THE FIG TREE

THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel THE PARABLES AND THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL A New Teaching Series by Rev. John Shane Vaughn First Harvest Ministries International PART NINETEEN THE FIG TREE The Barren Fig Tree of Judah — Her Failure to Gather Her Scattered Brother — and the True Kingdom Fruit of the Whole House of Israel Matthew 24:32–34 | Mark 11:12–14, 19–21 | Luke 13:6–9 | Isaiah 5:4–7 — Rev. John Shane Vaughn — First Harvest Ministries International 1 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel 2 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel THE PARABLES AND THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL A New Teaching Series by Rev. John Shane Vaughn First Harvest Ministries International Proving the Singular Mission of YAHSHUA Through Every Parable He Taught ✦✦✦ PART NINETEEN THE FIG TREE The Barren Fig Tree of Judah — Her Failure to Gather Her Scattered Brother — and the True Kingdom Fruit of the Whole House of Israel Matthew 24:32–34 | Mark 11:12–14, 19–21 | Luke 13:6–9 | Isaiah 5:4–7 A Midweek Bible Study — Rev. John Shane Vaughn — 3 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel First Harvest Ministries International ✦✦✦ INTRODUCTION TO TONIGHT'S STUDY Beloved — tonight we take up one of the most consistently misread parables in the entire prophetic teaching of YAHSHUA — and we take it up with a doctrinal centerpiece most preachers have missed for two thousand years. You have heard it preached that the barrenness of the fig tree was general moral failure — Judah was not righteous enough, not obedient enough, not holy enough. That reading is thin and it misses the point of the parable entirely. The fruit YAHWEH sought from the fig tree of Judah — for nearly three thousand years — was the ingathering of the whole house of Israel. That was Judah's calling. That was Judah's covenant responsibility. That was the fruit the Master came looking for. And that was the fruit He never found. 4 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • The Vineyard = Israel (Isaiah 5:7 anchors this beyond dispute) • The Fig Tree = Judah planted within the corporate covenant field • The Fruit = the reunification of the whole house of Israel — the gathering of the scattered ten tribes back into covenant standing • Judah's barrenness = her jealousy, her exclusion, her active refusal to reach out and find her scattered brother The parable is not primarily about individual moral failure. It is about Judah's failure to be the gatherer of the twelve tribes she was covenantally appointed to gather. The tree that was cursed was not merely a fruitless tree. It was a tree that refused to bear the ONE fruit the Master specifically came seeking — the reunion of the whole covenant family. Let us open our Bibles. And let us see — once again — that every parable YAHSHUA spoke was about the recovery of His scattered people. 5 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel ✦✦✦ THE TEXT BEFORE US Matthew 24:32–34 "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Luke 13:6–9 "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? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down." Mark 11:12–14 "And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee 6 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it." Three passages. One tree. One nation. One repeated pattern of leaves without fruit. And one specific covenant fruit that never appeared — the ingathering of the whole house of Israel. ✦✦✦ I. THE VINEYARD IS ISRAEL — THE FIG TREE IS JUDAH The Scripture Anchors This Beyond Dispute. Before we can understand the Fig Tree, we must understand where it is planted. Isaiah 5:4–7 "What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?... For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant." Read that closing line carefully: • "The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel" — the Vineyard is Israel 7 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • "The men of Judah his pleasant plant" — Judah is the plant WITHIN the Vineyard This is the doctrinal foundation of every fig-tree parable YAHSHUA spoke. And it is the doctrinal foundation of what the fruit was supposed to be. The tree is planted IN the Vineyard. The tree's whole purpose is inseparable from the Vineyard. The tree's fruit must serve the Vineyard. Israel is the Vineyard. Judah is the Fig Tree planted within the Vineyard. Judah's purpose is inseparable from the corporate covenant field of Israel. And Judah's fruit — the covenant fruit the Master came seeking — must be understood as fruit that gathers, unites, and restores the whole Vineyard of Israel. ✦✦✦ II. THE ANCIENT WOUND BETWEEN THE TWO HOUSES Before We Speak of the Fruit — We Must Speak of the Wound. 8 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Beloved — we cannot understand Judah's barrenness without understanding the ancient wound that ran through the covenant nation for three thousand years. The jealousy that kept Judah from gathering her scattered brother did not appear suddenly at the time of Messiah. It was the fruit of a wound that had opened at the very founding of the divided kingdoms — and it was a wound Scripture itself names, diagnoses, and prophesies will finally be removed. The Prophetic Diagnosis — Isaiah 11:13. The prophet Isaiah names the wound with surgical precision: Isaiah 11:13 "The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim." Read that verse carefully. Scripture itself names TWO sides of the covenant wound: • Ephraim envied Judah — the northern tribes envied Judah's 9 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel covenant privileges: the Temple, the priesthood, the Davidic throne, the preserved scriptures • Judah vexed Ephraim — the southern kingdom actively troubled, harassed, and refused to gather her scattered brother Both sins are named. Both sins must depart. Both sins will be removed at the coming of the King. This is not a theory. This is not commentary. This is the prophetic diagnosis of the two-house wound spoken by Isaiah more than seven hundred years before Messiah. The envy of Ephraim toward Judah's privileges, and the vexing of Ephraim by Judah's exclusion — both must be cut off before the true summer of the Kingdom can come. ✦✦✦ The Historical Root — 1 Kings 12. Where did the wound open? It opened at Shechem, when Rehoboam the son of Solomon spoke harshly to the northern tribes who came seeking a lighter yoke. 10 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel 1 Kings 12:13–14, 16 "And the king answered the people roughly... saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions... So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel." In that moment the covenant nation was torn in two. Ten tribes departed. Two tribes remained. And the ancient jealousy that had smoldered since the days of the patriarchs erupted into open division. • The seed of the envy had been planted long before — in Genesis 48, when Jacob crossed his hands and gave Ephraim (the younger) the greater blessing • The envy had shown itself in the days of the Judges — when Ephraim was constantly jealous of anyone else leading Israel (Judges 8:1; 12:1) • The envy had troubled the days of Samuel and Saul and David — as 11 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel the northern tribes felt themselves overshadowed by the rising house of Judah • And at Shechem, the wound broke open. Ephraim seized the leadership. Judah refused to acknowledge her scattered brother. The two houses were torn apart — and the wound would not heal for three thousand years The divided kingdom was not merely a political failure. It was the physical manifestation of a spiritual wound that YAHWEH had been warning about for centuries. Ephraim's envy of Judah's privileges. Judah's vexing of Ephraim's covenant standing. Both erupted at Shechem — and the covenant nation has borne the scars ever since. ✦✦✦ The Prophetic Answer — Ezekiel 37. Into that ancient wound, YAHWEH spoke the greatest prophecy of Two-House reunion in the entire Hebrew scriptures: Ezekiel 37:16–17, 19, 22 "Take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, 12 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand... Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand... And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." Two sticks. One hand. One King. One nation. That is the covenant answer to the ancient wound. • The stick of Judah — the tribe that held the scriptures, the Temple, the throne • The stick of Joseph in the hand of Ephraim — the scattered ten tribes, held together by the birthright- bearer 13 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • YAHWEH Himself takes the two divided sticks and makes them one • The healing of the wound is not accomplished by Judah alone or Ephraim alone. It is accomplished by the King who takes both and joins them in His hand. Ezekiel 37 is the prophetic answer to 1 Kings 12. The wound that opened at Shechem will be closed at the coming of the King. The two sticks that were torn apart will be reunited in one hand. And the ancient jealousy Isaiah named will finally depart when both houses stand together under one Shepherd. ✦✦✦ The Wall of Partition — Ephesians 2. The apostle Paul preached this same Two-House teaching in his letter to the Ephesians — using the language of a wall that had divided the covenant family: Ephesians 2:14–16 "For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished 14 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." Traditional Christianity has read this passage as Jew-versus-Gentile — and there is a legitimate secondary application to Gentile inclusion. But the primary Two-House reading is much sharper and much more scripturally anchored. The wall of partition in Second Temple Judaism was not merely metaphorical. There was a literal barrier in the Temple — the soreg — that separated the inner courts from those who could not prove Judean genealogy. Scattered Israelites who came seeking covenant standing were physically kept out by that wall. Judah had built her ancient jealousy into stone. Paul says the blood of Messiah broke down that wall. • The wall between Judah and her scattered brothers is abolished 15 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • The enmity — the vexing that Isaiah 11:13 named — is slain in the flesh of Messiah • The two houses are made "one new man" — one covenant family under one King • The reconciliation is bilateral — both are reconciled to YAHWEH in one body by the cross Note the language carefully. Paul says Messiah made "of twain one new man." Twain — two. The two of Judah and Israel. The two sticks of Ezekiel 37. The two houses of the divided kingdom. In Messiah, the two become one new man. The middle wall of partition is not primarily the wall between Jew and Gentile. It is the wall between Judah and her scattered brother. The wall Judah built when she refused to gather. The wall she manifested in the Temple stones themselves. The wall Messiah demolished with His own blood — even though nineteen centuries of separation have kept it standing in practice. ✦✦✦ 16 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Provoking to Jealousy — Romans 11. Now watch how Paul applies this Two- House framework to the apostolic mission itself: Romans 11:11 "Through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy." This verse is one of the most extraordinary Two-House statements in the entire New Testament. Paul says the reason the gospel went out to the "Gentiles" — many of whom were the scattered ten-tribers now dispersed among the nations — was to provoke Judah to jealousy. • Judah had refused to gather her scattered brother • YAHWEH sent apostles to gather the scattered brother without her • The purpose was to stir up in Judah the very jealousy Isaiah 11:13 promised would one day depart • The awakening remnant gathered from the highways of the nations was designed to make Judah see her scattered brothers standing in 17 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel covenant standing WITHOUT her — and to drive her back to the King The strategy is stunning. YAHWEH takes Judah's ancient sin of jealousy and turns it into the very instrument of her eventual return. The awakened scattered brother — gathered without Judah's help, standing in the Kingdom without Judah's welcome — becomes the provocation that will finally break Judah's heart and bring her home. Paul's apostolic mission was itself a prophetic act. Every scattered Israelite gathered from the highways of the nations without Judah's permission was another stone