Tag: parable

  • for it was not the season for figs – 5

    for it was not the season for figs – 5

    The Lord vs. Kings

    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.
    

    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, 

    of course, a bramble bush cannot offer shade

    … 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?


    Christ Crowned with Thorns

    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…

  • Parable of the Talents and Barns – 2

    Parable of the Talents and Barns

    Parable of the Talents (conclusion)

    Gunny sack24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

    Now consider the three servants. One shrewd servant managed his master’s 5 talents well, in fact not only doubling his investment over time but receiving an extra talent of the not-s0-shrewd servant who hid it away in a miserly manner. The servant who received three talents was also twice blessed. The foolish servant ends up with nothing. Furthermore, he ends up in hell.

    Think about your money. Is it your money? Or is it money God has provided for you?

    The parable of the talents seems to beg the question: Are you investing God’s resources wisely?

    Parable of the Barns

    In the parable of the barns we have a man who has invested well; in fact so well that he has need of more barns for his crops. He is rich, yet the man is as miserly with his crops as the man who buried the single talent of his master, that is just one bag of silver coins, in the ground. The rich man is ready to retire with all the holdings he has earned over his days of hard work.

    Luke 12:

    16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’

    Did you know that the word ‘soul’ in Greek ψυχή the transliteration means psychē?

    What lesson does Jesus bring to the conclusion of this parable?

    Parable of the Barns (conclusion)

    And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ – Luke 12:19b

    20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

    Shocking! This man had it all. And then he dies suddenly.

    Could it happen? Could it happen to you?

    Could you die suddenly before enjoying your earthly reward, the harvest of your many days of hard work?

    Parable of the Talents and Barns (conclusion)

    Perhaps you have missed a connection between these two parables of Jesus. Jesus does not connect these two parables, yet you may have missed a common thread. This thread has more than a shekel of value in both parables. It is more of an umbilical cord with the complexity of a talent.

    baby in womb
    280 days of life before light

    Man has about 280 days in the womb even before birth. Add about 18oo days to reach school age and maybe 4000 more until this man or woman is ready to save enough shekels to start farming or working for a master in your workplace.

    An eighteen year old will probably not note these shekels of days; but many years later the same man will think that he has earned something. He has accomplished something. She has become her own woman.

    They have invested their days to gain and built their barns with little consideration of those dependant days when God ruled over their universe.

    Many have forgotten when our very life and existence was inextricably tied to our mother. We have not honored our father, who gave his own talents and crops that we might thrive in our mother’s care and under his watchful eye.

    10 Talents

    1 talent = about 3000 shekels (75 lbs)

    A loving father raised you in his home for a shekel of days. When you were ready to grow on your own he gave you everything you needed for your household during the days until his return.

    Your loving father gave you twice the talents of some, perhap ten for your shrewdness and even eleven.

    The day of His return you do not know.

    The average life of a man is about 80 years, perhaps about 30,000 days. By the accounting of your days as shekels your lifespan may be, God willing, about 10 talents.

    Jesus said: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

    “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. – Mark 13:31-32

    Man is like a breath;
    his days are like a passing shadow. – Psalm 144:4

    Will you build a barn or will you invest each shekel of your days from the Lord wisely?

    Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. 

    – Ecclesiastes 12:7 KJV

     

  • Parable of the Talents and Barns

    Parables

    The word “parable” comes from the Greek word παραβολη parabolee. In the Greek para means beside, and ballo means to cast or throw. So parable, in a very basic sense,means to cast beside. The word “parable”, in its more developed sense, still retains that underlying meaning. [source]

    We know parables as stories Jesus would use to illustrate a point – a plausible story that could involve us as a character or participant. Typically we know a point of the story will involve some conclusion leading to a change in our thinking, a sort of paradigm shift (to borrow a 20th c. perspective of such an illustrative story).

    Talents

    One story of some familiarity may be Jesus’ parable of the talents. Before we hear it once more I ask you if you could define a talent. (No, it’s nothing like the show, ‘Britain’s Got Talent.’) If you guessed money, you get half-credit. (That was all I knew.) Let’s talk shekels first.

    30 pieces AA shekel is a Hebrew coin. It’s used as a measure of weight and money; coin-sized weighing 11.4 grams (.4 oz. US). A handful of shekels might be 30 pieces of silver (but Roman coins as pictured were likely worth more, like a US dollar in another country with unstable currency).

    Gunny sackA talent is much more than a handful of shekels: The shekel, in turn, was a 50th part of the maneh, and the maneh was a 60th part of the talent. The talent was, of course, equal to 3,000 shekels. [sourceA talent in not the precise weight of commerce, but rather the larger calculation of accounting income over time.

    By weight 3000 shekels [one talent] would equal about 75 pounds [20-40kg averaging 33kg].

    Parable of Talents

    Matthew 25

    14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’

    To be continued… 

     

Do you SHARE the Gospel by either email or text?