Leslie 04/15/19

Georgia Veterans State Park, Cordele, Georgia

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.  Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit.  When He reached it, He found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then He said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”  ~ Mark 11:12-14a

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there.  He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves.  ~ Matthew 21:12

The next few days are jam-packed full of narrative and lessons.  So many, that I probably couldn’t cover them all in a year, let alone a few short posts.  But today, I want to touch briefly on two.  I hope you don’t mind.

The First Baptist Church we visited on Sunday, included readings to study this week.  We thought that was really nice!  Today’s was on the money changers and the fig tree.

I always wondered about the fig tree story, which happened somewhere along their 1.5 mile trek from Bethany to Jerusalem that morning.  Why didn’t Jesus just make figs?  He had the power to do so.  Why curse the tree?  Especially if it wasn’t even the season for figs?  It can come across as unrighteously angry and vengeful, which we know Jesus isn’t, so there has to be a better explanation.  But what?  Today, we learned a little more that helped shed some light. 

After reading about the event, and then reading the notes in our Bibles and then a commentary by Walvoord and Zuck (God bless those people!), we were able to gain a little better understanding.  In part, this was for the benefit of the disciples.  More learned people than us, believe it to be an analogy of the Jewish leadership – all leaf and no fruit.  In other words, all talk and no action.  They wanted to look good, but their hearts were barren.

But here’s what we found interesting from W & Z that really shed light: 

The time of year was Passover, the middle of the month of Nisan (March/April).  In Palestine, fig trees produced crops of small edible buds in March, followed by the appearance of large green leaves in early April.  This early green “fruit” (buds) was common food for local peasants.  (An absence of these buds despite the tree’s green foliage promising their presence indicated it would bear no fruit that year.)  Eventually these buds dropped off when the normal crop of figs formed and ripened in late May and June, the fig season.  Thus it was reasonable for Jesus shortly before Passover (mid-April) to expect to find something edible on that fig tree, even though it was not the season for figs.

Now it all makes sense, does it not?  And you can still apply the analogy of cursing the Jewish leadership for not producing ‘fruit’.  In other words, Jesus cursing the tree was a prophetic sign of God’s impending judgment on Israel.  It was NOT an angry reaction by Jesus simply because He was hungry.  (or hangry as the world calls it now) 

So it is with us.  Jesus expects us to be fruitful, not just look good.

Which leads us to the incident at the Jerusalem temple. 

A little background information first.  In Jesus’ day, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread – which includes the day of Passover, which is probably the most important Jewish festival of the year – thousands and thousands of people came to Jerusalem to sacrifice at the most important house of worship for the Jews.  It was the place David dreamed of and Solomon built – until the Babylonians tore it down.  It was now the temple that was rebuilt following their return from exile some five to six hundred years ago.  It was the temple that King Herod was working on renovating and expanding.  It was the place where God lived among His people within the Holy of Holies.  And He set the requirement for the Passover to be celebrated and sacrifices made at this temple.  Not the synagogues they built as they scattered around the countryside.  Three times a year – on the Feast of Unleavened Bread, on the Feast of Weeks, and on the Feast of Booths – all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place that He will choose.  They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.  ~ Deuteronomy 16:16  During David’s lifetime, God chose Jerusalem.

So this is the reason Jesus and His disciples are here.  This is the reason the city is overflowing with pilgrims.  In addition to just being here, the people are required to make a sacrifice – especially on Passover, which is Thursday.

So what’s the big deal?  Why is Jesus storming around the place making a big mess of everything?  He’s been here before, I mean, He’s 33 years old at this point.  He’s been here at least 20 years in a row.  He knows what goes on.  Here’s the problem . . .

All the animal sacrifices made were required to be without blemish.  What had started happening over the years, was that the priests and Levites allowed people to set up booths to sell ‘unblemished’ animals right there in the temple court.  Think of the entrance to your church and the area just inside the doors.  Now imagine people selling animals there and spreading out, even to just before the entrance to the sanctuary.  That’s what these people were doing.  And not only that, some of the priests were crooked.  They would look over someone’s sacrificial animal that they’d brought with them and claim it was blemished and the people would have to by ‘certified blemish-free’ ones from the priests and their cohorts.  Then, those actually blemish-free animals that were confiscated, would be sold to the next poor sap.  And on and on it went.  And on top of that, the priests also required specific coins to be used at the temple, and their exchange rate was through the roof. Men making the almighty dollar at God’s expense.

And today is the day of reckoning.  Jesus is out of time and He’s held in His righteous anger long enough and the animals and money went flying.  It didn’t matter if it made them angry enough to want to kill Him.  It was time. And it was Judgment Day.

And it’s a lesson – much like the fig tree.  Don’t just look good on the outside, or parade your religion around self-righteously.  Judgment Day comes for each of us.  How will He find us?  Will we hear, well done good and faithful servant. . . Enter into the joy of your Lord. ~ Matthew 25:23?

We drove about 20 minutes to the small town of Leslie today.  When I say small, I mean small.  Even I could remember the names of all the people living here, since there’s only about 375 of them.  And dropping.

So why did we come?

We read about the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum.  Doesn’t that sound interesting?

It was!

In fact, it was so interesting, we spent about two hours here!  And the place was huge!  There are over 2,000 phones on display in their renovated 1920’s cotton warehouse.  I know that sounds really boring.  Who wants to look at 2,000 telephones?  And we didn’t look closely at every single one, but there’s so much more to this museum than just old telephones.

From their website:

Dear Visitor,

       I am extremely proud to welcome you to the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum. Housed in this renovated 1920’s cotton warehouse are the oldest and rarest examples of telecommunication in the world. Our exhibits date from 1876 to the 21st Century.

       I would like to dedicate the museum to the men and women who worked so hard and so long to give us the greatest communication system in the world and to honor those who continue to work on new and innovative ideas for the future of the communication.  In appreciation, a special thanks to so many who have worked untiringly before and beside me to make this dream a reality.
 
       It is my desire that you enjoy a trip through the history of communications and leave with a greater appreciation and understanding of telephony. Now for your viewing pleasure I present “The Georgia Rural Telephone Museum”.

We look forward to sharing this unique experience with you. 

Sincerely,

Tommy C. Smith, CEO

And he’s also the president of the Citizens Telephone Company.  A very small phone company that used to be much larger before cell phones.

We paid our $5 at the phone company office across the street and the woman escorted us across the street and turned on the lights and let us go.  She said there was usually someone in the offices at the museum, but they were ‘at lunch’.  Evidently it was a really long lunch, because we never saw another living, breathing soul the entire time we were there. There were plenty of mannequins, however.

We stopped at Striplings on the way home.  They had these bacon-wrapped pork medallions the other day and we were hoping to try them.  We did!  And they were terrific!  Their store also had some yellow squash which Blaine likes breaded and fried, but he didn’t understand when I told him I had to make the slices sweat before I could fry them. 

I reckon there are probably a lot of people who don’t understand that, just like me when I first started cooking.  I actually learned the ‘art’ from a black lady who taught me how to make fried green tomatoes.  Here’s what you do – – you slice them and place them flat on a plate, then sprinkle them with salt and pepper and let them rest for about 10 minutes.  When you look, they’ll have beads of water on top.  Sweat.  😊

After dinner, (by the way, we only ate 2 ½ of the 5 medallions Blaine grilled) we rode around on a few trails in the Park.

Tomorrow we move.