When Adam and Eve ate of the tree (lifestyle) of flesh or knowledge of good and evil they realized they were naked. What exactly does that mean? It means that they had no righteousness to cover them. See when they ate of the flesh tree they died a spiritual death and also lost the righteousness of the Lord. Or to put it this way they lost their title of righteousness and they became naked. The first thing they did was to try and cover themselves up with the leaves of a fig tree. You see the fig tree symbolizes the flesh. So what Adam and Eve did was to try and do righteousness in the flesh. So under control of fleshly thoughts they tried to do good and righteous acts. The only problem was that flesh and blood cannot please God, Even the good deeds they did with flesh as the motive. Let’s just realize today once and for all that flesh and blood cannot please God. There are also other parts in scripture that point to this and also to the fact that the fig tree is a symbol for flesh.
Matthew 21
18 Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.
19 And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.
Mark 11
12 Now the next day, when they had come out from Bethany, He was hungry.
13 And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.
14 In response Jesus said to it, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again.” And His disciples heard it.
It is interesting that Jesus cursed the fig tree. Jesus, who never cursed anybody or anything, except the fig tree. Jesus who showed mercy even to demons cursed the fig tree. I believe it is because it was already cursed and was cursed in the garden. That’s why the fig leaves were not able to qualify as righteousness before God because flesh and blood cannot please God. But what does this all mean? What is the practical application of it for us today? The point I am trying to make is the following. Not only bad works of the flesh are not able to please God but also good works of the flesh. That’s why all our righteous deeds before Christ were considered as filthy rags
Isaiah 64
6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
You see it all comes down to who or what is leading you. What is your motive?. Are you a son of God and are led by the Spirit of God. Doing good and righteous deeds, in obedience to the Spirit of God through faith? Or are you a son of Satan and perdition who does deeds in obedience to flesh whether it be bad or good deeds. Remember previously we learned that we were all thorn trees and were not able to bear good fruit, even if we tried. Only once we believed in Christ did we become fruit trees again and were able to bear good fruit. The only problem is we are still letting that old thorn tree nature sometimes tell us how and what to do because of our conscience. We all have a conscience and it can become tainted or seared and even disqualified. But we will look at that next time.
Till then
God bless
Recent Comments