Devotional Guide, Today’s Reading Sunday, July 21, 2019

Theme: SOME PARABLES OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST

Text: “… A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?” – Luke 13:6, 7.

Comment: Emphasized in the parable of the Barren Fig Tree are God’s patience and the certainty of His judgement on the earth. According to the story, upon the disappointment of not finding any fruit on the tree, the owner of the vineyard ordered that the fig tree should be cut down.   According to Bruce in his work, Are The New Testament Documents Reliable? and Craig S. Keener in A Commentary On The Gospel, during the Passover Season of late March to early April, on the eastern side of Mount Olives, leaves appear on fig trees, accompanied by a crop of small lumps which the Arabs call “taqsh”, they are like forerunners of the real figs which ripen around June.  These “taqsh” are eaten by peasants when they are hungry as they drop off before the real fig is formed.  However, if the leaves appear unaccompanied by these small lumps (or taqsh) the implication is that there will be no figs for that year; hence, all further efforts would be fruitless or hopeless.

Having been called into God’s way of holiness by His grace, all converts are expected to be fruitful by growing in grace and knowledge as well as sundry virtues enumerated in 2 Peter 1:5-7 and Galatians 5:22,23. One cannot have life unless he cultivates the virtue that make one a true disciple. – Romans 11:22; 2 Peter 3:9.

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