Posted on 09/07/2017 2:48:01 PM PDT by pastorbillrandles
Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.(Matthew 21:18-22)
We have been looking into the context of Matthew 24, Jesus’ definitive teaching on the end times. This critical apocalyptic teaching can only be fully understood in the flow of the context around it. So far we have established;
That we must consider the actual timing in history that Jesus and John the Baptist were sent to the house of Israel. They came forty years before the most devastating Judgment Israel had ever endured till that time. This means they were ‘last days’ preacher in every sense/ What was their primary message? The urgency of Repentance, “The Axe is already laid at the root of the tree…”. We must also remember that Matthew 24 occurred during the last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry. It was one of the last things Jesus taught on earth. Furthermore Matthew 24 occurred during the feast of Passover, and we have shown the prominent place the Passover Psalms, especially Psalm 118 have to play in this teaching. Now we come to another aspect of the context of Matthew 24; the curious incident of the fig tree and the Mountain cast into the sea.
I once belonged to a heretical movement called the Word of Faith, which was based very much on an erroneous teaching on this incident. Kenneth Hagin taught, as did his disciples, that when Jesus cursed the fig tree, He was teaching us to exercise “the god kind of Faith”, that is, we should believe in the power of our own Words, and speak into existence our own reality, as God spoke in Genesis 1.
It took a long time for me to disentangle these scriptures in Matthew 21 and Mark 11. I hope this can help those with similar backgrounds, for the false teaching has robbed us of what was really happening here in the prelude to the teaching of Matthew 24.
When Jesus came upon a fig tree, on the way to Jerusalem and the temple, in the last Passover and last week of his earthly sojourn, the text tells us He hungered. He saw a fig tree in the distance which had leaves on it, so he assumed it would have mature fruit as well (fig trees evidently bear fruit first then leaves).
When he turned over the leaves and found no fruit, he cursed the fig tree, “Let no fruit grow on thee, henceforth, forever…” . The next time he and his disciples passed the tree, they were astonished that it had withered, overnight!
What was going on here? Would Jesus destroy a fruit tree to teach the exercise of faith to his disciples?
Remember that Jesus was and is the WORD of GOD, and was acting in his capacity as aProphet, the ultimate and final Prophet of God (Hebrews 1:1-3).
This cursing of the fig tree was a prophetic act. The fig tree, prophetically is an emblem of the blessing and favor of God upon Israel, or of Israel as a fruitful blessing. The prophetic picture of the good life, is “Every man under his vine and under his fig tree”.
But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it. (Micah 4:4)
Jesus is denouncing this status of Israel, because though they had leaves, (Outward profession, as in Psalm 1 “His leaf also shall not wither…”) there was no fruit when He came looking for it.
What is the fruit that the LORD seeks? Repentance. Righteousness based upon love. True Love for God. Truth and Mercy.
Therefore The Fig tree will die, and the nations will not eat the fruit of it in its present form a=ever again. The fig tree is withered.
Anyone with the least bit of faith, would be able to see that this was to be the outcome of it. It wouldn’t take any more than the tiniest grain of faith in God, to be able to say, “This fig tree is withered”.
In the same vein, He mentioned a similar fate would befall the mountain.
Which Mountain?
The Temple Mountain and all of its apparatus of worship, Priests, sacrifices, Prayers, offerings, the ministry of mercy (Forgiveness of sins), washings, courts, porticoes and Holy furniture. It would soon be plucked up and cast into the sea!
The sea in Prophetic thought is the Gentile World. “The wicked are like the sea…the floods have lifted up their voice….The Creator drew a line and said to the sea, ‘you can come this far and no further…”. The Sea? The turbulent, dark, violent, dangerous, powerful and restless sea?
Did he really say that the Holy House of God would be ‘cast into the sea”?
Unthinkable! But Jesus again said, anyone with the least bit of faith at all would be able to see it, and to say it, that “this mountain is to be plucked up ad cast into the sea…”.
He is not teaching Positive confession. he is saying pretty much the same thing I always tell my congregation, “the least Christian on earth, in the tiniest church, which pays any heed at all to Bible Prophecy, knows what is coming, why it is coming and has an idea when it is coming, even though the experts and pundits have no idea”. Anyone with any faith at all knows the nations themselves are slated for judgment.
