When evening came, He went out of the city after cleansing the temple, in the closing events of His ministry. Before departing He had given evidence of His divine mission and warned against the corruption of the temple. The triumphal entry, the cleansing of the temple, and the blighting of the barren fig tree together pointed to Jerusalem's doom. The sentenced and blighted fig tree in the surrounding account symbolizes the judgment, downfall, and destruction of the Jewish nation and Jerusalem. Its blighting expressed God's righteous anger.
The tree's showy leaves without fruit symbolized that nation, which through pride and apostasy had separated from God and lost the ability to recognize its Redeemer. Beneath an outward appearance of devotion it hid selfishness, hypocrisy, and failure to bear good fruit. Amid these events His tears over the city were a final appeal of rejected love and compassion. The sign also warns professed Christians whose outward devotion hides the same unfruitfulness, while genuine Christians show their faith through good works and unselfish deeds.
When evening came, He went out of the city after cleansing the temple, in the closing events of His ministry. Before departing He had given evidence of His divine mission and warned against the corruption of the temple. The triumphal entry, the cleansing of the temple, and the blighting of the barren fig tree together pointed to Jerusalem's doom. The sentenced and blighted fig tree in the surrounding account symbolizes the judgment, downfall, and destruction of the Jewish nation and Jerusalem. Its blighting expressed God's righteous anger.
The tree's showy leaves without fruit symbolized that nation, which through pride and apostasy had separated from God and lost the ability to recognize its Redeemer. Beneath an outward appearance of devotion it hid selfishness, hypocrisy, and failure to bear good fruit. Amid these events His tears over the city were a final appeal of rejected love and compassion. The sign also warns professed Christians whose outward devotion hides the same unfruitfulness, while genuine Christians show their faith through good works and unselfish deeds.