Sunday, February 18, 2024

BEARING NO FRUIT

 Throughout the Bible trees are used as metaphors for certain people; the most obvious is Jesus as the ‘Tree of Life’ or more precisely, the ‘godhead’ as that ‘Tree.’ [1]

Without going into detail with supporting verses, the root of the Tree is the Father aspect, the ‘Vine’ or tree truck itself represents Jesus, for it can be seen, and the leaves the dynamics (Virtue) of God that represents the Holy Spirit. The flow of water from the ground possibly represents the Light of God emanating from the Father through the Son and the Holy Ghost. The leaves of that Tree are for the healing of the people (Rev 22:2).

The blind man as Jesus approached him saw Jesus just as, “trees; as men walking” (Mark 8:24). Throughout the Bible many trees were as men walking. Hence, trees are metaphors for mankind.

There was another tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden. It was known by its fruit. Its fruit was not apples at all but figs. That should be obvious because Adam made “aprons of fig leaves” from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen 3:7). Supporting that is the fig the size of a watermelon that Adam and Eve would refuse to eat after they sinned:

Then Adam took the fig, and laid it on the golden rods.              Eve also took her fig, and put it upon the incense. And the weight of each fig was that of a water-melon; for the fruit of the garden was much larger than the fruit of this land. But Adam and Eve remained standing and fasting the whole of that night, until the morning dawned. sinned (1 Adam and Eve: XLL:1-3)

The fig was the fruit of the tree that would cause their death. How could that be? 

They felt great trouble from the food they had eaten, and to which they were not used, they went about in the cave saying to each other: "What has happened to us through eating, that this pain should have come upon us? Woe be to us, we shall die! Better for us to have died than to have eaten; and to have kept our bodies pure, than to have defiled them with food."

Then Adam said to Eve, "This pain did not come to us in the garden, neither did we eat such bad food there. Thinkest thou, O Eve, that God will plague us through the food that is in us, or that our inwards will come out; or that God means to kill us with this pain before He has fulfilled His promise to us?"

Then Adam besought the Lord and said, "O Lord, let us not perish through the food we have eaten. O Lord, smite us not; but deal with us according to Thy great mercy, and forsake us not until the day of the promise Thou hast made us."

Then God looked upon them, and at once fitted them for eating food; as unto this day; so that they should not perish. (1 Adam & Eve LXI:2-6)

 Just as God had said, eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree would cause them to die. As it turned out, when God had grace on them, they could and did eat figs for sustenance. God, with His solution protected Adam and Eve by providing them with digestive tracts.

Digestion is a process of decay over time. Perhaps sin was when decadence introduced death into the world. Something had to die for them to eat, and that something was figs. With digestion, those vibrant fruits would just wither away within their bodies.

Before sin, the man and his woman were glorious. There was no decadence (guile) in them. Time would have no effect on them. That they could eat herbs is a misrepresentation by translators (Gen 1:11). Literally, they could eat glossy things, which was perhaps manna from heaven that appeared to be hoar frost on the ground that would not decay (Exod 16:14).

The food in the Garden was manna from heaven, it seems, but they ate indigestible fruit — figs. Time began for them as the two began to wither; Eve about 900 years or so and Adam 930 years.

Now consider the saying of Jesus about the fig tree: 

And when He saw a fig tree in the way, He came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, “Let no fruit grow on you henceforward forever.”

And presently the fig tree withered away.

And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How soon is the fig tree withered away!” (Mat 21:19:20)

 Just like Adam and his wife, the tree bore no fruit because it was like them — of the wrong tree. The ‘olive’ tree, perhaps the Tree of Life, would have born twelve manner of fruits (Rev 22:2) for the healing of the nations: charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, longanimity, mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity (Gal 5:22-23; LV)

The fig tree did not have that fruit. So, what did Jesus do? He soon withered the fig tree because it bore no fruit. It was useless. It failed to even bear the bad fruit (Gal 5:19-21). Jesus would have expected it to bear some fruit even if it was bad. However, it bore no fruit at all!

It seems that Jesus was using the fig tree to represent two ideas: (1) That bearing no fruit is not any better than bearing bad fruits, and (2) that bearing no fruit would cause the tree to perish as much as bad fruit would end the same way.

For the Christian that should mean much. Looking at the fruit of the Spirit above, the Christian that has no charity, no joy, no peace, no patience and so forth, even though they were not evil, would still perish!

To prove His point, Jesus made the fig tree wither right then. Whereas Adam withered in 930 years, his punishment went unnoticed. Possibly, for them to understand that time is insignificant, He withered the fig tree right then so that they could understand what happened with Adam with the first sin, who bore no fruit!

From where does that notion come? “Adam called his wife's name ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all living. (Gen 3:20). It was Eve’s fruit that had the seed in it to create new beings. Eve was another kind that Adam had to name, and as such, Adam’s kind is not correct; we are Eve’s kind. She is the mother of all; that is known because it was not written that Adam was the father of all! That we are humane beings is wrong. We are brutish in nature because, like Cain, we are of the Wicked One.

The fruit of Cain were those listed in Galatians 5:19-21. They were a wicked fruit, and most people bear that fruit.

How about people who are lackadaisical and are neither good nor evil? God expects everyone to show their fruit. No fruit is not good fruit, so Christians that bear no fruit will perish alongside those who bear wicked fruit. Jesus revealed that when He withered the fig tree as the proxy for non-productive Christians to make His point.



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