removed from the wall of partition — another provocation designed to stir Judah to the jealousy that will finally drive her to Teshuvah at the coming of the King. ✦✦✦ The Ancient Wound and the Fig Tree. Now you can see what the barren fig tree of Judah truly was. It was a tree wounded by three thousand years of jealousy toward 18 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Ephraim. It was a tree that had refused to gather because the ancient envy still governed its branches. It was a tree that had built a wall of partition around itself instead of extending its branches to shelter the whole covenant family. • The wound of 1 Kings 12 had never healed in Judah's heart • The vexing of Ephraim continued through the Second Temple period • The scattered brother who came seeking covenant welcome was refused at the Temple door • The tree that was supposed to produce the fruit of gathering had instead produced the leaves of jealousy And this is why the Master came looking for fruit and found none. Not because Judah lacked general moral righteousness — but because the ancient wound had never been healed, and a wounded tree cannot produce the fruit of reunion until the wound itself is closed. The barren fig tree of Judah is a picture of covenant humanity wounded by three thousand years of unhealed jealousy. And the coming 19 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel of the Messiah — the true digging and dunging of the covenant soil — was the divine surgery designed to close the wound at last. The two sticks were finally joined in the hand of the crucified King. The wall of partition was broken by His blood. And the ancient envy Isaiah 11:13 promised would depart began its final departure when the Master hung between the two houses on the tree of Calvary. And This Is Why the Master Came Himself. Beloved — hear this and let it burn into your bones. *The reason YAHSHUA said, "I am come to seek and to save that which was lost" — the reason He declared, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel" — was because HER ELDER BROTHER WAS NOT GOING TO.* • Judah had held the covenant privileges for a thousand years • Judah had preserved the scriptures that named her scattered brother by tribe 20 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • Judah had every prophetic promise she needed to go out and gather Ephraim • Judah refused • The elder brother would not seek the younger brother • The elder brother would not welcome the returning brother • The elder brother would not so much as let the returning brother own a plot of ground in the covenant land • So the Father sent the Son to do what Judah refused to do Luke 19:10 "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Matthew 15:24 "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel." Read those two verses together. Read them with the ancient wound in view. Read them with Isaiah 11:13 ringing in your ears. • The Son of Man came to seek — because the elder brother would not seek 21 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • The Son of Man came to save — because the elder brother would not save • The Son of Man came to gather the lost sheep of the House of Israel — because the elder brother had built a wall of partition to keep them out • YAHSHUA became the divine Elder Brother the ancient wound had prevented Judah from being Do you see it? • The wound of 1 Kings 12 had made Judah incapable of the gathering • The jealousy of Isaiah 11:13 had turned Judah's covenant privilege into covenant exclusion • The wall of partition had become stone in the very Temple courts • And when the Father's three thousand years of waiting for Judah to gather her brother yielded no fruit — the Son came down and did the gathering Himself Every parable in this series is the record of that gathering. 22 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • The Sower — the Son scattering the covenant seed among the nations where the tribes were scattered • The Prodigal Son — the Son telling the story of Judah's refusal to welcome the younger brother home • The Lost Sheep — the Son leaving the ninety and nine to fetch the one Judah had abandoned • The Rich Man and Lazarus — the Son diagnosing the elder brother's refusal to lift a finger for the scattered beggar • The Two Debtors — the Son indicting the elder brother's refusal to release the fellow servant from a hundred pence when he himself had been forgiven ten thousand talents • The Fig Tree — the Son announcing that the elder brother's failure to gather would result in the cutting-down of the very tree that was supposed to shelter the whole family YAHSHUA came to seek and to save the lost sheep of the House of Israel BECAUSE HER ELDER BROTHER WAS NOT GOING TO. That is the whole sermon of this parable. That is 23 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel the whole reason for the incarnation. That is the answer to every question about why the Master left the ninety- nine and went into the far country. The elder brother refused to gather — so the Elder Brother of all covenant humanity came down and did it Himself. ✦✦✦ III. THE WITHERED FIG TREE — MARK 11 YAHSHUA Cursed the Tree for Bearing Leaves Without Fruit. Mark 11:12–14 "He came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever." Notice the strangeness of this account. "The time of figs was not yet." It was not the season for fruit. So why does YAHSHUA curse a tree for having no fruit out of season? Because the tree had leaves. 