🙂👍💯💡⭐🕊️ another valuable lesson from the passion week ❗❗
Posted : 27 Mar, 2024 03:23 PM
😕😕 when your fig newtons taste a bit on the stale side and rightfully so -- another valuable lesson from the passion week ❗❗
Matthew 21 The lesson of the fig tree.
1. (18-19) Jesus rebukes a fig tree.
Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.
a. He was hungry: Some wonder why Jesus would be hungry in the morning leaving the home of Martha and Mary. Spurgeon speculated it was because He woke early to have time with His heavenly Father, and took no time to eat.
i. “He was perfectly human and therefore physically hungry, for hunger is a sign of health.” (Morgan)
b. Let no fruit grow on you ever again: In a dramatic way, Jesus performed one of His few destructive miracles. His curse made the fig tree to wither away.
i. It is worth noting that the two destructive miracles of Jesus (this and the events that ended in the destruction of the herd of pigs, Matthew 8:30-32) were not directed towards people.
c. Found nothing on it but leaves: This explains why Jesus did this destructive miracle. Essentially, the tree was a picture of false advertising, having leaves, but no figs. This should not be the case with these particular fig trees, which customarily did not bear leaves apart from figs.
i. “The first Adam came to the fig tree for leaves, but the Second Adam looks for figs.” (Spurgeon)
ii. In this acted-out-parable, Jesus warned of coming judgment upon an unfruitful Israel. It showed God’s disapproval of people who are all leaves and no fruit. “The story is clear and simple, and its point obvious, that what counts is not promise but performance.” (France)
