This is a strange episode in the Gospel that is hard to understand. Could this story be an image of what happens if we fail to bear fruit in our Christian lives? When the Father looks at you and me, can He see fruit that will last for Him?

The name Baal-Hanan means the Lord is gracious, and in a good harvest, this man felt that God had been gracious to him. But did he ever imagine having his name written in the Bible? Your name can be written in the Book of Life in Heaven!

This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me! Come out and give yourselves up to me! Everyone will eat from his own grapevine and fig tree and drink from his own cistern. Then I will come and take you away to a country like your own.

In James 3:12-13 we see once more the fig tree and the vine mentioned together, and used as an example for life in general. In the Epistle of James we learn much about the way we should live as believers, and as "church" in the world today.

Joel 2 is one of the chapters that speak of the end of the world as we know it. We can see many of those things happening now as I write this early in 2021. But in the Word of God, there is always a promise of good things too.

Hundreds of years after Moses, we read of one of the times of fulfilment of the promise of God to the Israelites. The vine and the fig tree speak of good things to drink and to eat all through the year. Grapes and figs both have medicinal properties.

The first direct mention of fig trees, other than the leaves in Genesis, tells us that Moses was encouraging the Israelites that God was still with them. It is interesting that fig trees are the only trees mentioned here by name. Surely there were other trees in the promised land.

The Lord God made clothes. Will we ever learn that our petty efforts to cover ourselves or to cover our wrong actions are always inadequate. But God provides for our EVERY need. He is the only One who can do that. Jesus died to cover our sins with His blood.

Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together. The fig leaves were the most suitable. They were big, strong and thick. God had provided for their needs, before they knew that they would have those needs. He still does that today for you and me. God is The One who sees.