24 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel A fig tree naturally puts forth fruit before leaves — the fruit appears first as small buds, then leaves follow. If the tree has leaves without fruit, it is a false tree — it is advertising a harvest it cannot produce. The tree that displayed leaves without fruit was lying about its own condition. That is the perfect picture of Judah at the time of Messiah. • Judah had the outward covenant appearance — the Temple, the priesthood, the Torah, the synagogue, the sacred oracles • Judah displayed the leaves of covenant identity • Judah proclaimed herself as the covenant people — and technically she was • But Judah did not have the covenant fruit — she was not gathering the scattered brother, not extending the Renewed Covenant welcome, not fulfilling her calling as the tribe planted at the center of the Vineyard for the sake of the whole Vineyard 25 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • The leaves promised a harvest that was not there YAHSHUA cursed the tree that had leaves without fruit — because Judah's covenant profession had become leaves without fruit. Judah was displaying the covenant identity without producing the covenant reunion the Master was hungry for. And the Next Morning — the Tree Was Dead From the Roots. "And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots." The cursing was not a temporary displeasure. It was a covenant judgment. • The tree dried up from the roots — not from the leaves down, but from the roots up • The withering was total, national, foundational • The fruitlessness reached to the very source of the tree's life • The tree that displayed leaves without fruit was cut off at the 26 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel root — nationally, covenantally, permanently The Withered Fig Tree of Mark 11 is a prophetic acted parable. YAHSHUA cursed Judah's fruitless covenant profession. And in 70 AD — a generation later — the withering became visible when Jerusalem fell and the Temple was destroyed. ✦✦✦ IV. THE BARREN FIG TREE — LUKE 13 The Fruit the Master Was Seeking. Luke 13:6–9 "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?" What was the Master seeking? Read the parable with the Two-House framework: 27 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • The certain man = YAHWEH the Father • The vineyard = Israel (Isaiah 5:7) • The fig tree = Judah • The dresser of the vineyard = YAHSHUA the Messiah • The three years = long generational seasons of Judah's covenant history spanning nearly three thousand years • "This year also" = the one-year Messianic Jubilee — the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:19) • "Cut it down" = the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD And the fruit He was seeking was the ingathering of the whole house of Israel. The Father did not plant Judah in the Vineyard as an isolated tree for individual moral display. The Father planted Judah in the covenant field of Israel to be the gathering-tribe — the tribe that preserved the scriptures, held the Temple, kept the priesthood, and 28 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel reached out to gather the scattered ten tribes back into covenant standing. That was the fruit. That was always the fruit. And that was the fruit that never came. Judah's Actual Barrenness — Jealousy of Her Scattered Brother. Look at the historical record of Judah's response to her scattered brother. • When the mixed remnant of the northern tribes offered to help rebuild the Temple (Ezra 4:1–3), Judah answered: "Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God." • When returning Israelites tried to reclaim covenant land, they were barred by genealogical registers (Ezra 2:59–63; Nehemiah 7:61–65) and told: "Ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial in Jerusalem" (Nehemiah 2:20) • When the rabbinic tradition crystallized its doctrine of the ten tribes, Rabbi Akiva declared they would never return (Mishnah Sanhedrin 10:3) 29 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • *When the people of the land — the am ha'aretz — many of whom were descendants of northern tribes still in the region, sought covenant standing, they were called "cursed"* (John 7:49) • When YAHSHUA Himself announced His mission to the lost sheep of the House of Israel (Matthew 15:24; Matthew 10:5–6), the leadership resisted, opposed, and eventually crucified Him This is what the barrenness of the fig tree actually looked like. Not general moral failure. Not merely ceremonial imperfection. The specific, documented, historical failure of Judah to gather her scattered brother — and worse than failure, the active jealousy that pushed the scattered brother away every time he came near. The fruit YAHWEH looked for was the reunion of the whole covenant family. Judah's barrenness was not that she failed to be moral enough. Judah's barrenness was that she refused to be the gatherer she was 30 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel called to be — and she became the excluder instead. Guarded, Jealous, Exclusive. Consider the pattern. A tribe entrusted with the covenant scriptures should have been the most eager to share them with her scattered brothers. Instead, Judah became guarded, jealous, exclusive. • Judah guarded the Torah as tribal property instead of covenant invitation • Judah guarded the Temple as tribal monument instead of covenant gathering-house for all Israel • Judah guarded the covenant name as tribal possession instead of covenant declaration to the whole family • Judah guarded the promises as tribal inheritance instead of covenant reunion for the twelve tribes • Every gift the Father entrusted to Judah, Judah locked away from her scattered brother 31 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel And the Master came seeking fruit. He came looking for a tribe that had used her covenant privilege to reach out and find her scattered brother. He came looking for a Judah that had become the missionary of the ingathering. And He found none. The fig tree that was supposed to reach out with branches wide enough to shelter the whole scattered family had turned inward. The leaves grew inward. The branches grew inward. And no fruit appeared — because true covenant fruit only appears on a tree that grows outward for the sake of the whole Vineyard. ✦✦✦ V. THE TWO PHASES OF DIVINE LABOR The Parable Itself Proves the One-Year Ministry of the Messiah. Look carefully at the exact wording of the dresser's intercession: 32 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Luke 13:8 "Let it alone THIS YEAR ALSO, till I shall dig about it, and dung it." "This year also" — the Greek is touton ton eniauton — the technical Greek word for a complete cycle year. It is the same word YAHSHUA Himself used in Luke 4:19 when He announced the "acceptable year of the Lord." It is not a metaphor for a generation or an era. It is a literal single annual cycle — one prophetic Jubilee year. The grammatical proof is hidden in plain sight in the parable itself. • The Father had been coming for a series of previous cycles — the three • The Master is asking for one additional cycle — this year