(December 15, 2013 at 5:34 pm)Chad32 Wrote: Next we'll talk about how he killed a tree for not bearing fruit out of season.
If you're referring to Mark 11:12-14:
Alfred Edersheim has called attention to the fact that “in Palestine the fruit appears before the leaves . . .” (The Life & Times of Jesus the Messiah, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1947, Vol. II, p. 374; emp. WJ). Thus, to see a leafed fig tree (even at an unseasonable time — v. 13b), warranted the assumption that there would be fruit on the tree. But this tree was an oddity; the leaves were there, but it was fruitless. This act by Jesus is a metaphor for the nation of Israelites. Despite the fact that Israel had all the prophets and God's election they should have been able to discern the season they were in (namely the time of the messiah) and produce the "fruit" of belief. Instead they had only leaves.
