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The Spirit of Prophecy Volume 3
his mighty miracles with scorn. The Majesty of Heaven came unto his
own, and his own received him not.
The judgment pronounced upon the barren fig-tree not only sym-
bolizes the sentence passed upon the Jews, but is also applicable to
the professed Christians of our time, who have become formal, selfish,
boasting and hypocritical. Many who profess godliness stand before
the world like the barren fig-tree, displaying pretentious leaves but
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utterly devoid of fruit. They go through the form of worship, yet have
not repentance and faith. In the doom of the fig-tree Christ demon-
strated how hateful in his eyes are hypocrisy and hollow pretense. Ever
pitiful to the truly penitent, ever ready to receive them and to heal their
maladies, he thus evidenced that the open sinner is in a more favorable
condition before God than the Christian who bears no fruit to his glory.
Important events clustered around the close of Christ’s ministry.
His triumphal entrance into Jerusalem, his cleansing of the desecrated
temple and the blighting of the barren fig-tree, all pointed to the doom
of Jerusalem. The tears of Jesus upon the mount, when he overlooked
the city of his love and care, while in the midst of the rejoicing and
hosannas of thousands, were the last pleadings of rejected love and
compassion.
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