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Tag: judea

for it was not the season for figs – 1
Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit,
and he who guards his master will be honored.

– Proverbs 27:18

Consider the Creator of the garden approaching a fig tree before its season. Who will guard the Son of Man as He enters the Temple and fast-approaches the reproach of the Cross?
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Prologue to this series (in case you missed it)
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Mark 11: [ESV]

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree

¹²On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry.¹³And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

¹⁵And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons…

A triumphal entry into Jerusalem, as an anointed King of Israel. Jesus stays in a nearby town (Bethany) for the night, then returns to Jerusalem. A fig tree is not an uncommon sight along the rural roads leading to the gates of Jerusalem. He curses the tree with no fruit, then enters the Holy City, clearing the Holy Temple of unrighteousness.

The authorities will have to plot against this powerful and righteous Son of Man, lest their comfortable authority would be overthrown.

19 And when evening came they went out of the city.

Jesus leaves town.

Another night away from Jerusalem (probably once again with disciples in Bethany).

The Lesson from the Withered Fig Tree

²⁰As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.

²¹And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.”

²²And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. ²³Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.

Another miracle (kind of a scary one, though). Jesus had cursed a tree and it withered and died in a day.

(Have you ever thought that your life could pass just as quickly?)

Now, in typical rabbi fashion Jesus makes a teaching moment from fulfillment of His curse.

²⁴Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Mark 11:25

“Even a holy week spent in prayer is of no value to the unforgiving worshiper. You with ears to hear, forgive ,” learn the lesson of the fig tree.

Forgive, “… so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
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Tend the tree of life and forgiveness. 
Bear the fruit of love. 
Guard the Lord, our Master and Savior.
He will curse the tree without fruit at the Judgment.
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Roger@talkofJesus.com
Scripture has much more to say about the fig tree. Jesus does not choose such an important symbol of Israel to curse without cause.

To be continued
June 21, 2017
The Burden of the Word of the Lord
The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

מַשָּׂא דְבַר־יְהוָה אֶל־יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּיַד מַלְאָכִֽי׃

We have heard it before: a ‘burden,’ a weight laid upon the back of a mortal soul, an oracle from the LORD laid upon the tongue of a Prophet. Malachi was the last Prophet of Judah. Israel (Samaria) had already fallen. Defeat of the Jews and a silence of the LORD prevails until the voice in the wilderness of John the Baptist.

The LORD had spoken severely to disobedient sons and daughters through many Prophets. In fact, the argument of the burden of leading the LORD’s chosen goes all the way back to Moses.

Numbers 11:11

Moses said to the LORD, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?

Leading a people or a family steeped in our own righteousness is not an easy thing.

How quickly we forget what the LORD has done to redeem us, how He saves us from the slavery of our past.

Before the Lord came to us in a manger in Bethlehem in the Person of the Messiah, a great silence would follow the chastening of the Prophets.

Malachi wrote to the Jews of the Persian province of Judea about 500 years before the Christ. The burden of the LORD on Malachi is a heavy correction even of our own thinking.

Malachi 1:

2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?”

Isn’t that our own question to God our Father? Are we not disrespectful in asking how God has loved us? We are impudent spoiled children to ask our Creator, “How have you loved us?”

The Priests’ Polluted Offerings
6 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my fear? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests, who despise my name. But you say, ‘How have we despised your name?’

If Moses had been burdened by the leading of a rebellious people, surely these rebellious sons of Levi offered no purification for our sins before God our Father. Who could even imagine that the LORD would allow His Chosen People, the Jews, to be ruled by Egypt once more!?

10 Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand. 11 For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts. 12 But you profane it…

14b For I am a great King, says the Lord of hosts, and my name will be feared among the nations.

Malachi 2:

Judah Profaned the Covenant
10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our fathers? 11 Judah has been faithless, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which he loves…

The Messenger of the Lord
17 You have wearied the Lord with your words. But you say, “How have we wearied him?” By saying, “Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.” Or by asking, “Where is the God of justice?”