Jesus predicted the end of the fig tree, its withering up and barrenness, and the destruction of the Temple, both of which were unthinkable to his contemporaries.
This connects to a remark in Matthew 24,
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.(Matthew 24:32-34)
Jesus had already pronounced that no man would eat fruit of Israel as she was currently constituted, from that point on and forever. However he here predicts that one of the major signs of the end, would be the return back to life of the withered fig tree, as a sign of the dawn of the final generation.
In May 1948, a nation came back into existence after two thousand years, when Israel was reborn. The timing is set, the countdown has begun, the fig tree is blossoming! Maranatha!
Beautifully written. If you have a ping list, please add me.
According to Mark 11:13, Jesus found no figs on the tree “because it was not the season for figs.”
Fig trees bear fruit in late summer—at least they do in California, where I once had a job picking figs—and Jesus’ visit to Jerusalem occurred in the spring.
I find it odd that Jesus was angry at the tree for hot having fruit when he would have known that figs were out of season.
http://newbiblicalunderstanding.info/fig.tree.html
Jesus and the Fig Tree (Mark 11:13)
Most of our modern Bibles of today (I checked 21 different translations), have Jesus looking for fruit when it was “not the season for fruit”.
Mar 11:13 NET. After noticing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, he went to see if he could find any fruit on it. When he came to it he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
One translation even goes much further.
Mar 11:13 NLT He noticed a fig tree in full leaf a little way off, so He went over to see if He could find any figs. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit.
Who is right?
Did Jesus know what He was doing?
Or do Bible translators know what they are doing?
They can’t both be right.
A bigger problem.
As I will try to show, this verse highlights a major problem we have today with our English Bibles.
They contain errors - and some people have identified many of those those errors - but the publishers are not willing to correct the errors.
The truth of the matter.
Take a look at the photo I took of a fig tree in early Spring (before the Spring equinox).
Figs appear before leaves.
I hope you can see that the fruit starts growing at the same time the leaves are starting to grow.
To put it another way, any fig tree old enough to bear fruit, should have immature fruit on it in Spring.
Time Mark 13:11 took place.
Chapter 11 starts with Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and in chapter 14 Jesus is being anointed for His burial, so the fig tree story happens just a few days before Jesus is crucified.
We know that Jesus was crucified on the day the Passover lambs were killed, and that is always the 14th day of the first month in the Biblical calendar. The first month has to start within the 30 days of the Spring equinox.
A round about way of saying that the fig tree story of Mark 11:13 occurred in early Spring.
Fig trees in early Spring.
As the photo shows, a productive fig tree of fruit bearing age, will always have both leaves and fruit at this time of the year. Jesus was absolutely correct in walking over to the tree expecting to find fruit. Sure, the fruit would not be ripe, but the early fruit should be there if there are leaves.
The immature fruit is “dry” but certainly tastes like figs.
So the comment about it not being the season for figs, should be translated to indicate it was not late enough in the season to find “ripe” figs on a tree.
Had it been the season for ripe figs, someone could have been there before Jesus and stripped the tree - and that would have been the reason for no fruit, not that the tree was unproductive.
The truth is known - but who will change?
The truth of the fig tree story in Mark is well documented (see “Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge”), and all people growing figs would know the time the first figs start to form - yet Bible translators would rather make Jesus look “ignorant” of when to get something to eat off a fig tree, rather than correct their mistake.
One can only wonder at how many other errors in the Bible have been left there, because it is easier to ignore errors, than to correct them.
Bob Orchard Sep 2011
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Jesus does no such thing. Zionist drivel.
Jesus' curse is that no fruit would grow on that tree FOREVER. He is done with those branches which say they are "Jews" and are not. (See Romans 2:27-29).
The real commonwealth of Israel, as explained in Ephesians 2:11-22, is believing saints, both old and new testament. This is the true Israel of God, not any who claim physical descent. No one can demonstrate they are "Jews". And most who claim to be Jews are not even semitic, but are Ashkenazi--Europeans.
Thanks for your comment - I agree. This is His last week before the Sacrifice - He has condemned Israel and they have condemned Him - and we all know how that came out!
Yet plenty of old testament prophecies predict Israel’s return. Paul making a point about spiritual Israel doesn’t void those prophecies.
One needs to understand these promises in light of the revealed truth of the New Testament. Paul explains in several epistles who the Israel of God is.
