FIGS AND WASPS AND FOOLISH GENIUS PART4: WITHERED AND RESTORED

Withered and Restored

“Then there is the curious story of the fig tree, which always rather puzzled me. You remember what happened about the fig tree. ‘He was hungry; and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, He came if haply He might find anything thereon; and when He came to it He found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it: 'No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever' . . . and Peter . . . saith unto Him: 'Master, behold the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.' This is a very curious story, because it was not the right time of year for figs, and you really could not blame the tree. I cannot myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stands quite as high as some other people known to history.” -- Bertrand Russell 1927

At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. Matthew 11: 25-26

What follows is my interpretation of the meaning of the Fig Tree as it applied to the immediate future about to occur when this event happened; i.e., the Passion Week, and also it's application to future events not yet occurring.

Jesus is nearing the end of His teaching. He has traveled about Israel for about 3 1/2 years preaching. He has told people what they must do: repent and turn back to God. He has had many confrontations with the Pharisees. He has escaped some attempts to kill Him because the religious elite recognized what He was saying about himself and it threatened their own status. He has become well-known and crowds flock to hear Him. Now He has come to Jerusalem knowing what is about to happen to Him there.

He has been ushered into the city by a cheering throng, but once into the city He finds the Temple being desecrated by greed. They have made God's house a den of thieves. Israel's people, leaders and priests should have recognized Jesus as the Messiah, the leaves indicating His coming were everywhere, but the fruit of that knowledge was lacking. The city and the people He loved had once again turned their backs on God. It is at this point he has come to the Fig Tree and withered it. It is from this point He spends much of his final teaching on coming events and the signs of His second coming. 

Right after this second cleansing of the Temple, He teaches the crowd several parables about the Kingdom of God and then warns them against the "teachers of the law and the Pharisees".  He lectures the Pharisees and again pronounces woes upon them. At the end He expresses His disappointment in Jerusalem:

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' Matthew 23: 37-38

Jesus had left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings, seemingly in awe at the structures.

"Do you see all these things?" he asked. "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down."  Matthew 24:1 

It is here that the disciples ask him about how they will recognize the last days. Jesus then tells them all the signs of the end times just before He will return. He concludes by saying: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they sprout leaves, you can see for yourselves and know that summer is near. Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near." 

In the prior year Jesus had been preaching to the crowds and had warned them to watch and be ready. At that time he told them this:

"A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'"

 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.' " Luke 13:6-8

The fig tree is a symbol of Israel and it failed to bear fruit. It had an appearance of having something, but didn't. What it did have was then taken away.  

Recall: (For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Matthew 13:12 ESV)

After Jesus was crucified, the Temple vale ripped from top to bottom. The curtain between God and us was removed. The final sacrifice for our sins had been made. But those whom Christ had come to first had missed it and now they withered.

In 70 AD Jesus prophesy that the stones of the Temple would be taken apart was fulfilled and the Chosen people lost their land and were scattered around the world. Their ability to produce fruit was withered and gone. That responsibility was given to the "dogs", the gentiles as the Church. But Christians are warned as well to bear fruit and to be ready when Christ returns. Does the Fig Tree point to these future events as well? Lets look at some statements of the Old Testament prophets.

We have a statement in Jeremiah warning about the consequences of Israel constantly turning it's back on the Lord:

"Say to them, 'This is what the LORD says:

" 'When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return? Why then have these people turned away? 
Why does Jerusalem always turn away? 
They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right.  No one repents of his wickedness, 
saying, "What have I done?" 
Each pursues his own course 
like a horse charging into battle.

Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, 
and the dove, the swift and the thrush 
observe the time of their migration. 
But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.

" 'How can you say, "We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD," 
when actually the lying pen of the scribes 
has handled it falsely?

The wise will be put to shame; 
they will be dismayed and trapped. 
Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have?

Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. 
From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; 
prophets and priests alike, 
all practice deceit.

 They dress the wound of my people  as though it were not serious. 
"Peace, peace," they say, 
when there is no peace.

Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? 
No, they have no shame at all; 
they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; 
they will be brought down when they are punished, 
says the LORD.

" 'I will take away their harvest, declares the LORD. 
There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, 
and their leaves will wither. 
What I have given them 
will be taken from them.'"  Jeremiah 8:4-13

Was not this failure of Israel to honor God and to meet the requirements of the Lord what Jesus was addressing at the time he cursed the fig tree? Wasn't what Israel had about to be taken away? Here is a passage from Hosea addressing Israel’s failure to keep watch and sinking into corruption?

The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. 
Because your sins are so many 
and your hostility so great, 
the prophet is considered a fool, 
the inspired man a maniac.

The prophet, along with my God, 
is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, 
and hostility in the house of his God.

They have sunk deep into corruption, 
as in the days of Gibeah. 
God will remember their wickedness 
and punish them for their sins.

"When I found Israel, 
it was like finding grapes in the desert; 
when I saw your fathers, 
it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree. 
But when they came to Baal Peor, 
they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol 
and became as vile as the thing they loved.

Ephraim's glory will fly away like a bird—no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one. 
Woe to them 
when I turn away from them!

I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, 
planted in a pleasant place. 
But Ephraim will bring out 
their children to the slayer."

Give them, O LORD—what will you give them? 
Give them wombs that miscarry 
and breasts that are dry.

"Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, 
I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, 
I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious. Ephraim is blighted, their root is withered, 
they yield no fruit. 
Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring."

My God will reject them 
because they have not obeyed him; they will be wanderers among the nations. Hosea 9:7-17

Here we have reference to seeing early fruit on the fig tree, but then they yielded no fruit as the time of the Messiah grew closer. And what is the promise? That God will reject them and they will become "wanderers among the nations". Is this not what happened to Israel after the death and resurrection of Christ? 

