OCTOBER 19 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 19  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, one day at a time — each day I start with Your Word 

and with this prayer, and each day is a blessing and regardless of 

the circumstances of the day because You keep Your promise to be

 here for those that call on Your Name, You are here and I can say,

 “Yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death that

 I will fear no evil for Thou art with me”!!! 

When I think of the circumstances that I find myself in, I realize that

 they fall into one of two categories and either “Your rod” is 

correcting a wayward course or “Your staff” is pulling me to safety so

 I take comfort in the fact that You are with me and there is no 

circumstance that You cannot use to keep and 

protect us with Your Grace and Mercy.

Thank You Lord for coming to earth and suffering in the flesh 

so that when we are suffering we can rest assured You have won 

Victory over suffering for our sakes. Forgive me for my daily sins

 and lead me in paths of righteousness for Your Name’s sake!!!   

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has started His lead-up Lessons to His next Question by 

asking us to “learn this parable from the fig tree” (Matthew 24:32) 

and with a minimum amount of research on fig trees themselves

 we find an unusual behavior about the fig tree that is not common

 among what we modern Walmart-age-westerners know about

 fruit trees. I know I expected that the life cycle would be for the 

fruit tree to go dormant and lose its leaves in the fall and then in 

the spring there would be leaves and then flowers which turn 

into fruit that ripens in the summer — and then the cycle repeats. 

So when I read for the first time about Jesus cursing the fig tree,

 I took the same position of many people who don’t know 

(or have not “learned” about the fig tree) and about the unusual

 thing concerning figs is that in the late fall, figs that do not ripen

 before the fig tree goes dormant and sheds its leaves, these

 remaining fall figs are called the “late” figs and they too will go

 dormant but they do not fall off but instead they “winter over” 

and then when the tree begins to come out of the winter dormancy. 

This unusual “dormancy” is observed by the fig tree branches

 becoming tender and starts to put forth leaves, that the “late” figs

 actually ripen and are used as food! The other odd thing about the

 fig tree is that the blossoms of the fruit appear before the leaves 

so if the fig tree has nothing but leaves then the tree

 is not producing fruit! Furthermore, if the tree does not have any

 “late” figs ripening along with the tree putting forth a new crop

 of “blossoms” then the tree had not produced any fruit the 

previous year either, hence when Jesus observed the fig tree

 outside Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate in the village of Bethphage

 (Bethphage means “house of unripe figs”) then He observed 

that there was no “fruit”.

It was for the reason that the fig tree was producing no fruit to sustain

 the people that Jesus cursed the fig tree. The “cursed tree” was 

“fruitless” and the fact that Jesus as His first order of business as

 the Messiah making His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem was to

 “drive out all who bought and sold in the temple” and returned it 

to a “house of prayer” as God had intended it and then when one

 adds to these occurrences this incident of Jesus cursing the 

“fruitless” fig tree, His actions makes perfect sense! This sequence 

of Divine Actions gives us insight on the “end times” as well to

 consider that Jesus again uses the fig tree 

as a sign of the end of the age. 

If Jesus cursed the fig tree because it was not bearing fruit we can

 assume that it was a symbolic gesture by Jesus which was an 

indictment on the rulers God had put in place over His House of Prayer,

 coincidentally, these “rulers” actually resided outside Jerusalem’s

 Eastern Gate in the village of priests known as Bethphage. When all

 this is considered together we can surmise that Jesus is 

pronouncing a “judgement” on the nation Israel and their “rulers” 

because they were proving themselves to be unwise and unfaithful

 servants who had let God’s temple become a den of thieves. 

We know from history that the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.

 after Jesus cursed the “fig tree” and the nation Israel was taken into 

captivity as the Scriptures had prophesied. Now Jesus is using the Fig Tree

 which is representative of the nation of Israel to give us a sign

 that can only be understood by those that have “learned” the parable

 of the “fig tree” and know that at the end of the age that the nation

 Israel will be converted and will start producing “kingdom fruit” which

 will be a major event in the religious history of Israel who prayed

 for thousands of years for the Messiah 

and then had Him crucified when He came!

So when you see the nation of Israel recognize Jesus Christ 

as the Messiah, then you will “know that summer is near”. 

So you also, when you see all these things, know that the 

end of the age and Jesus coming again is near, very near — 

at the doors.” (Matthew 24:33) 

Just as Israel becoming a nation again was a sign of the beginning

 of the end times, so will Israel recognizing Jesus as the Messiah

 be a sign that we are in the last generation of this age!