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
Recall the fig tree and all the symbols of Jerusalem. You can almost hear Jesus lamenting:
“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!
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.
Not just Jesus but the crowds of Jerusalem as well ALL knew scripture (so much better than 21st c. christians.
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.
Perhaps you can hear Jesus preach this to the crowds who wanted a King to defeat the Rome who ruled Galilee, Samaria and Judea.
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.
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.
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.
“Certainly worship of the Lord had become symbolic lost hope for Israel.”
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?
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.
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.
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.”
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.
After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick…
9 “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 10 Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number…
14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!”
15 Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
The Messiah who cursed the fig tree knew the hearts of men who would be led by a King rather than follow the Lord God.
Returning to a time after the Judges, let us recall briefly the appointment of Israel’s first King. The Elders of Israel have conspired against the Lord.
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “… Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
7 And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.
Jesus knew the hearts of the crowds, of the leaders of Israel, parties of religious officials of the Temple. Their hearts deceived them and their wickedness chose any course other than obeying the Lord.
Rule Over Us
Returning now to Judges and Gideon, mighty man of God after the Lord’s great victory:
JUDGES 8:
22 Then the men of Israel said to Gideon,
“Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian.” Gideon said to them, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.”
… 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.
King Saul of Israel before David;
kings who did evil in the sight of the Lord warned by the Prophets;
King Herod, puppet kings to Rome motivated by men —
Kings, Presidents, Premiers, Prime Ministers, Princes —
Prophets (who are as false as gods carved from stone) — all men of the people!
Jesus would be like none of them.
Jesus could only be the One King obedient to the LORD God.
‘Padiddle,’ it came to me as I was driving home at dusk one evening. Padiddle, where did that come from? Then I remembered.
I had not grown up with it, for our family had played other travel games in the car. In fact, as I observed a car in traffic with no lights on at all, the very moment from 45 years ago came to me.
The car in my rearview mirror had only one headlight, which from a perspective of safety was just a little better than a car with no lights whatsoever. ‘Padiddle,’ I thought. I had first heard it from my first wife (so many years before). She went back to her daddy after just a little more than a year of our young marriage. I was devastated, but recalling some of our happier moments brought a smile to my heart.
Failures from our past
I had failed in that marriage forty-five years ago and in other relationships/marriages since. Of course I was part to blame; but I was never the one to give up on my vows or run out on my marriage. I had even had a successful, ‘until death us do part’ marriage which lasted more than two decades. Nevertheless, even after all these years guilt and regrets remain from my marriage to the bride of my youth.
Why couldn’t I have gotten it right – the first time… or those other times? Why didn’t I see the hurt in store from the most-intimate of relationships?
“Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? – Luke 6:39
Embarking into the mysterious journey of a dating relationship can be a most blinding experience. We listen to our own hearts and hormones. We look to others for advice, if anyone at all. Seldom do even the faithful seek to be equally yoked; thus we run into the love of a new relationship at different speeds.
The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it? – Jeremiah 17:9
A further examination into this description of our blind hearts will reveal more convicting words than sick. (Who has not been described as ‘love sick?’) Think of it more like עָקַב beyond cure, exceedingly corrupt or desperately wicked, to name a few.
Truly, failed relationships recall times of great darkness. Yet in Christ we have a Light brighter than the darkness of the world. … in him is no darkness at all.
Relationships often rush forward without tail lights to warn, ‘don’t follow too close.’ An oncoming unexpected one of the opposite sex approaches you with only one dull light, frequently trespassing God’s centerline in their approach to winning your love.
Will you swerve to miss the impact of the pain ahead? Or will you too cross the center line of God’s will?
A Promise we can hold
So what is it we have, if we look to the Lord for hope in our marriages?
Although Jesus was never married to a woman, for our Lord is married to His church; Christ gives couples a new hope to which we can hold.
[ctt title=”Christ\’s promise of forgiveness releases us from the deserved guilt for the wickedness of our past and the continued trespasses of our flawed daily lives.” tweet=”https://ctt.ec/EjeI4+” coverup=”EjeI4″]
If the Lord is part of our marriage, He will not leave us stranded or deserted or alone once more.
Although the intent of this quote of the Law in the letter of Hebrews is not specific to marriage, it applies to the character of Christ. Taken in context, a look a the preceding verse will also encourage.
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
[ctt title=”Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” tweet=”Hebrews 13:4 https://ctt.ec/b6Qkc+” coverup=”b6Qkc”]
May I remind us of Jesus’ words to the Apostle Philip, who followed Him three years?
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? – John 14:9
I find it most encouraging in our marriage that Jesus, who said,
‘Let your yes be yes and your no be no;’
Jesus, who watches over the lost sheep and our Lord who teaches that ‘the two become one;’
He who IS and was, the One judge of all souls at the end of the age assures us:
14“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
31“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” – Acts 10:43
[ctt title=”A marriage without forgiveness is one soul without light.” tweet=”Love forgives, as the Lord lifts guilt from the forgiven.” coverup=”Va0Wr”]
Have you replaced your missing Light?
In Christ Jesus we have forgiveness of sins. Whoever believes in him is not condemned. John 3:18a
This includes your partner in marriage. Jesus includes you, as well. Believe in the forgiveness of of your sins of the past. Just replace the light and turn back to your Lord and Savior.
John 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
Padiddle, I say. We cannot have just half the light the Lord intends for our marriage.
21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Replace the darkness of the broken light of your failing love. For He IS our Light. Our love cannot shine clearly for others, even the one we love, without Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Each husband and every wife need the complete Light of Christ in the oneness of their marriage; for He IS the One who says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
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14“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.