Remember that prophesy can refer to parallel events in different time frames; that is, it could refer to both the coming of the Messiah for His sacrifice for our salvation and to His coming in power to rule the nations.

I think this passage from Joel applies to the loss of the Jews of their Temple and their ability to continue performing their sacrifices for their sins as well as judgments on the nations in the last days.

Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your forefathers?

Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.

What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; 
what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; 
what the young locusts have left 
other locusts have eaten

Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! 
Wail, all you drinkers of wine; 
wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.

A nation has invaded my land, 
powerful and without number; 
it has the teeth of a lion, 
the fangs of a lioness.

It has laid waste my vines 
and ruined my fig trees. 
It has stripped off their bark 
and thrown it away, 
leaving their branches white.

Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth 
grieving for the husband  of her youth.

Grain offerings and drink offerings 
are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests are in mourning, 
those who minister before the LORD.

The fields are ruined, 
the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, 
the new wine is dried up, 
the oil fails.

Despair, you farmers, 
wail, you vine growers; 
grieve for the wheat and the barley, 
because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

The vine is dried up 
and the fig tree is withered; 
the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree—all the trees of the field—are dried up. 
Surely the joy of mankind is withered away.

Put on sackcloth, O priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

Declare a holy fast; 
call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders 
and all who live in the land 
to the house of the LORD your God, 
and cry out to the LORD.

Alas for that day! 
For the day of the LORD is near; 
it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

Has not the food been cut off 
before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God?

The seeds are shriveled 
beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, 
the granaries have been broken down, 
for the grain has dried up.

How the cattle moan! 
The herds mill about because they have no pasture; 
even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

To you, O LORD, I call, 
for fire has devoured the open pastures 
and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

Even the wild animals pant for you; 
the streams of water have dried up 
and fire has devoured the open pastures.  Joel 1:2-20

Yes, God withered the fig tree called Israel. But He didn't break his promises. He is not finished with Israel and He promised Israel would be reestablished in their land and would eventually bear fruit and recognize Jesus as Messiah. 

"Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

Otherwise I will strip her naked 
and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, 
turn her into a parched land, 
and slay her with thirst.

I will not show my love to her children, 
because they are the children of adultery.

Their mother has been unfaithful 
and has conceived them in disgrace. 
She said, 'I will go after my lovers, 
who give me my food and my water, 
my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.'

Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; 
I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. 
Then she will say, 'I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.'

She has not acknowledged that I was the one 
who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, 
who lavished on her the silver and gold—which they used for Baal. Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. 
I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her nakedness. So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; 
no one will take her out of my hands.

I will stop all her celebrations: 
her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed feasts.

I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, 
which she said were her pay from her lovers; 
I will make them a thicket, 
and wild animals will devour them.

I will punish her for the days 
she burned incense to the Baals; 
she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, 
but me she forgot," declares the LORD.

"Therefore I am now going to allure her; 
I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.

There I will give her back her vineyards, 
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. 
There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

"In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; 
you will no longer call me 'my master. 

I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; 
no longer will their names be invoked.

In that day I will make a covenant for them 
with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air 
and the creatures that move along the ground. 
Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, 
so that all may lie down in safety.

I will betroth you to me forever;  I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, 
in love and compassion.

I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.

"In that day I will respond," declares the LORD—
"I will respond to the skies, 
and they will respond to the earth; and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, 
and they will respond to Jezreel.

I will plant her for myself in the land; 
I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one. ‘ I will say to those called 'Not my people,' 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.' " Hosea 2: 2-22

The story of Jesus and the Fig Tree is much more than a curious and puzzling story. Bertrand Russell considered himself a deep thinker, but could not see any point to this event and put Jesus down for withering the fig tree. He spent no effort on understanding the story in context or in history. But I think it is a story with a great deal of meaning, not just in the past and for Israel, but for we Christians today. Right now we Christians, as the Body of Christ, the Church, stand somewhat like that Fig Tree. We need to be watching for the signs of the times and we need to be bearing fruit. We don't know when Christ will see our leaves and come again, only that it could be soon. 

Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it!

The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter.

Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood.

 All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree. Isaiah 34:1-4

Final Thoughts

"The secret of happiness is to face the fact that the world is horrible, horrible, horrible...." Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell said a lot of things for which he is quoted. But does he look like a happy man?

I will give him credit for admitting to being an atheist. There are many people who claim to believe in God, but live like atheists. They believe in a god with a small "g", one who is at their beck and call and fits their current purpose. When they have a real need, they may even pray to their god, but usually their god is far back in their mind, hidden in some closet of their brain. 

I would rather have them, like Russell; say they don't believe in any god. What I don't like is the intellectual dishonesty of Russell's lecture-essay, Why I am not a Christian. It is dishonest because he resorts to the same clichés many other non-believers use, taking them out of context and ignoring the original intent. 

Russell also said: "A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand." I don't for a second consider Bertrand Russell a stupid man, but I think that translation is what he did in Why I am not a Christian. 

Bertrand Russell lived to be 97. I guess if you don't believe there is anywhere else to go, you hang on for as long as possible, even in this "horrible, horrible, horrible" world. We can't do anything for Russell now, not even prayer can help him anymore. He has the answers. If he was right, well then he can't ever know because he doesn't exist anymore and has no thoughts. If he was wrong, as I believe he was, he has answers he probably wished he never knew and an eternity of regret. 

It's sad.   

And this is why we Christians don't shut up and keep our religion to ourselves. If we tell the story often enough, perhaps even the Bertrand Russell mountains of this world will be moved. If we make an effort to tend our Fig trees, they may bear fruit.