also • The additional cycle is set in parallel to the previous ones • The one is a literal year • Therefore the previous three must be understood as literal prophetic seasons — not literal calendar years — or the parable breaks its own internal grammar 33 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The parable itself proves that YAHSHUA's ministry was one year, not three. "This year also" is the internal witness of the text. The three years of the Father's coming were long prophetic seasons; the one year of the Son's digging was the literal Messianic Jubilee. ✦✦✦ Phase One — The Father's Three- Thousand-Year Work. For thirty centuries, the Father did the covenant labor of establishing the conditions under which the tree should have produced fruit. • He planted the tree in the Vineyard • He watered it with prophetic revelation • He sent messenger after messenger to inspect and warn • He gave the law, the priesthood, the Temple, the promises • He rendered the covenant verdict when no fruit appeared • He was ready to cut down 34 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The Father did everything a Father could do from the covenant side. For thirty centuries. He planted. He watered. He sent prophets. He gave the law. He established the Temple. He warned. He waited. He came again. And still there was no fruit — no gathering of the scattered brother. Phase Two — The Son's One-Year Work. Then the dresser answered: "Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it." One acceptable year of the Lord. One Messianic Jubilee. The Son doing what only a Son could do — what the Father's three thousand years of covenant labor could not accomplish from the covenant side. The Son's work was different from the Father's. • The Father sought fruit — the Son offered Himself as the fertilizer that would make fruit possible • The Father sent prophets — the Son became the final prophet in person (Malachi 3:1) 35 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • The Father judged fruitlessness — the Son interceded on behalf of the fruitless tree • The Son did not repeat the Father's work. The Son completed the Father's work by adding what the Father alone could not do. Only the Son could dig, dung, and die. The digging was His Passion. The dunging was His humiliation, His scourging, His crucifixion. The Master Himself became the death that would make the tree fruitful — if only the tree would receive Him. The Father did His work for three thousand years. The Son did His work for one Messianic Jubilee. The digging is done. The dunging cost the Master His life. The intercession has been offered. ✦✦✦ The Unitarian Christology of the Parable. This parable is a stunning refutation of the collapse of Father and Son into one Person. 36 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • The Father is the certain man — the covenant Owner of the Vineyard • The Son is the dresser of the vineyard — the servant-intercessor • They are distinct Persons doing distinct works • The certain man rendered a verdict — "cut it down" • The dresser interceded with a plea — "let it alone this year also" "He said unto him" — the dresser SAID unto the Father. Two speakers. Two roles. Two works. Two Persons. YAHWEH is not YAHSHUA. YAHSHUA is not YAHWEH. The certain man and the dresser are two distinct actors in a covenant drama — cooperating, but not identical. If the Son were merely a mode of the Father, then the intercession of Luke 13 would be theatre — the Father talking to Himself. But the parable is not theatre. It is prophecy. The Son really begged. The Father really relented. ✦✦✦ 37 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel VI. THE BUDDING FIG TREE — MATTHEW 24 Now the Prophetic Sign. Matthew 24:32–34 "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Here is where modern eschatology has often gone astray. The popular reading — sometimes called the Zionist fig-tree hermeneutic — teaches that the budding of the fig tree refers specifically to the establishment of the modern nation-state of Israel in 1948, and that the generation which sees that budding will not pass away before the return of YAHSHUA. Two-House teachers read the passage differently — and there is real weight to their reading. The Two-House Reading of the Budding. 38 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Since Judah is the Fig Tree (Isaiah 5:7), the budding of the fig tree refers to Judah repeatedly attempting to sprout leaves — to reassert independent national existence — throughout the age. • From YAHSHUA's day until 70 AD, Judah kept trying to sprout leaves and become an independent nation again — resisting Rome, staging revolts, culminating in the failed defense at Masada • The tree kept trying to bud — but the fruit did not appear • Every attempt at reassertion without producing the fruit of gathering the scattered brother was another leaf without figs • The final budding of that era led not to summer — but to destruction Two-House teachers extend this pattern forward: every subsequent attempt of the fig-tree nation to sprout leaves without producing covenant fruit follows the same prophetic pattern. The tree buds — but the true summer of the Kingdom does not come through Judah's re-nationalization. It comes 39 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel through the returning King and the reunification of both houses under one Head (Ezekiel 37). Both Readings Must Be Held With Humility. Pastoral care requires that we not overclaim on either side. • The dispensationalist reading may be wrong about which political entity fulfills the promise, but the covenant hope that YAHWEH is regathering His people is genuinely biblical • The Two-House reading may be right that the whole covenant regathering must include Ephraim, but that does not require us to declare with certainty that current events are false starts • The truest answer awaits the return of the King, who will bring both houses together in a way that neither reading has fully anticipated The land promises of the covenant belong to Israel — to the birthright of Ephraim (Genesis 48:19; 1 Chronicles 5:1–2) — not to Judah alone. When the true regathering 40 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel comes at the return of the King, it will be a regathering of the whole house — Judah AND the scattered