{"id":403,"date":"2014-09-23T18:56:12","date_gmt":"2014-09-24T00:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.masterofthehouse.org\/?p=403"},"modified":"2017-01-08T15:26:31","modified_gmt":"2017-01-08T22:26:31","slug":"withered-fig-tree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/considerations\/withered-fig-tree\/","title":{"rendered":"Withered Fig Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

“The next day, as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus became hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree covered with leaves, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing except leaves because it wasn’t the season for figs. So he told it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” Now his disciples were listening to this<\/em><\/span>
\n “While they were walking along early the next morning, they saw the fig tree dried up to its roots. Remembering what Jesus had said, Peter pointed out to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has dried up!” Jesus told his disciples, “Have faith in God! I tell you with certainty, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ if he doesn’t doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. That is why I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.”<\/em><\/span>
\n Mark 11:12-14,20-24 (ISV)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"figtree\"This event, I consider, is exactly what it presents itself to be.\u00a0 Our Lord, Jesus cursed the fig tree in much the same manner as we would pull a weed from our garden.\u00a0 A weed doesn’t exist in accord\u00a0with our garden – in fact it is contrary.\u00a0 And the fig tree was contrary to its role. (*See the included notation at the bottom of this page about fig trees<\/em>)<\/p>\n

“God also told them, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant that grows throughout the earth, along with every tree that grows seed-bearing fruit. They will produce your food.”<\/em><\/span>
\n Gen 1:29 (ISV)<\/em><\/span>
\n “Every living, moving creature will be food for you. Just as I gave you green plants before, so now you have everything.”<\/em><\/span>
\n Gen 9:3 (ISV)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

God the Creator declared that the plants will provide us our food,\u00a0and the fig tree was contrary to that decree\u00a0so Jesus declared it was finished.\u00a0 I admit there can be significance as a metaphor, but the ideas I’ve heard don’t seem to resonate well with me.\u00a0 I think foremost that the truth from God is direct enough that anyone can grasp it without having to be a historian or philosopher.\u00a0 For me, grasping that the creative decrees of God\u00a0are boundaries we can expect to remain true\u00a0is plenty!<\/p>\n

And that is where I really find some astounding truths.\u00a0 Jesus, when responding to his disciples amazement that the fig tree withered, said “if anyone<\/strong> says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ if he doesn’t doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him<\/em><\/span>“.\u00a0 He didn’t say it was limited to prayers, or belief in His name.\u00a0 He said anyone.<\/p>\n

What startles me about that is there are no shortages of modern day gurus that declare and encourage that we can make our dreams come true.\u00a0 The religious part of me is very much against their teachings, but I have to admit that truth is truth.\u00a0 God created this world because He wanted to give to us.\u00a0 He wanted to share with us.\u00a0 So He gave us the means to receive from Him.<\/p>\n

“God blessed these humans by saying to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it! Be masters<\/strong> over the fish in the ocean, the birds that fly, and every living thing that crawls on the earth!”<\/span><\/em>
\n Gen 1:28 (ISV)<\/em><\/span>
\n “God blessed Noah and his sons and ordered them, “Be productive, multiply, and fill the earth.\u00a0 All the living creatures of the earth will be filled with fear and terror of you from now on, including all the birds of the sky, everything that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the ocean. They’ve been assigned to live under your dominion<\/strong>.<\/em><\/span>
\n Gen 9:1-2 (ISV)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

God the Creator put man in charge of everything, as masters having dominion, or authority, over His creation.\u00a0 When Jesus said “anyone”,\u00a0 he meant all of us and any of us.<\/p>\n

“But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you will become children of your Father in heaven, because he makes his sun rise on both evil and good people, and he lets rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous<\/strong>.” Mat 5:44-45 (ISV)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

God’s kindness and mercy, and truth, is not limited to specific people or groups.\u00a0 We have each and all received our authority in and over His creation.\u00a0 And because that is true Our Lord further explained, “That is why I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours<\/em>.”\u00a0 He was saying that since this authority is true for everyone, how much more reliable it is for those who believe and trust in\u00a0Him.<\/p>\n

As human beings we can talk ourselves out of many blessings because of doubt and uncertainty.\u00a0 The modern age teachers promote believing in ourselves, and they are correct as far as our creation, but to the believer of Jesus the truth goes beyond because “What profit will a person have if he gains the whole world, but destroys himself or is lost?” Luk 9:25 (ISV)<\/em><\/p>\n

And so, the question, “If you suddenly had a cheque for an extreme amount of money – the amount to represent an end to worry and opening countless possibilities – what would you do with it?\u00a0 How would you use it?\u00a0 Gain the whole world, maybe?\u00a0 Or Something better?”<\/p>\n

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*”The other miracle is the cursing of the barren fig tree (Mk. xi 12 ff.), a stumbling block to many. They feel that it is unlike Jesus, and so someone must have misunderstood what actually happened, or turned a spoken parable into an acted miracle, or something like that. Some, on the other hand, welcome the story because it shows that Jesus was human enough to get unreasonably annoyed on occasion. It appears, however, that a closer acquaintance with fig trees would have prevented such misunderstandings. \u2018The time of the fig is not yet,\u2019 says Mark, for it was just before Passover, about six weeks before the fully-formed fig appears. The fact that Mark adds these words shows that he knew what he was talking about. When the fig leaves appear about the end of March, they are accompanied by a crop of small knobs, called taqsh by the Arabs, a sort of fore-runner of the real figs. These taqsh are eaten by peasants and others when hungry. They drop off before the real fig is formed. But if the leaves appear unaccompanied by taqsh, there will be no figs that year. So it was evident to our Lord, when He turned aside to see if there were any of these taqsh on the fig-tree to assuage His hunger for the time being, that the absence of the taqsh meant that there would be no figs when the time of figs came. For all its fair foliage, it was a fruitless and a hopeless tree.”<\/em>
\n F.F. Bruce<\/strong>, Are The New Testament Documents Reliable?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The next day, as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus became hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree covered with leaves, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing except leaves because it wasn’t the season for figs. So he told it, “May no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[69,70,71,72],"class_list":{"0":"post-403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-considerations","7":"tag-authority","8":"tag-belief","9":"tag-fig-tree","10":"tag-pray","11":"entry","12":"has-post-thumbnail","13":"override"},"acf":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Master of the House","author_link":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/author\/master-of-the-house\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masterofthehouse.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}