I spent much of my college free time in my college's study rooms—I studied, yes, a lot. These library, back-corner spaces, far from the dorms, had a signup chart hanging on each door because there were only five of them, but they were rarely all taken until exams were upon us. The rooms were like private, detention rooms with the only window being a slender pane in the door so that other students could see if the small, undecorated rooms were occupied as reserved. Sometimes I would be disturbed by other study groups looking to snatch one of the four, hard, stackable chairs that were apportioned to each room. Otherwise, the walls were thick enough to mute the occasional library conversation, leaving only the hum from the air conditioning vent, which was needed, my school being in Daytona Beach, Florida.
I describe this space to give you a picture of where I prayed some of my most fervent prayers: many prayers to be forgiven and freed of my cravings for internet pleasure, prayers for a suitable lifetime partner, and at other times, in juvenile ways, prayers to be reunited with past girlfriends—high school relationships that had withered rapidly to awkwardness. I excuse my behavior now by saying I was an odd teenager, yet it's this embarrassing backdrop that my mind turns to as I read Mark 11—the story of Yeshua entering Jerusalem on a colt that had never been ridden, seeing the state of the temple, leaving the city, cursing an unfruitful fig tree, reentering the temple to cast out the thieving money changers, leaving the city a second time, commenting on the withered fig tree that Kepha, or Peter, discovered, and reentering the temple only to insightfully dodge a question about the authority by which he did "these things".
If you read through this passage with an honest eye, you will see that this story, and especially the blank-check proposition from Yeshua, has the potential to psychologically mess up some people—think scholastically isolated college student here. I read this text in college, prayed as prescribed, and believed as pointedly as possible. When my passionately prayed mountainous desires didn’t fall at all into the Atlantic Ocean, I.e. happen, the only logical cause according to Yeshua in Mark 11 (Matthew 21) was lack of belief. That left me begging the answer to the question: how could I believe more to get what I so desperately sought? I believe now that I missed a few significant things in the passage, like the time gap between the curse and the fig tree withering and the relevance of the blessings and curses found in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28.
First, the Blessings and Curses
Simply put, the entire passage is an allegory, you could say prophetic: the fig tree is supposed to bear fruit, the temple is supposed to be a house of prayer, and if you read through to Mark 12, the vineyard owner sends his servants, then son, to collect his fruit and the vineyard husbandmen are supposed to produce the grapes! Talk about some grapes of wrath-be comin’. It’s ironic that Yeshua dodges the question of authority only to answer it shortly after by way of a riddling proverb. I love it! He’s the son of the vineyard owner! It’s his fig tree that’s bearing no fruit, and they're his temple landlords that have diverged from their purpose.
On the topic of the temple, the whole purpose of the temple was to bless the people of Israel. And the blessings, laid out clearly in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, are contingent upon obedience—the curses are brought on by the lack of it. So, there I was pouring out my collegiate heart, thinking I was on the apostles’ side of Yeshua’s carte blanche when I was much more like a leafy limb of the fig tree. Albeit, my fig-lacking status was mostly due to my culturally instilled naïveté. I look back now and see that there were some obvious commands I was selfishly dismissing, much like the husbandmen and the Pharisees.
The Time Gap
Alleluia for the time gap. Can you imagine a college teenager wielding the power of Mount St. Helen from a lonely library study room, especially when it came to the myopic topics that were in my tractor beam? Still, YHWH heard my cries and waited to answer them. The divine time gap! Regardless of my life being negligently spun in sin like a classic cookie blizzard, he heard his forgiven child and blessed me grandly. I can better see now what a scene of havoc my life would have been if my full of faith asks had all been answered in those isolated moments. I was sure I knew then how to pray, or so I would have told you, but now at thirty-six years wise, I think I have a better hold of it. Check it out—Matthew 6:6-16. Instead of being sure of my desires back then, I should have seen the markings of Yeshua’s model prayer in Mark when forgiving others was mentioned, and I should have contented myself with YHWH’s will being done in my life. By no means do I believe we should stop privately praying our hearts out. But certainly, we should pray more for His will than for ours, and we should know the sins behind the temptations before we pray to be led away from them.
Whether the fig tree withered before the disciples’ very eyes or whether it withered over the course of the day is yet a mystery, but I would rather have YHWH’s blessings, His barak, in His time, every time—and after His time gap for sure! Wouldn't you? I am a living testament that He answers and blesses even the psychologically messed up kid. And if you’re in doubt of my claim, just navigate back to the home page and take a candid gander at who He had in mind for me to marry! Biggest prayer…answered.
How do you think YHWH addresses conflicting prayer requests? Please answer in the comments below before you leave this page.
Keep praying (and obeying).
Sincerely,
JH
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