"Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away.
For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over [and]
gone.
The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing
has come,
And the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land.
Song of Solomon 2:10-12 NKJV
Oh, praise HIM! This morning as I was hiking uphill on my
treadmill the Holy Spirit highlighted some things to me and so I must share
them! Yesterday I spent some time contemplating the possibility of a Spring
Resurrection/Rapture and came across Song of Solomon 2:10-13:
My beloved spoke, and said to me:
"Rise up, my love, my fair one, And come away.
For lo, the winter is past, The rain is over [and] gone.
The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing has come,
And the voice of the turtledove Is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth her green
figs, And the vines [with] the tender grapes Give a [good] smell. Rise up,
my love, my fair one, And come away!
Song of Solomon 2:10-13 NKJV
This section of Scripture is, of course, a picture of the Resurrection
and Rapture of the Bride being called to “rise up” to meet her Bridegroom—“And
come away!” Also notice that at Springtime in the Middle East the fig tree puts
forth green figs. Exactly when do
green figs appear? At the Passover
season:
"At Passover season in late March or early April, fig trees
are often in leaf on the eastern side of the Mount of Olives. At this time of
year, such fig trees contained only green early figs (Arabs call them taqsh),
which ripen around June but often drop off before that time, leaving only green
leaves on the tree. A leafy tree lacking such early figs, however, would bear
no figs at all that year," (Keener, A Commentary on the Gospel of
Matthew [Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, July 1999], p. 504)
Jesus Curses the Fig
Tree
Remember the account of Jesus and the fig tree?
And on the morrow,
when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:
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 hereafter for ever. And his disciples
heard [it]. - Mark 11:12-14 KJV
And in the morning, as
they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter
calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou
cursedst is withered away. - Mark 11:20-21 KJV
‘The time of the fig is not yet,’ says Mark,
for it was just before Passover, about six weeks before the fully-formed fig
appears. The fact that Mark adds these words shows that he knew what he
was talking about. When the fig leaves appear about the end of March, they
are accompanied by a crop of small knobs, called taqsh by the Arabs, a sort of
fore-runner of the real figs. These taqsh are eaten by peasants and
others when hungry. They drop off before the real fig is formed. But
if the leaves appear unaccompanied by taqsh, there will be no figs that year.
So it was evident to our Lord, when He turned aside to see if there were any of
these taqsh on the fig-tree to assuage His hunger for the time being, that
the absence of the taqsh meant that there would be no figs when the time of
figs came. For all its fair foliage, it was a fruitless and a hopeless
tree." (Bruce, Are The New Testament Documents Reliable? [Intervarsity
Press; Downers Grove, Ill, fifth revised edition 1992], pp. 73-74; bold
emphasis ours)
. . . Moreover, the cursing of the
fig tree is a played or acted out parable, one which warned the nation of
Israel of impending judgment. answeringislam.org
As the above excerpt indicated, Jesus cursed the fig tree
for “it was a fruitless and a hopeless tree”. The lack of green figs sprouting
from the tree indicated that there would be no mature fruit when harvest time
came.
This is a picture of the spiritual condition of Israel at
the time their Messiah first came to them! Israel as a nation did not accept Yahshua as their Moshiach which
left them without hope and having to endure the future Jacob’s Trouble—The Tribulation
or Daniel’s 70th Week. Along with other unbelievers, the Tribulation
will be experienced by the natural-born Israelites who have not yet accepted Yahshua as their Messiah.
The Tree Now HAS
Green Figs!
Paul Dawson published a wonderful video on the possibility of the Rapture
occurring this Passover.
In the video he includes the account of Phillip and the
Ethiopian eunuch who could not understand the Book of Isaiah Chapter 53. This
reminded me of the story Zev Porat told in his recent video Outreach: Isaiah 53 Explodes In The Kotel
(Western Wall). Zev tells how Isaiah 53 is taboo to the Jew and how he got into some trouble when witnessing at the Western Wall!
When I posted the link to this video on Rev12daily blogspot, Sherry Griffin commented that the man at the Kotel that Porat was ministering to who was listening so intently may be one of the 144,000 (Revelation 7:1-4):
Lyn, TY so much for sharing that clip. It just had me imagining what 144K will look like as they reveal the True Messiah to those who will be starving for that Truth and how the gates of hell will never prevail! Blessings, Sister:-)
Thank you Lyn, love Porat and this clip says it all. The Israelite Nation is under a judgement, blinded eyes and deaf ears until we are gone. There are those - like this man and the Messianics - who have genuinely seeking hearts and they are certainly allowed to see it. Banned Chapter indeed - no wonder - Isaiah 53 spells it out the most clearly of any of the Old Testament books. No wonder they had to ban it, even a child can see Yeshua is Mashiach! Sheila, we may have just been shown one of the 144,000 - the man Porat was ministering to and who was listening so intently. His Word will not return void. Blessings - Sherry
There are many theories on who the 144,000 are, but my point here is I believe the Spirit of the Lord is showing that we are in the SEASON OF THE GREEN FIGS. What I mean is that, just as Zev Porat experienced as he reached out to the Jewish man at the Kotel, many, many Jews are “ripe for the picking” as GREEN FIGS but will not be fully mature for HARVEST until sometime during The Tribulation.
Much indicates that 2019 is THE year for the Rapture, especially because after 70 years, God inspects Israel. Spiritually, Jesus will again be INSPECTING THE FIG TREE TO SEE IF THERE ARE ANY GREEN FIGS upon it!
Referring back to Paul Dawson’s February 5 video, it very much caught my attention when he shared how the fast of Esther was during Passover!
I shared in The Die is Cast article how the religious leaders in Israel are expecting their Messiah to come (the first time) on Purim this year and how this could possibly point to the Resurrection/Rapture of the Overcoming Church occurring then!
On the Hebrew calendar Purim begins at sunset March 20 and is observed until sunset March 21. However, Passover 2019 will begin in the evening of Friday, April 19, and end the evening of Saturday, April 27. Israel’s 70th anniversary year will be completed on May 14, 2019.
In my Father's house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself;
that where I am, [there] ye may be also. - John 14:2-3 KJV
