SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/23/2023 10:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The
Principle”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 21:20-22
Message of the verses: “20 Seeing this,
the disciples were amazed and asked, "How did the fig tree wither all
at once?" 21 And Jesus answered and said to them, "Truly I say to
you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to
the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into
the sea,’ it will happen. 22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you
will receive.’”
I have to think that it is best for all of us to
remember what the focus is as we look at these three verses, and that is “The
Principle.” I think that perhaps these
verses have been misunderstood therefore causing disappointment to happen when
they are misunderstood.
I
have written about the difference between how Matthew writes about this section
and how Mark writes about it so I won’t go into that again except quote Mark
11:20 “20 As they were passing by in the
morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.” Now back to how Matthew writes about this, “the
disciples were amazed and asked, "How did the fig tree wither all
at once?" I don’t think that anyone
would think that what Jesus did to this tree was something that normally
happens to a tree when it dies. It takes
a long time for a tree to wither like this one did. For this fig tree to wither overnight was to
do so virtually at once. I would have to
put this in the category of a miracle, but not one that was a good miracle like
Jesus usually performed.
It
was at this point that the Lord moved from the visual parable of the fig tree
to another truth He wanted to teach His disciples. Jesus was always teaching His disciples
something in order for when He went back to heaven that the Holy Spirit would
then bring these many teachings back into the minds of the disciples so that
some of them could write about. I have
to think about the book of Revelation and when John wrote it, which was
probably about ninety years after the Lord had gone back to heaven, yet the
Holy Spirit; the author of all Scripture would remind John of things that He
wanted him to write about. This was true
of the gospel of John and John’s epistles that he wrote as they were all
written many years after Jesus went back to heaven. Ok back on track now. “The principle taught in the parable was that
religious profession without spiritual reality is an abomination to God and is
curses” writes John MacArthur. He goes
on “The principle Jesus was now about to teach related to the disciples’
marveling about how quickly the fig tree withered. They knew why
it withered, because they heard Jesus curse it’ they just could not understand
how it could wither so fast. The Lord
took the opportunity to teach them about the power of faith joined to the
purpose and will of God, which can do far more than instantly wither a fig
tree.”
I
saw the following quote from Dr. David Jeremiah on Face Book this morning. He writes “God often uses faithfulness in
small tasks to prepare us for bigger ones.”
He then writes “Thank God today that He is always preparing you for what He
has in store for you next. As the Lord sees us faithful in the small, He will
assign more work to be rendered with joy and done for His glory.” I think that I can compare this quote with
what Jesus was teaching His disciples in our verses from Matthew.
Lord willing we will
pick up on this in our next SD.
6/23/2023 11:30 AM
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