ten tribes — under one Head. ✦✦✦ VII. THE MEANING OF "THIS GENERATION" "Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." The Greek word genea — translated generation — can also carry the meaning of age or race in first-century Greek. • The immediate historical reference was the generation living at YAHSHUA's own words — that generation lived to see 70 AD • All of the near-term signs YAHSHUA gave in Matthew 24:1–31 were fulfilled by 70 AD — the wars, the false messiahs, the tribulation, the destruction of the Temple, the abomination in the holy place, the flight from Judea, the gathering of the Roman "eagles" • The generation of Judah that heard YAHSHUA speak these words did 41 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel not pass away before all these things came to pass The near-term prophetic timeline of Matthew 24 was fulfilled in the first century — not held in reserve for a distant future generation. The signs YAHSHUA gave were signs of the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, which came within one generation of His words. The longer application is that the pattern of Judah budding without producing covenant fruit continues across the age, until the final summer comes at the return of the King. ✦✦✦ VIII. THE FRUIT IS THE WHOLE HOUSE OF ISRAEL Now Let Us Name the Fruit Precisely. The tree was cursed for displaying leaves without fruit. What was the fruit? Not general moral improvement. Not ceremonial precision. Not tribal purity. Not doctrinal perfection. 42 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The covenant fruit the Master came seeking was the ingathering of the whole house of Israel — the reunification of the twelve tribes under the Renewed Covenant. Ezekiel's Two Sticks. Ezekiel 37:16–17, 19, 22 "Take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions: And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand... I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick... And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all." Two sticks. One in the hand of YAHWEH. That is the fruit. Jeremiah's Both-Houses Covenant. 43 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Jeremiah 31:31 "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah." The Renewed Covenant is not made with one house. It is made with BOTH houses. That is the fruit. The Messiah's Own Sheep Statement. John 10:16 "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." One fold. One Shepherd. The gathering of the other sheep. That is the fruit. The Master's Explicit Mission. Matthew 15:24 "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel." The Master's own stated mission was the gathering of the lost sheep. That was the fruit He came both to seek and to produce. The fruit of the Kingdom is the whole house of Israel restored, 44 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel reunited, walking together in covenant faithfulness under one King. Not two houses in permanent separation. Not one house exalted over the other. Not Judah gathered while Israel remains scattered. The fruit is the whole covenant family gathered home — Judah and Israel, both houses, one nation, one Shepherd, one Kingdom. Judah was called to be the beginning of that gathering. She refused. And so the Master takes what she refused to do and does it Himself — first through His own mission to the lost sheep, then through the apostolic outreach to the highways and byways of the nations where the scattered ones were sown. ✦✦✦ IX. TESHUVAH — THE GREAT MISUNDERSTANDING OF REPENTANCE The Fruit Begins With Return. Every fig tree begins with a root system. The fruit does not appear before 45 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel the roots go down. Before we speak of the fruit-bearing life of the awakening remnant, we must speak of the root of every covenant fruit — Teshuvah. And here we must correct one of the greatest misunderstandings in Western Christianity. The Word Is Not Repentance — It Is Return. For two thousand years, Western Christianity has translated the Hebrew concept of Teshuvah (הבָ  וּשׁ  תְּ) as repentance — and by repentance has meant feeling sorry, changing one's mind, moral reformation, emotional contrition. That reading is thin. That reading is inadequate. That reading misses what the Hebrew scriptures actually said. • Teshuvah — from the root shuv ( בָ  וּשׁ) — means literally RETURN • Not "feel sorry about" • Not "change your mind about" • Not "have emotional regret about" 46 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • Turn around. Come back. Come home. Every time the Hebrew prophets cried out for repentance, they were crying out for RETURN. • "Return, O backsliding children, saith the LORD" (Jeremiah 3:14) • "Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you" (Zechariah 1:3) • "Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee" (Isaiah 44:22) • "Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings" (Jeremiah 3:22) The command was directional, not emotional. The prophets were not asking Israel to feel bad — they were asking Israel to come home. To return to covenant standing. To return to the land. To return to the Father. The Greek Word Metanoia Was Read Through Jewish Ears. When the Greek New Testament uses metanoia — the word we translate repentance — the first-century Jewish hearers understood it through the 47 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Hebrew concept of Teshuvah. The apostles were not preaching Greek philosophical mind-change. They were preaching Hebrew covenant return. • When John the Baptist cried "Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand" — he was crying "Return! The Kingdom is here — come home!" • When Peter preached at Pentecost "Repent, and be baptized every one of you" — he was preaching "Return through the waters of covenant identification!" • When Paul spoke of repentance toward God — he was speaking of the direction of covenant return The great misunderstanding of Western Christianity is that "repentance" means feeling sorry. The truth is that Teshuvah means returning. And that changes everything about what covenant fruit looks like. ✦✦✦ X. BAPTISM IS THE FIRST SIGN OF COVENANT FRUIT 48 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel The Mikvah Is the Doorway of Aliyah. Every returning Israelite in ancient