04 March 2013

The Fig Tree - Mark 11:12-14


    On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
(Mark 11:12-14 ESV)



    “You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD:
    When men fall, do they not rise again?
        If one turns away, does he not return?
    Why then has this people turned away
        in perpetual backsliding?
    They hold fast to deceit;
        they refuse to return.
    I have paid attention and listened,
        but they have not spoken rightly;
    no man relents of his evil,
        saying, ‘What have I done?’
    Everyone turns to his own course,
        like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
    Even the stork in the heavens
        knows her times,
    and the turtledove, swallow, and crane
        keep the time of their coming,
    but my people know not
        the rules of the LORD.
    “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
        and the law of the LORD is with us’?
    But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
        has made it into a lie.
    The wise men shall be put to shame;
        they shall be dismayed and taken;
    behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD,
        so what wisdom is in them?
    Therefore I will give their wives to others
        and their fields to conquerors,
    because from the least to the greatest
        everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
    from prophet to priest,
        everyone deals falsely.
    They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
        saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
        when there is no peace.
    Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
        No, they were not at all ashamed;
        they did not know how to blush.
    Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
        when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
    says the LORD.
    When I would gather them, declares the LORD,
        there are no grapes on the vine,
        nor figs on the fig tree;
    even the leaves are withered,
        and what I gave them has passed away from them.”
(Jeremiah 8:4-13 ESV)

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