Parable-Barren Fig Tree
Men’s Breakfast devotion April 5, 2014
Luke 13:6-9
This is a parable—An earthly story to illustrate a spiritual truth.
There was a vineyard owned by “a certain man.” Upon an inspection of his vineyard, he noticed a fruitless fig tree. It wasn’t the first time he noticed this barren fruit tree. It had not had any fruit for three years (v. 7). He told “the dresser of his vineyard” (the man hired to maintain the vineyard) to cut it down. Why expend any more energy on it? Three years was long enough. It was just taking up ground that could something else could be planted to bear fruit.
But the keeper of his vineyard pleaded to give this tree one more chance—one more year to produce fruit. If it was still fruitless after one more year, it would become firewood.
DOCTRINAL APPLICATION: The context is a warning of repentance (vs. 1-5). God used trees as symbols of the nation Israel.
- The vine represented Israel’s past (Ps. 80:8-10). •The olive tree represents Israel’s future (Rom. 11). The fig tree represents Israel’s present (Isa. 5:2-7).
- The Vineyard is the land of Palestine.
- The Owner of the vineyard is God the Father. Jesus is the Keeper of the vineyard.
- Three years—Jesus ministered to Israel for three years. But after three years of ministry to Israel, they still had not repented and accepted Christ’s offer of the kingdom. Now, God the Father is ready to remove it from His vineyard.
- The message to Israel was clear. Their time was up. They had three years to repent. Jesus was only a few months from the time of His crucifixion. They were now living on “borrowed time.” After Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, God would still give them another year to repent. One year went by between Acts 1 to Acts 8. After that, God “set aside” Israel and turned to the Gentiles and would use them to bring forth fruit (Acts 13:45-47; 15:14).
SPIRITUAL APPLICATION: Although this parable was not specially TO US, it has a spiritual message FOR US (2 Tim. 3:16).
I. The Lord EXPECTS fruit (Gen. 1:28).
- The thing that glorifies God is fruit (John 15:8).
- God uses a “vineyard” as an illustration of the church (1 Cor. 9:7).
Two kinds of fruit:
A. The fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23). This is fruit as a result of walking in the Spirit. This is something the Holy Spirit produces.
B. The fruit of a Christian (Rom. 1:13; Col. 1:10; Titus 3:14). You life should be producing fruit.
II. The Lord EXAMINES progress.
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