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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 – 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