SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/22/2024 9:16 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-1
“An Uncomplicated Analogy”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 24:32
Message of the
verse: “"Now
learn the parable from the
fig tree: when its branch has already become tender, and puts forth its
leaves, you know that summer is near;”
I have talked in earlier SD’s about the way Jesus
used parables, but it may be good to talk a little more about theme here as we
begin looking at this parable. Parables
had a two-fold purpose in Jesus’ ministry.
When unexplained, they concealed truth; when explained, they revealed
truth. Now when Jesus gave a parable to
the multitudes or to the unbelieving religious leaders without also giving an explanation,
was a riddle to them. When He gave a
parable to His disciples and explained it, it was a vivid illustration that make
a truth clear and understandable, and so I believe this will help us out as we
look at these verses in which Jesus called a parable.
I have also explained why it was
that Jesus did speak in parables which is the question that His disciples asked
Him when He first began to do this in Matthew chapter 13, and explained that after
the Jewish leaders accused Jesus of doing miracles in the power of Satan and
not in the power of the Holy Spirit that He gave up in teaching them. This is called the unpardonable sin and could
only be done while the Lord was here on earth.
Saying that miracles were done through the power of Satan caused those
leaders to never be able to come into the kingdom of God, ever.
Jesus
told His disciples in Matthew 13 10-11, 13 “10 And the disciples came and said
to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 Jesus answered
them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven, but to them it has not been granted…13 "Therefore I speak to them
in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do
not hear, nor do they understand.”
Now
in light of the fact that Jesus’ parables were given for the sake of helping
the disciples understand His teaching, it is evident that He told the parable
from the fig tree to give them further light about His second coming, because
that is the subject of Matthew chapters 24-25.
Now
the key thing here is to remember that these verses constitute a parable from
Jesus and to understand what a parable is (as we just explained). You have to understand this in order to
understand this parable. I will conclude
this SD with a quote from John MacArthur’s commentary, and Lord willing will
finish this section in the next SD.
“Unfortunately,
this parable, like many others, has often been made confusing and misleading by
those who view it as a complicated allegory rather than a simple analogy. Some interpreters, for instance, contend that
the fig tree represents Israel. A
popular version of that view is that the budding of the fig tree refers to
Israael’s becoming a political state in 1948.
Because Jesus does not identify the fig tree as Israel, that meaning
would have been totally obscured to the disciples and to every other believer
who lived before the twentieth century.
In that view, Jesus would not
have been employing the parable to clarify His meaning but to conceal it. Some who hold to that interpretation suggest
that the budding of leaves on the fig tree represents a spiritual revival in
the new state of Israel. But modern
Israel, though very much alive physically, is one of the most secular nations
on earth. As a state, it is very
resistant, if not hostile, to the gospel.”
1/22/2024 9:58 AM
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