><>...Hi Lee, how are you doing...><> You asked
"Do you consider the visit of our Lord to this tree without fruit a parable of His visitation
to Israel?"
No, I understand it to be a lesson on His teaching of; the "Parable of the Fig Tree", Parable of the Tares, Synagogue of satan,(Rev.2:9 & 3:90) and John 8:31-47 and other teachings also not limited to the NT. Jer.24 is a great teaching on this.
Our Lord Himself tells us of the Synagogue of satan, in all the above. consider;
Rev 2:9
9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
He makes it even clearer in John 8
John 8:31-33
31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
33 They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
All Bible students know, and our Lord Certainly knew, that there was in fact a time when All the tribes of Israel including the tribe of Judah was in bondage. So if these guys say that they were never in bondage to any man, then they have revealed who they are not.
The Jew today, our brother Judah, still remembers and speaks of that bondage.!
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Continued:
John 8:36-37
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
37 I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
39 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
40 But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
Notice the Capital F and lower case f in the word Father and father, when Jesus was speaking to them...
The Parable of the Fig Tree that Christ said we should learn, has come to pass. In 1948 when Israel (the country) became an independent state many true Jews (our brother Judah), along with those who said they were Jews returned to Jerusalem.
Jer 24:1-10
1 The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
3 Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
4 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
5 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.
6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:
9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.
10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.
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Our true brother Judah is not a Tare Or anyone who Our Lord was speaking to in John 8, nor are they (God forbid) ever to be confused with the synagogue of satan.
That is why after Jesus explained the Parable of the tares
Matt 13:28-30
28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
The Smyrna fig and the Capri fig. Impossible to tell them apart,(Unless we taste them first)so to the untrained eye we can Inadvertantly discard the Good fig(Smyrna) until all there was left was the Capri fig ( rotten tasting fig) and we wouldn't to do that.! So too to the untrained spirit it is impossible to discern who are of the sos....Unless we first taste them, but oh that is soooo bitter......OR..... we have the gift of spiritual discernment( Specifically relating to this matter), this is a good gift to pray for!
Have to go my friend, have a blessed day, and shalom to you also.
Shalom...><> |