times entered the covenant land through water. The Jordan River at the entrance to the promised land was the first mikvah of the covenant nation. When the tribes came out of the wilderness under Joshua, they crossed through the waters of Jordan — and the waters piled up as a witness that a covenant people was RETURNING to the covenant land. Every generation of returning Israelites followed the same pattern. • The mikvah was the doorway of covenant participation • The mikvah was the physical enactment of Teshuvah • The mikvah was the first outward sign that the inward decision to return had been made • The mikvah was Aliyah — the "going up" of return — enacted in water And baptism — the covenant mikvah of the Renewed Covenant — is exactly this. 49 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • To be baptized is to declare "I am RETURNING to the covenant" • To be baptized is to walk through the covenant Jordan • To be baptized is to enact Aliyah — the going-up of return into covenant standing • Baptism is the first physical act of Teshuvah — and therefore the first sign of covenant fruit The Fig Tree Bears No Fruit Until the Roots Have Returned. Now hear the doctrinal centerpiece of the whole parable, Pastor. The barren fig tree of Judah could not bear the fruit of gathering because Judah herself had never truly returned. Judah went through the outward motions of covenant profession. Judah kept the ceremonies. Judah preserved the scriptures. But Judah did not RETURN to the heart of the covenant — the reunion with her scattered brother, the reunion with her Father through the promised Messiah. 50 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • Judah had covenant identity without covenant return • Judah had ceremonial mikvahs without covenant Teshuvah • Judah had Temple sacrifices without covenant repentance-of-direction • And so no fruit appeared — because the root of covenant fruit is the return itself And this is why baptism must be preached as the first sign of covenant fruit. Baptism is not merely an ordinance. Baptism is not merely an act of obedience. Baptism is the first physical sign that the awakening saint has actually TURNED and is walking home. The mikvah waters are the covenant Jordan — the passage into the promised land of Renewed Covenant standing. And every fruit-bearing life that follows begins in those waters. The Fruit-Bearing Life Continues the Return. Baptism is the first sign — but not the only sign. The whole fruit-bearing life 51 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel of the awakened saint is a continuing Teshuvah — a daily returning. • Returning to the Sabbath is Teshuvah • Returning to the appointed feasts is Teshuvah • Returning to the Sacred Names is Teshuvah • Returning to the Torah of the Father is Teshuvah • Returning to the recognition of the scattered brother is Teshuvah • The fruit-bearing life is a life of continuous covenant return But it all begins in the water. The first sign that the fig tree is going to bear fruit is that the tree has been transplanted — pulled out of its old ground of Western Christian confusion and replanted through the covenant mikvah into the ground of Renewed Covenant standing. The awakening saint who has never been baptized cannot bear the fruit of the Kingdom — because the fruit of the Kingdom begins with return, and the first physical enactment of return is the covenant mikvah. 52 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Baptism is the first sign. Everything else is fruit that grows from that first sign. ✦✦✦ XI. THE WARNING TURNS ON THE AWAKENING REMNANT We Can Repeat Judah's Failure. Do not think this parable applies only to Judah of long ago. The awakening remnant of scattered Israel is planted in the same Vineyard — and we can produce the same barrenness through the same jealousy Judah displayed. Consider carefully. Judah's specific sin was that she guarded the covenant privilege instead of extending it to her scattered brother. She became jealous of her covenant standing. She became exclusive with her covenant scriptures. She became guarded with her covenant identity. The awakening remnant can fall into the exact same pattern. 53 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • If we treat the Two-House revelation as tribal privilege instead of covenant invitation — we are the barren fig tree • If we guard our Sabbath and feast- keeping as sectarian identity instead of covenant welcome — we are the barren fig tree • If we hoard the Sacred Names as our special possession instead of covenant declaration to the whole family — we are the barren fig tree • If we become jealous of newcomers to the awakening, or suspicious of still-Christian seekers, or dismissive of still-Jewish brothers — we are the barren fig tree • If we do to the still-scattered what Judah did to us, we become Judah And there is more. • If we speak Two-House doctrine without doing the outreach — we are leaves without fruit • If we build congregations that discuss the ingathering without practicing the ingathering — we are leaves without fruit 54 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • If we celebrate our own return without extending the invitation to still-scattered brothers — we are leaves without fruit • The fruit is the whole house of Israel. If our congregations are not becoming welcoming gathering-places for the still- scattered, we are producing the same barrenness Judah produced The same axe that fell on Judah in 70 AD is the axe of covenant judgment. It falls on any fig tree — Judean or Israelite, ancient or modern — that displays the leaves of covenant identity without producing the fruit of covenant reunion. Do not repeat the failure. Bear the true fruit that the Master is looking for — the fruit of the whole house. ✦✦✦ XII. UNIVERSAL RECONCILIATION AND THE CUT-DOWN TREE Even the Cursed Tree Is Not Finally Lost. 55 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Do not misread the cursing of the fig tree as eternal condemnation of every descendant of Judah. • The tree was cut down as a corrective national judgment • The believing portion of Judah — the good figs of Jeremiah 24 — joined regathered Israel and are indistinguishable from the Kingdom-people today • The unbelieving portion has been under the corrective discipline of dispersion for nineteen centuries • But the corrective discipline is not eternal — even the withered tree will be visited by the mercy of the returning King Zechariah 12:10 "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him." At the return of the King, unrepentant Judah will finally see, mourn, return — and be gathered. The withered tree of Mark 11 becomes the mourning tree of Zechariah 12 becomes the restored tree of the final Kingdom. 