Malachi preaches repentance to the Jews, captured by Babylon and now ruled by Persia. The word of the LORD is a hard burden on the Prophet, in these days prior to re-building a Second Temple by Ezra and Nehemiah. Yet even the Second Temple would fall.

Judea of Persia:
- Alexander the Great will conquer Persia in 331 B.C.
- Alexander the Great will conquer Egypt a year earlier in 332 B.C.
Judea of the Macedonian Kingdom:
- Ptolemy I rules Judea
- Alexander the Great rules the world
- The Hebrew Bible is translated into Greek (Septuagint) in Egypt
Judea of the Ptolemaic Kingdom:
- The Ptolemy successors of Egypt rule Judea once more until 198 B.C.
- Political upheaval brought the Seleucids to power from 321 B.C. until 64 B.C.
- Ptolemy VIII (170-163 B.C.) and Cleopatra II (170-142 B.C.) vie for political power in Egypt
- The Maccabean revolt in Judea defeats the Seleucids (166-142 B.C.)
Judea of the Hasmoneans
- Judas Maccabeus begins the line of Hasmonean rule (166-160 B.C.)
- Pompey annexes Judea to Rome (63 B.c.)
Judea under Rome
- C. Octavius (later Augustus) was born on 23 September, 63 BC
- Herod the Great (37-4 B.C.) gains political power in Judea as an ally of Rome.
- Egypt, under Cleopatra VII, falls to Octavian (30 B.C.)
- Rome (27 B.C.- A.D. 395) rules much of the world under Octavian
- Judea is under the jurisdiction or Syria, part of the Roman Empire under Caesar Augustus.
- Herod, funded by Rome, builds strategic roads for his Roman administration and rules over Judea with ruthless political savvy.
The Prophet Malachi has foretold with accuracy these difficulty for the Jews in the time between the Temples and the coming of the Messiah.

Malachi 3: “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

To be continued…

This post is part of a series in preparation for Christmas in the year of our Lord, 2015.
December 12, 2015
Seeing the Invisible Spirit
How does the LORD use the Bible? How do we use the Bible to show others the Lord Jesus?

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

– 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV

Peter’s powerful sermon of Pentecost is perhaps among the best preaching in the Bible after Jesus is raised from the grave. Yet if you or I had been in Peter’s sandals and new position of leadership, what would we have to say?

Let’s take a look at the context and application of events confronting this ‘preacher’ and ask of our situation, ‘What do I do with this?’

Acts 2:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. ²And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. ⁴And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

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Let’s be clear of the place and condition of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the LORD GOD, promised by Christ Jesus, Son of the Living God:  “they were all together in one place.” Peter and the Apostles were worshiping.

Peter and the Apostles were worshiping in Jerusalem where Christ Jesus had been crucified on the Cross outside the gates for our sins; in Jerusalem where Christ Jesus our Lord had risen from the grave to appear to Peter, the Twelve and many (and in many places for fifty days) Pentecost is a celebration of worship, like the Passover, which brought many of the faithful to the city of Jerusalem to worship the LORD.

⁵Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶And at this sound the multitude came together…

The sound of Almighty God draws worshipers to the place where worshipers dwell. Inexplicable, all-powerful Spirit of the Living God, here-present; NOT in the Temple of God (re-built by Herod), nor before only a High Priest behind a veil which separates the Holiness of the LORD from the sinners of God’s choosing. NO! The Holy Spirit of the Living God fell on the Apostles of Jesus and the Twelve began to preach with the Power of the Living GOD.

“Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?

Some things only God can do. Perhaps a High Priest might witness the Holy Presence of the LORD.

