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Tag: fig_tree

for it was not the season for figs – 7
The Lord Christ Jesus preaches the Prophets as well as the Law.

Read Habakkuk or any prophet and see the Lord predicted in days & centuries Before Christ.

Jesus shares scripture in ways few understand. Application may well apply to these last days as well. RH
Roger@TalkofJesus.com
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This series from summer 2017 began here.
https://talkofjesus.com/not-season-figs-prologue/ 
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The Lord warns of the tree and it’s fruit

In the early preaching of Jesus (right after the golden rule) Jesus offers this warning.

A Tree and Its Fruit

¹⁵“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶You will recognize them by their fruits.

Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

Though the fig tree does not blossom

What shall we do?

“We live thistle-bound lives in lands of lost promise.”

“For the nations are led astray by men and women who seek not the will of the Lord.”

The garden of the Lord seems long lost to sin.

Leaders listening to the Lord’s command are no more.

Judges enact rules of unrighteousness.

Kings conquer, covet and divide.

Prophets no longer warn of God displeasure of even ‘christians‘ living this ‘life’ and the Lord’s silence disheartens the generations.

In the first century A.D. during Jesus’ ministry:

The head of John the Baptist has passed on a platter and crowds of Jerusalem under Rome look for a Messiah and King.

A prophet seven centuries earlier had cursed a fig tree on their behalf echoing the hearts of this Passover procession with Palms – our Palm Sunday multitude.

Habakkuk 1: NKJV

O Lord, how long shall I cry,
And You will not hear?

Why do You look on those who deal treacherously,
And hold Your tongue when the wicked devours
A person more righteous than he?

O, faithless fig tree, dear dried up vine; do you believe that you alone have cried out to the Lord for mercy?

Habakkuk 3:

O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.

A Hymn of Faith
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17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the deer's;
    he makes me tread on my high places.
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A second look at a triumphal entry

¹⁷Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls—
¹⁸Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Matthew 21:
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,

5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”

9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”

11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

To be continued…
July 9, 2017
for it was not the season for figs – 6
When I would gather them, declares the LORD,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”

Jeremiah 8:13

Jesus’ Lament over Jerusalem’s crowds
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Recall the fig tree and all the symbols of Jerusalem. You can almost hear Jesus lamenting:
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“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!

See, your house is left to you desolate. – Matthew 23:37-38

Even as Babylon had devoured Israel from the Euphrates to the Jordan, Rome ruled with an iron hand. Even as Jeremiah prophesied against Judah (now Judea), the crowds knew Jesus could save them from Rome.
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Not just Jesus but the crowds of Jerusalem as well ALL knew scripture (so much better than 21st c. christians.
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Deuteronomy 9:5

It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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Perhaps you can hear Jesus preach this to the crowds who wanted a King to defeat the Rome who ruled Galilee, Samaria and Judea.
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The Lord says: I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God..

“Break up your fallow ground,
and sow not among thorns.
Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
remove the foreskin of your hearts,
O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds.”

Again, thorns and the fire, not the fig tree bearing fruit.

You may have guessed it:

This is not Jesus preaching about Rome prior to cursing a fig tree. It well could have been Jesus’ commentary on preaching of the Prophets from scripture.

Repentance of scripture — from six hundred years earlier — from the Prophet Jeremiah who was ignored and then rejected in Judea — and dismissed in this day of first century Judea as warnings of Scripture are frequently rejected and dismissed in these last days of the 23rd century.

Jeremiah’s warning to Jerusalem

6:9 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“They shall glean thoroughly as a vine
the remnant of Israel;
like a grape gatherer pass your hand again
over its branches.”
10 To whom shall I speak and give warning,
that they may hear?

Again, the vine. The fruit of Israel taken by its enemies.
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And that is exactly what happened as Babylon defeated Jeremiah's Judah.

Powerful Rome ruled over Jerusalem, not the Jews. The Temple was symbol of political power, not actual rule.
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“Certainly worship of the Lord had become symbolic lost hope for Israel.”
Roger@TalkofJesus.com

“A great prophet has arisen among us!”

The crowds following Jesus to Jerusalem knew of the recent resurrection of Lazarus in Judea!

They knew of Jesus’ miracle of raising a boy from his coffin in Nain of Galilee.

Scripture is witness of the great prophet Elijah raising a child from the dead.

Jesus Resurrecting the Son of the Widow of Nain (oil on canvas) by Pierre Bouillon

A King and Prophet rides into Jerusalem, then later curses a fig tree.

These hopeful jews captive in their own land most likely ignored Jesus when the Lord had preached from Jeremiah and many other prophets.

DYK: John the Baptist also quoted Jeremiah?
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We can almost hear Jesus or John the Baptizer preaching these words of repentance to a people without ears to hear from Jeremiah 7:11 and in the Prophet's context understand Jerusalem even more.
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Jeremiah 7:

Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.

16 “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.

17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

27 “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you.

You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.

28 And you shall say to them,

‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God,

and did not accept discipline;

truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

Jeremiah 8:

When men fall, do they not rise again?
If one turns away, does he not return?

5 Why then has this people turned away
in perpetual backsliding?

They hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return.

6 I have paid attention and listened,
but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
saying, ‘What have I done?’

… but my people know not the rules of the Lord.
8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us’?

But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
9 The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,

so what wisdom is in them?

… from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.

… saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.

When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.”

Jeremiah 8:13

14 Why do we sit still?
Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

Recalling Jesus’ words from the fields of Galilee

I tell you, something greater than the temple is here.

A greater than Elijah, greater than Moses, Messiah incarnate has come to the gates of Jerusalem, cleared out the temple and cursed a fig tree.

To be continued..
July 6, 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