56 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel And in that day the fruit finally appears. The whole house of Israel — Judah restored and awakening Ephraim united — walks together under one King. The fruit the Father came seeking for three thousand years, and the fruit the Son offered His life to secure, finally hangs from the tree that was once cursed and cut down. The Universal Reconciliation of all things means that no cursing is eternal. The tree was cut down for a season. The tree has withered for nineteen centuries. But the same YAHWEH who allowed the cutting will also allow the mourning, the Teshuvah, and the gathering. Judah's story is not over. The final chapter is reconciliation — and the final fruit is the whole house of Israel, gathered home at last. ✦✦✦ XIII. THE PATTERN OF THE PARABLE Let Us Draw It All Together. • The Vineyard — Israel, the covenant field of YAHWEH. 57 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • The Fig Tree — Judah, the pleasant plant within the Vineyard. • The Fruit — the ingathering of the whole house of Israel — the reunion of the twelve tribes under the Renewed Covenant. • The Leaves without Fruit — Judah's covenant profession without her covenant calling to gather her scattered brother; her jealousy, her exclusion, her active refusal to reach out and find the ten tribes. • The Father's Three-Thousand- Year Work — patient covenant labor across the ages, seeking the fruit of ingathering, finding none. • The Son's One-Year Work — the Messianic Jubilee of intercession, the digging and dunging that cost Him His life. • The Cursing — YAHSHUA's prophetic judgment on fruitless covenant profession that refused to gather. • The Withering — the national and covenantal decline that reached its visible fulfillment in 70 AD. • The Budding — Judah's repeated attempts across the age to sprout 58 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel leaves without producing the fruit of gathering. • Teshuvah — the true covenant return that produces the root system of all Kingdom fruit. • Baptism — the first physical sign of covenant fruit — the mikvah Aliyah of Renewed Covenant standing. • The Fruit-Bearing Life — continuing Teshuvah — Sabbath, feasts, Sacred Names, Torah, and the outreach that gathers still- scattered brothers. • The True Summer — the return of the King, the regathering of both houses, the fruit finally hanging on the restored tree. This is the fig-tree parable in its full doctrinal weight. It is not a general call to moral improvement. It is a Two-House teaching about the specific fruit YAHWEH sought — the reunion of the whole covenant family — and about the return, the baptism, and the fruit-bearing life that finally produces that reunion at the coming of the King. ✦✦✦ 59 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel REFLECTION QUESTIONS Three Questions for Tonight's Class: 1. If the fruit the Master sought was the ingathering of the whole house of Israel — how am I extending covenant invitation to my still-scattered brothers, whether they are still-Christian, still- Jewish, or still-heathen descendants of the ten tribes? Am I bearing the fruit of gathering — or am I producing the same jealousy Judah produced? 2. If Teshuvah means RETURN rather than mere emotional repentance — have I actually returned, or have I only felt sorry? Have I walked through the covenant mikvah as the first sign of covenant fruit — and am I continuing the daily return through Sabbath, feasts, Sacred Names, and Torah? 3. If the awakening remnant can repeat Judah's failure through jealousy and exclusion — where in my own congregation, my own family, my own heart am I guarding the covenant instead of extending it? What still- scattered brother am I refusing to reach out to right now? 60 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel ✦✦✦ CLOSING WORD The Fig Tree is not primarily a call to moral improvement. It is a Two-House parable about the specific fruit YAHWEH sought from Judah for nearly three thousand years — the ingathering of the whole house of Israel — and about Judah's active refusal to become the gatherer she was called to be. The tree was cursed because it displayed the leaves of covenant identity without producing the fruit of covenant reunion. And the axe of 70 AD fell because the Master's one- year Jubilee of intercession was met with the same jealousy and exclusion the Father had encountered for thirty centuries. Beloved — we are planted in the same Vineyard. • Do not guard the covenant while your scattered brother wanders in the isles of the sea. 61 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel • Do not celebrate your own return while refusing to extend the invitation. • Do not display the leaves of Two- House doctrine while producing no fruit of Two-House gathering. • Return through the mikvah waters. Enact Teshuvah with your body, not just your feelings. And then live the returning life — Sabbath by Sabbath, feast by feast, brother by scattered brother — until the fruit of the whole house begins to hang from your branches. The Master is still walking through the Vineyard. He is still looking for fruit. He is still interceding — through the completed work of the one-year Messianic Jubilee — for one more chance. Let Him find fruit on you when He comes. Do not become the withered fig tree of a covenant profession that never gathered a single scattered brother home. The fruit is the whole house of Israel. Bear it. ✦✦✦ 62 THE FIG TREE — Part Nineteen: The Parables and the Lost Tribes of Israel Next in the Series — Part Twenty: The Marriage Supper — the great Kingdom parable of the covenant wedding feast, the refused invitations, the destruction of the city, and the highways where the scattered ones were compelled to come in. ✦✦✦ ✦✦✦ Rev. John Shane Vaughn First Harvest Ministries International The Parables and the Lost Tribes — Part Nineteen: The Fig Tree 63