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Doomed People
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blessings from Him, accountable for their abuse of these gifts. The
privileges of which they boasted only increased their guilt.
Jesus had come to Israel, hungering to find the fruits of righteous-
ness 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.
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
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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.
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.