Centuries before the great silence of God in defeated Israel and defeated Judah, on occasion the Voice of God would be heard out of the mouth of the LORD’s Prophet. It is one of these great Prophets this uneducated Galilean fisherman taught from and rebuked the unbelieving people who had witnessed the Crucifixion less than two months ago. It is a fisherman speaking in languages of gentiles and of Jews who all amazingly understand the Apostles. It is the Spirit of the LORD instructing Jews and gentiles through faithful worshipers, rather than by educated Pharisees like a Saul of Tarsus, who would later witness the risen Christ.

What was it the Apostle Peter reiterates in Jerusalem of Judea from the Prophet Joel of 800 years before Christ?

[Joel (meaning “one to whom Jehovah is God,” that is, worshiper of Jehovah) seems to have belonged to Judah. – Commentary by A. R. Faussett ]

What had worshipers in Jerusalem forgotten in the short weeks since a dramatic blood moon at the Crucifixion of Jesus and the tearing of the veil of the Temple?

What have some of us forgotten since the worshipful festival of Easter just a few Sundays ago?

Joel 1:

1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: 2 Hear this, O elders, And listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days Or in your fathers’ days?…

⁸Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.

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Was Israel not the Chosen Bride of the Living God?

Was the Bridegroom not crucified by those rejecting God’s promised grace of Perfect forgiveness?

The Spirit of the LORD poured forth from Peter and the Apostles. Worshipers of GOD were drawn to the Invisible Word spoken through these servants of Christ Jesus.

Acts 2:

¹⁷“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
    and your young men shall see visions,
    and your old men shall dream dreams;
¹⁸even on my male servants and female servants
    in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
¹⁹And I will show wonders in the heavens above
    and signs on the earth below,
    blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
²⁰the sun shall be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood,
    before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
²¹And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

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Peter is not reading from a scroll in the Temple. This uneducated fisherman is reminding Jerusalem of not only infrequently heard words of the Prophet Joel, but of the dramatic events of just two months earlier when the sun turned to darkness and the Bridegroom of Righteousness cried out from a cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Peter now preaches by the Spirit of what Joel had foretold of these very last days, begun on a Cross just weeks before.

²²“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— ²³this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. ²⁴God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

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The bold fisherman of Galilee again quotes scripture from the hymnal of the Jews, the words of Psalm 16 :

²⁵For David says concerning him,

“‘I saw the Lord always before me,
    for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
²⁶therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
    my flesh also will dwell in hope.
²⁷For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
    or let your Holy One see corruption.
²⁸You have made known to me the paths of life;
    you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

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The Spirit then gives Peter not only more scripture to speak to the souls before him, but application to their salvation. Speaking of King David, a man after God’s own heart, Peters says:

³¹he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

Speaking of what some in the crowd surely had witnessed in Jerusalem at the previous feast of Pentecost, Peter proclaims:

³²This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.

³³Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,

he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

God’s chosen worshipers are once again witnessing the invisible and inexplicable signs and wonders in the Apostles, signs and wonders not unlike those many had also witnessed personally in Christ Jesus of Nazareth.

The Spirit and Peter confront their souls with the evidence of the Messiah, sacrificed and risen. Jesus is not a King like David; Jesus is more than a King of the Jews and of Jerusalem.

³⁴For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
³⁵    until I make your enemies your footstool.”’

³⁶Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Peter, by the power of the Spirit and the convicting words of scripture has applied the Word of God to the very moment of salvation for those with ears to hear.

The Bridegroom of the church speaks by the Spirit to those with ears to hear:
- Will you hear the conviction of the Savior you crucified in the words of Peter?
- Will you turn from your sinful ways to take up your cross and follow Christ Jesus?
- Has Jesus’s love drawn your soul to the wedding feast which will come on the clouds of these last days?
- Will this Spirit-filled sermon make any difference in your days?
- Will the Lord Jesus be your Lord?
God IS in Person, Christ Jesus!

The Spirit of the I AM, the LORD, calls out to you.
- What must you do?
Acts 2:37-47
May 31, 2015