship the Lord?

+ Would a King entering your town recognize your fruit?
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Forgive me, Lord. Help me in my unbelief, for I have not asked you to take up the evil on this mountain of my mortal life and cast it into the sea.
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Jesus IS Lord. He will return to reign forever and ever.

Amen.
July 12, 2017
for it was not the season for figs – 5
The Lord vs. Kings
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We began this series examining an incident of the Lord Jesus cursing a fig tree. 

It seemed so unlike the Son of Man who would a few days later sacrifice His own blood as perfect Passover sacrifice for the sins of man.
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In the Beginning:

It is in Eden where we first hear of the leaves of the fig tree made to cover sin.

Genesis 3:7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Recall that in the beginning, after the Lord created the heavens and the earth, He walked with man {adam} and the woman {Eve} He had created. He walked with them personally.

The Lord then gave the Law to Moses and appeared to Moses and the Elders of Israel personally

THEY FEARED His awesome Presence!

The Law was then administered by judges, not Kings.

Later the Lord would relent and grant a king to Israel in Saul.

Yet prior to Saul’s anointing we hear a parable preached against the people who wanted to replace their seventy judges with a king.

In the previous episode we briefly looked at the story of the hero Gideon, after which this story is told.

Judges 9:

Parable of the Trees

The Olive Tree

the olive tree is the national tree of Israel

8 The trees once went out to anoint a king over them,

and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’

9 But the olive tree said to them,

‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?’

Olive oil was used for lamps, grain offerings and anointing Kings of Israel.

The Fig Tree

10 And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’

11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?’

The fig tree was a common metaphor for Israel as a nation. It often symbolized the health of the nation both spiritually and physically.

The Grape Vine

12 And the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’

13 But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?’

“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
1 Corinthians 11:25

Brambles [Thornbush]

14 Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’

15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade,
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of course, a bramble bush cannot offer shade
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… but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’

For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. – Deuteronomy 4:24

And you have asked for a King?

So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him,

“Are you the King of the Jews?”

John 18:33

To be continued…
July 3, 2017