A Doomed People

Picture: A Doomed People 3TC 367.1

This chapter is based on Matthew 21:17-19; Mark 11:11-14, 20, 21. 

The last appeal to Jerusalem had been fruitless. The priests and rulers had heard the prophetic voice that the people echoed in answer to the question, “Who is this?” but they did not accept it as the voice of Inspiration. In anger they tried to silence the people. To Roman officers in the crowd, Jesus’ enemies denounced Him as the leader of a rebellion. They claimed that He was about to take possession of the temple and reign as king in Jerusalem. 3TC 367.2

But in a calm voice Jesus again declared that He had not come to establish an earthly rule. He would soon ascend to His Father, and His accusers would see Him no more until He would come again in glory. Then, too late, they would acknowledge Him. 3TC 367.3

Jesus spoke these words with sadness and with noteworthy power. The Roman officers were quiet and subdued. Their hearts were moved as they had never been moved before. They read love and quiet dignity in the solemn face of Jesus. Stirred by a sympathy they could not understand, they were inclined to pay Him honor and respect. Turning on the priests and rulers, they charged them with creating the disturbance. 3TC 367.4

Meanwhile Jesus went unnoticed to the temple. All was quiet there, for the scene on the Mount of Olives had called the people away. For a short time Jesus remained, looking at the temple with sorrow. Then He returned to Bethany. When the people looked for Him to place Him on the throne, they could not find Him. 3TC 367.5

Jesus spent the entire night in prayer, and in the morning He came to the temple again. On the way He was hungry, “and seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.” 3TC 367.6

On the highlands around Jerusalem it could truly be said, “It was not the season for figs.” But in the orchard to which Jesus came, one tree appeared to be ahead of all the others. It was already covered with leaves, giving promise of well-developed fruit. But its appearance was deceptive. Jesus found “nothing but leaves.” It was a mass of showy foliage, nothing more. 3TC 367.7

Christ pronounced a withering curse on it. “May no one ever eat fruit from you again,” He said. NRSV. Next morning, as the Savior and His disciples were again on their way to the city, the dead branches and drooping leaves attracted their attention. “Rabbi,” said Peter, “look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away.” 3TC 367.8

To the disciples, Christ’s cursing of the fig tree seemed unlike what He would usually do. They remembered His words, “The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” Luke 9:56. He had always worked to restore, never to destroy. This act stood alone. “What was its purpose?” they questioned. 3TC 368.1

“‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.’” Ezekiel 33:11. To Him the work of destruction and the pronouncing of judgment is a “strange work.” Isaiah 28:21, KJV. But in mercy and love He lifts the veil from the future and reveals the results of a course of sin. 3TC 368.2

The barren fig tree, making a great show of foliage in the face of Christ, was a symbol of the Jewish nation. The Savior wanted to make plain the cause of Israel’s doom and its certainty. To do this, He made the tree the teacher of divine truth. The Jews claimed righteousness above every other people. But the love of the world and the greed of gain corrupted them. They made a show of spreading their branches high, appearing lush and beautiful to the eye, but they yielded “nothing but leaves.” The Jewish religion, with its magnificent temple and impressive ceremonies, was indeed impressive in outward appearance, but it lacked humility, love, and benevolence. 3TC 368.3

Why This One Tree Was Cursed

The leafless trees raised no expectation and caused no disappointment. These represented the Gentiles, who had no more godliness than the Jews, but who made no boastful claims to goodness. With them “the season for figs” was not yet. They were still waiting for light and hope. God held the Jews, who had received greater blessings from Him, accountable for their abuse of these gifts. The privileges of which they boasted only increased their guilt. 3TC 368.4

Jesus had come to Israel, hungering to find the fruits of righteousness in them. He had granted them every privilege, and in return He longed to see in them self-sacrifice, compassion, and a deep yearning for the salvation of others. But pride and self-sufficiency eclipsed love to God and humanity. They did not give to the world the treasures of truth that God had committed to them. In the barren tree they might read both their sin and its punishment. Withered, dried up by the roots, the fig tree showed what the Jewish people would be when the grace of God was removed from them. Refusing to give blessing, they would no longer receive it. “O Israel,” the Lord says, “thou hast destroyed thyself.” Hosea 13:9, KJV. 3TC 368.5

Christ’s act in cursing the tree that His own power had created stands as a warning to all churches and all Christians. There are many who do not live out Christ’s merciful, unselfish life. Time is of value to them only so that they can use it to gather for themselves. In all the affairs of life, this is their aim. God planned for them to help others in every possible way. But self is so large that they cannot see anything else. Those who live for self in this way are like the fig tree. They follow the forms of worship without repentance or faith. They claim to honor the law of God, but they lack obedience. In the sentence pronounced on the fig tree Christ declares that the open sinner is less guilty than someone who professes to serve God but bears no fruit to His glory. 3TC 368.6

The parable of the fig tree, which Christ spoke before His visit to Jerusalem, had a direct connection with the lesson He taught by cursing the fruitless tree. In the parable the gardener pleaded for the barren tree, “Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.” Luke 13:8, 9. It was to have every advantage. The parable did not predict the result of the gardener’s work. The outcome depended on the people to whom Christ spoke those words, whom the fruitless tree represented. It was up to them to decide their own destiny. God had given them every advantage, but they did not profit by their increased blessings. Christ’s act in cursing the barren fig tree showed what the result would be. They had determined their own destruction. 3TC 369.1

For more than a thousand years the Jewish nation had rejected God’s warnings and killed His prophets. When the people of Christ’s day followed the same course, they made themselves responsible for these sins. They were fastening on themselves the chains that the nations had been forging for centuries. 3TC 369.2

There comes a time when mercy makes her last appeal. Then the sweet, winning voice of the Spirit no longer pleads with the sinner. 3TC 369.3

That day had come to Jerusalem. Jesus wept in anguish over the doomed city, but He could not deliver her. He had exhausted every resource. In rejecting the warnings of God’s Spirit, Israel had rejected her only means of help. 3TC 369.4

The Jewish nation was a symbol of the people of all ages who scorn the pleadings of Infinite Love. When Christ wept over Jerusalem, His tears were for the sins of all time. 3TC 369.5

In this generation many are walking the same path as the unbelieving Jews. The Holy Spirit has spoken to their hearts, but they are not willing to confess their errors. They reject God’s message and His messenger. 3TC 369.6

Today Bible truth, the religion of Christ, struggles against a strong tide of moral impurity. Prejudice is stronger now than in Christ’s day. The truth of God’s Word does not harmonize with natural human preferences, and thousands reject its light and choose their independent judgment. But they do so at the peril of their eternal life. 3TC 369.7

Those who tried to pick flaws with the words of Christ found ever-increasing cause for doing so, until they turned from the Truth and the Life. God does not propose to remove every objection that the carnal heart may bring against His truth. To those who refuse light that would illuminate the darkness, the mysteries of God’s Word remain mysteries forever. The truth is hidden from them. 3TC 369.8

Christ’s words apply to everyone who treats the pleadings of divine mercy lightly. Christ is shedding bitter tears for you who have no tears to shed for yourself. And every evidence of the grace of God, every ray of divine light, is either melting and subduing the heart or confirming it in hopeless rebellion. 3TC 370.1

Christ foresaw that Jerusalem would remain unrepentant, yet all the guilt lay at her own door. It will be this way with everyone who follows the same course. The Lord declares, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thy self.” Hosea 13:9, KJV. 3TC 370.2

“Hear, O earth!
Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people—
The fruit of their thoughts,
Because they have not heeded My words
Nor My law, but rejected it.”
Jeremiah 6:19 3TC 370.3