Vision Logo Circle
Vision Logo Circle

In Or Out Of Control? Pt 1

by | Thu, Apr 20 2023

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Sometimes when we read about some of the things Jesus did we can get a little confused because they seem to be out of character for the Son of God. For example, He cursed a fig tree for not having any fruit on it and He seemingly lost His temper in the Temple. Neither of those things at first glance appear to be rational behaviour for the Son of God? To really understand what Jesus did and why He did it, we need a little Jewish history and Old Covenant Biblical knowledge first.

First up, I encourage you to read through the book of the prophet Malachi and you’ll discover that God was calling for His people, in particular the religious leadership within the Temple to get their act together. The people would bring their offerings and sacrifices to God and the priests would keep the best of them for themselves. They were ripping God off through tithes and offerings for their own benefit. We often read the book of Malachi to motivate people to give but the context of that book is for the priests to stop withholding what belonged to God that had rightly already been given. Their actions were corrupting the Temple system and leading the people into error. They had turned the Temple into a profiteering system for their own self benefit and wealth.

Four hundred years later when Jesus entered the Temple, nothing much had changed. The religious leadership in the Temple didn’t heed God’s warning to the prophet Malachi and things were worse than ever. So that’s point one.

Secondly, there are a number of symbols that represent the Jewish people; the Olive Tree and the Fig Tree have often been seen as symbols of this nation because of various different elements and characteristics they have. I’m going to focus on the fig tree because of something God told the prophet Jeremiah about them.

Jeremiah 24:1-8, ‘After Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried away the captive Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and the officials of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me: behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord! One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, and the other basket had very bad figs which couldn’t be eaten due to rottenness. Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad figs, very bad, which can’t be eaten due to rottenness.” Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Like these good figs, so I’ll regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I’ve sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans. For I’ll set My eyes on them for good, and I’ll bring them again to this land; and I’ll build them up and not overthrow them, and I’ll plant them and not pluck them up. I’ll give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they’ll be My people, and I’ll be their God, for they’ll return to Me with their whole heart. But like the bad figs which can’t be eaten due to rottenness – indeed thus says the Lord – so I’ll abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and the ones who dwell in the land of Egypt.’”’

In this passage we see that God is using ripe and rotten figs as analogies of the Jewish people and their condition before Him. So figs are used as a metaphor for the people of Israel from time to time and with these two specific situations in mind, we can now take a look at Jesus’ behaviour shortly before His crucifixion when He cursed the fig tree and then got physical in the Temple.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus informed His disciples several times that He was going to suffer and die and then rise from the dead on the third day. On one occasion Peter rebuked Him, the next time just left them confused and too afraid to talk about it with Him. The last time He told them, Jesus actually went ahead of them, leading His way back to Jerusalem to what would be certain death. They couldn’t really understand it, it made no sense to them at all that He would walk willingly into a situation that would get Him killed. (Mark 10:32)

What do we know about Jesus and all His actions? He only ever did what He saw the Father doing. (John 5:19; 6:38; 12:49) Jesus wasn’t impulsive and He wasn’t reckless. Everything He did was according to what His Father directed Him to do.

So Jesus was on His way into Jerusalem, the crowds welcomed Him as the promised Messiah and this was evident by the fact they were singing a psalm about the Messiah and it got the religious leaders all riled up. (Matt 21:15-16)

Jesus then made His way into the Temple and took a good look around at what was happening and then He and His disciples left and made His way to Bethany for the night because it was already late in the day. They came back the following day. (Mark 11:11)

The next day, they made their way back into Jerusalem, Jesus got a little hungry and approached a fig tree that looked fruitful because of its lush leaves, but it had no fruit…it looked good but was of no use at all. So He cursed it. (Mark 11:12-14)

Then He made His way into the city itself, made His way into the Temple and drove out everyone making merchandise and turning a financial profit out of the Temple service. He wouldn’t even permit anyone to carry anything through the Temple. He rebuked them and quoted Scripture to remind them of how holy God’s Temple was and how it wasn’t supposed to be treated.

Mark 11:15-17, ‘Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the Temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the Temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He wouldn’t permit anyone to carry merchandise through the Temple. And He began to teach and say to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations?’ But you’ve made it a robbers den.”’

So what did Jesus do between leaving the Temple the day before and arriving back in the Temple the next day? We’ll look at the answer to that question next time.

 

Shalom

Mandy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Based in part on an article on oneforisrael.org