Paul explains in Romans 9 that "not all Israel is of Israel." Membership in the Israel of God has nothing to do with ones flesh.
6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. (Romans 9:6-8)
And who are the children of promise? Paul answers that:
16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
The promises were made to the true Israel of God. There is only one. And it only consists of those who are in Christ. The only way ANYONE can be a part of Israel is to believe in Christ. As Paul further explains:
But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. (Galatians 3:22)
That country over in the middle east which calls itself "Israel" is NOT Israel. And no promises were made to it.
“One needs to understand these promises in light of the revealed truth of the New Testament. Paul explains in several epistles who the Israel of God is.”
What you are really saying is “If you take Paul out of context, it invalidates the promises and prophecies of the old testament”
That is simply incorrect. Paul indeed makes a point in Romans 9 about not all Jews are part of spiritual Israel, however, you jump to the conclusion is that ALL jews are not part of spiritual Israel. If you continue reading Romans 11 will clear this up for you.
“Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew.”
Romans 11:5 “ So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. “
Romans 11:18 “ do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.”
And regarding the promises/prophecies “God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. “, AKA, his promises can’t be changed or transferred.
All of the old testament prophets indeed speak about the return of physical Israel and it has happened in our time. Paul making a point about salvation doesn’t change that.
And your Ashkanazi Jew slur has been proven to be false. It’s nonsense anyway. So what if a percentage of Israel “jews” are of European descent? That assumes a percentage of Jews are indeed descendants of Abraham. So claiming some Jews are Ashkanazi doesn’t change the majority (or whatever percentage) are indeed Jews, and Romans 11 says the promises to the Jews are irrevocable.
Israel has returned before your eyes, why deny it? You will say “That’s not Israel”. Same DNA, same God, same language, same law. Thanks for the comment, but you are not correct.
That's a slanderous characterization. I am making a good faith effort to use scripture to interpret scripture, rather than impose preconceived notions. If something is true, it can always withstand additional scrutiny. And one need not resort to aspersions.
Not all Israel is of Israel.
In light of Ephesians 2:11-22 this can mean one of two things: (1) that "all Israel" includes NT believers and all physical Israel; or (2) that "all Israel" includes NT believers and a remnant of physical Israel. Since Paul has already explained that there still exists a faithful remnant, I must conclude that (2) is the correct interpretation.
This is further bolstered by verse :8 where Paul states explicitly that not all of the seed of Abraham are the children of God, but it is only the children of promise which are counted for the seed. So, the promises were made only to the children of promise, the seed. Galatians 3:16 clarifies who the promised seed "is" (singular), namely, Jesus Christ. So, I must conclude that the children of promise (plural) can only be referring to the plurality which are "in Christ", that is, believers/joint heirs.
This interpretation is consistent with Ephesian 2:11-22 where the "commonwealth of Israel" consists of both old and new testament believers. No others.
Does this exclude the modern nation state of Israel? Do not see how not.
Let's examine "all Israel" in greater detail:
Paul is making a point about gentiles being grafted in to the commonwealth of Israel, not about Israel no longer being Israel.
You are using faulty logic. Just because gentiles can be grafted into Israel does not mean Israel is no longer Israel. If I adopt children, it doesn’t mean all of the natural children are no longer children. That is the faulty logic you are using.
Romans 11 clearly states Israel has not been rejected.
Jeremiah 31 says Israel will never cease to exist.
Deuteronomy 30 is a promise given to actual children of Israel that they wherever they live, if they repent and follow God, they will be given the land back.
Deuteronomy 30:4-6 “Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.”
Words from Paul explaining grafting in of Gentiles were not meant to proclaim the end of ethnic Israel and they do not proclaim that.
Your faulty logic thinking grafting in of Gentiles means the end of ethnic Israel is simply incorrect. Jews were promised the land for all time. They have returned in our time, as the all prophets predicted.
Amos 9:15. “I will plant Israel in their own land,
never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,”says the Lord your God.”
Zephaniah 3:20 “At that time I will gather you;
at that time I will bring you home.
I will give you honor and praise
among all the peoples of the earth
when I restore your fortunes
before your very eyes,”
says the Lord.”
So the prophets are very clear. Ethnic Israel was promised a return to the land in the latter days, and it has happened in our time. Pretty amazing in my book. I don’t know why someone would want to deny it.
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