July 21, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“‘See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven facets on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day. And on that day each of YOU will invite your neighbor to sit under your vine and fig tree,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” (Zechariah 3.9, 10)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

As with most Christ followers familiar with the gospel of Jesus, we know of the two significant stories which include passages concerning “fig trees.” These fig trees are used as symbols of our own lives just as God revealed to Zechariah, Joshua and those from his court they represent the nation of Israel. [By extension, they should also represent every nation.] The fig tree is a sign of God’s righteousness, provision and sanctification. Its fruit is intended to feed the nation and the people this fruit so that they will be strong and purposeful in the world. We are speaking of spiritual prosperity. Just as Jesus announced to the woman at the well, a Samaritan by birth but a Christ follower by rebirth, “The day will come when we will worship together not on this or that mountain but in spirit and in truth.” There is a great falsehood believing that the worship of God is located in a particular place. It is the truth that wherever there is the acknowledgment of the presence of God (“where two or three are gathered in My name there I AM is as well“) the opportunity and responsibility of the people is to worship/serve the Lord with gladness. This is the simplest construct for understanding “Immanuel; God with us.” Consider the Ark of the Covenant in which the Tablets bearing the reproductions of the Ten Commandments, Aaron’s staff which blossomed and the gold jar of manna from Heaven. It represented the focal point of God’s presence to the nations. It wasn’t merely for Israel to believe that “God was with them.” It was for the entire world. Nations came to know that when the army of Israel went forward and the Ark of the Covenant went before them, they would be successful in the venture God called them to complete. Nations grew to fear Israel when they saw the Ark of the Covenant. On one occasion the Ark was captured by the Philistines and brought to their city having defeated the Israelites. When the people awoke the next morning, they found their statue of the Dagon bowing before the Ark of the Covenant. Here we see a practical expression of “I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God and you shall have no other gods before Me.” So, we ought to be convicted by the very thought that wherever we are and whatever we do it should be in alignment, in spirit and in truth, with worshiping and serving God.

We can see examples of this instruction with the two stories in the gospels where fig trees play a part.

The first story is that of Zaccheus. He was a hated tax collector who had become consumed with the love of money. The love of money had become his “god.” He supported his worship of this god by trading his loyalty to God for the fealty of Rome. Rome afforded him the opportunity to collect taxes as prescribed by Roman law and others as the Law allowed. To the people of Jericho, and those who passed through Jericho from other nations on their way to Jerusalem or distant lands to the east and west, Zaccheus was a feared and hated man. They feared him because Rome validated his position with the strength of Roman soldiers and the edict of Rome. They hated him because he was a Jew but had “married” himself to Rome to support his lifestyle. To some, Zaccheus could be compared to a harlot, whore and consort fiscally speaking. In this regard, Zaccheus was no better than many of the kings of Israel in the past who had made deals with foreign nations to prosper themselves and “save Israel.” [Let the reader beware of something similar which may exist in this nation and in other nations of the world today.] It is no small fact that Zaccheus was diminutive in stature. Such “smallness” carried a significant symbolism with Israel history such as David being short, Israel being a small nation and other examples of “the least of these.” Even Saul who was the first king of Israel and noticed as “a head taller than any other man in all of Israel” believed himself to be small or weak. It is because of this diminutive stature of Zaccheus, as opposed to the great stature of Saul, which led him to climb into a sycamore-fig tree to be able to see Jesus above the gathering crowds when he came through Jericho. When Jesus saw Zaccheus, He called out to him and invited Himself to Zaccheus’s house for dinner. Jesus not only had dinner with Zaccheus but many of Zaccheus’s friends who were outcasts of Israel and thus qualified to be known as “the lost of Israel.” We know the consequence of that visit. Zaccheus was transformed, saved and blessed with the opportunity to be restored and a restorer in the city of Jericho. It was the fig tree which allowed him to “see and be seen” and thus find the true prosperity, righteousness and sanctification of his life.

The second story which uses the fig tree as the prophetic word of God through Jesus is known to us as well. It is the story of the barren fig tree. Whether the fig tree was late in bearing fruit in its season or was indeed a tree that could not bear fruit is immaterial. The fig tree was the symbol of prosperity, righteousness and sanctification. When Jesus saw it, He desired to have some of its fruit. From a distance, the tree looked fruitful. It was leafy, green and prolific in its stature. Was it just one tree by the side of the road, the nearest tree to the side of the road among a grove of trees or was it the sole remainder of a grove is not known. What is known is that when Jesus approached it, the tree was found fruitless. It was a “hypocrite” tree, if you will. It spoke of one reality but in truth was another. We might glean from the biblical stories such scenarios in regard to Sarai and Elizabeth who were far past their child-bearing years and were yet childless. The sense of their stories spoke of the disregard other women had for them because they had not borne a child for their husbands. However, God did bless them and gave them a sense of belonging and life in the midst of their communities. The fig tree, however, received no such blessing from Jesus. Instead, He cursed the fig tree because it was a hypocrite. (How many others had been accused of hypocrisy in Jesus’ ministry such as the Scribes, Pharisees and teachers of the Law?) That evening as Jesus and the disciples were returning to Bethany, the disciples noticed that the fig tree had withered and died. It may seem a harsh penalty for a tree who had no choice in being fruitful or fruitless. Nonetheless, the story carries a strong message for those who do have the choice in their own lives.

As a means of summary, let us visualize Jesus as a fig tree. He lives according to the paradigm of “spirit and truth.” His life is sanctified, set aside for godly purpose, as the Lamb of God who would be slain to save God’s people from the sins. His life is righteous and holy being guided in purest intention to serve God, love His neighbor and worship God alone as Father of Heaven and earth. His life is also prosperous in that Jesus lacked for nothing. He had a wealth of spirit to bring hope and life to others. If we looked back at the Ark of the Covenant, Jesus is the incarnation of it: His righteousness is the Law of the Lord; He is the bread of Life come down from Heaven; and He is the resurrection and the life bringing life out of lifelessness as Aaron’s budding staff. This means for us, as mighty ones of God in Jesus Christ, that the same is true. In Christ we have life and have it abundantly, we are able to worship in spirit in and truth and we enjoy the prosperity of life from the inside out. Time to set our spiritual hypocrisy aside and grasp our fruit-bearing nature which God has made for us.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.