OCTOBER 17 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?” (Matthew 24:45)

 OCTOBER 17  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#31 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?”  (Matthew 24:45)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, praise be to the Son that was Obedient to the Father’s Will, who gave so unselfishly of Himself in order that others could have fellowship with the Father God in heaven. 

Lord, we live our day-to-day lives thinking only about ourselves and miss the blessing of Sacrificial Living that You demonstrated when You walked on this earth in the flesh and was tempted as we are tempted, yet You were without sin — does sin come from self? 

Lord Jesus, forgive me when I get caught up in “how I feel” and miss the blessing that comes from caring about my fellow man like You did. Lord, we cannot perform miracles on our own but I am confident that we can have “compassion” for others and that the Father will work in their lives and bless us as well.   AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus always Teaches so much more than just what is on the surface and this Lesson that He is Teaching which begins “Now learn this parable from the fig tree:” (Matthew 24:32) has much meaning if we put forth the effort to do as Jesus instructs us to do and “learn” the meaning of the “parable” and the “fig tree”. The other thing that Jesus does with His Lesson is to take the obvious which we see on a daily basis and give great “spiritual” meaning to it and since Jesus uses that which is familiar to us in our daily world that we will be able to “learn” His intended Lesson — the Lesson also being the answer to His Question.  

Jesus asks each Question to get us thinking about another “Truth of God” and with each Lesson Jesus reveals the Father in heaven to us which Teaches us that GOD IS TRUTH. 

The Fig Tree that was “cursed” in Matthew 21 is actually a commentary on the state of the Jewish church in Jerusalem. Jesus had returned the temple to a “house of prayer” and the chief priests and elders in the church began to attack Jesus because they felt that all authority was theirs by “tradition” and were very confrontational with Jesus, so much so that Jesus left Jerusalem that night and went and stayed in Bethany. 

The next morning Jesus returned to the city and the Scriptures note that Jesus was “hungry” which meant He was looking for the church in Jerusalem to provide “spiritual” food for the nation. When Jesus came upon the fig tree and found that it only had leaves, Jesus knew that the church was barren for the Fig Tree actually puts forth fruit buds BEFORE the leaves appear — also the late figs often winter-over and ripen the following spring so knowing about the Fig Tree one can understand why when Jesus looked at the Fig Tree as symbolic of the church in Jerusalem and “cursed” it for obvious reasons. 

Jesus observed that on this Fig Tree outside the Eastern Gate, there was no fruit from last year nor was there any fruit buds for the upcoming year that Jesus made the statement on the church in Jerusalem with His “cursing” the tree and by making it wither that God has passed Judgement on the church in Jerusalem because the church showed no signs of fruit, none from the “fall fruit” that ripens the following spring nor any small buds indicating that the tree would not produce any “summer fruit”.  

The statement that Jesus made after the parable of the vineyard makes much more sense once we “learn” about the “fig tree”: “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.” (Matthew 21:43) So we can “learn” from the “fig tree” that God expects “kingdom fruit” and if there is no “fruit” then God will move the tree somewhere that it will bear fruit. 

Now with this second lesson using the Fig Tree we can ascertain that since Jesus is giving “signs” of the end time that Jesus is telling us via this parable of the Fig Tree what the state of the nation of Israel will be “at the end of the age” because Jesus says “So you also, when you see all these things (the tender branches and its putting forth leaves), you will know that “summer is near” and when you see the nation Israel putting forth leaves and its national branches are tender, that the “end of the age” is “near—at the doors.” (Matthew 24:32-33) 

Therefore if we are looking for "signs" of the “end of the age” and Jesus returning to earth, we should “learn the parable of the fig tree” and know that it is representative of the nation Israel and by watching Israel we will know that God has promised to “restore” Israel in the Promised Land and God has a Plan which includes the “end of the age” and Jesus “coming again” — 

Jesus has given us a list of signs so that those that have “[learned] the parable of the fig tree” will know as Jesus stated, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) My prayer for America and the world is that we will “learn the parable of the fig tree” and we will produce “kingdom fruit” for the ONE that spoke Creation into existence and whose WORD will remain after Creation has “passed away.”