PAGE 49 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST(THE BAD FIG TREE)

"Adam and Eve made an apron of fig leaves for themselves." Genesis 3:17.  


The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is rooted in religious Judaism of today. This religious Judaism is called modern rabbinic Judaism.


When the Jewish people were taken into captivity in Babylon, they learned the doctrines of the occult or  "Mystery Babylon." Since they had no Temple, they gave the authority of the High Priest to the Rabbis or teachers and replaced the importance of the Temple with synagogues.  The religious leaders in Babylon invented a whole system of man made traditions while they were there and then falsely proclaimed that these laws and traditions had been  orally  transmitted by God to Moses. These religious leaders evolved into the sect of the Scribes and the Pharisees.  The Scribes and the Pharisees instituted the practice of complicated rituals which made them have the outward appearance of pious religiosity while simultaneously cultivating new secret doctrine and conducting pagan rites in secret. By the time of Jesus', Yeshua's, visitation to Israel, the Pharisees were in control of Jerusalem. The Pharisees had the written Word of God, which are the books of the Bible from Genesis to Malachi (the Torah, wisdom literature and the Prophets),  but then they added to it all of their made up traditions they had learned while in Babylon. The Pharisees called these traditions the oral torah and they said that these new laws and traditions were as authoritative as the books of the Bible. At the time of Yeshua, Jesus,  the oral torah had not been put in written form.


With the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, the Sadducees had disappeared; the Pharisees became fully in charge of the regulation of all Jewish affairs. They then put their oral torah and traditions into written form in a book called the Talmud from about 200AD to 500AD.  The Talmud consists of the Mishnah or Halacha and the Gemara.  The Gemara is commentary on the Mishnah. The secret pagan teachings the Pharisees had learned in Babylon were eventually written down in a book called the Zohar in the 13th century and is the basis for Kabala or Jewish mysticism.  The Rabbis of modern Judaism consider Kabala the hidden portion of the oral torah. The Holy Bible (books of Genesis to Malachi) plus the Talmud and Zohar, which were made up and added by the Pharisees, are the foundation of modern Rabbinic Judaism. The Talmud is considered as legally binding as the Holy Bible and they believe that religious authority was passed from Moses to Joshua to various generations of elders and then to the Rabbis.


Modern Rabbinic Judaism bears very little resemblance to the faith of the Israelites written down in the books of the Holy Bible. Satan was successful in turning the very thing that was supposed to be the Tree of Life, into the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He destroyed the pure Word of God and thus eliminated the need for the life giving Messiah and Spirit and replaced it with the self righteousness of Man.


The Talmud states that the Rabbis put a fence around the Torah.  They think this is a good thing but Yahweh God did not want a fence to be put around his Torah.  They reinvented the basics of the Torah by the belief that:


1. Adam and Eve did not corrupt their flesh and all mankind after them by their sin.  The Rabbis state that a soul at birth is pure and holy and though we have an inclination towards both good and evil, that we are essentially good. We can become righteous by making the right choices or doing what the Rabbis say. 


2. Adam and Eve were not separated from God by their sin and hence there is no need of a mediator.  The Word of God or the Holy Bible teaches that because of man's sin, mankind has been separated from God and that the Levitical Priests were to be the mediators between Man and God. The Bible teaches that Yahweh is so Holy that Man cannot approach him without bringing an animal sacrifice to the Priest in the Temple. Moses as a foreshadowing of the Messiah Yeshua had the role of mediator between Yahweh and the Israelites.  Modern Judaism teaches that the need for a mediator is unbearable: a quote from a writing says "Between God and Man stands no one.  Nothing between potter and vessel, so nothing separates Man from God." They revised the role of Moses as mediator between the people and God to Moses the Rabbi. They eliminated the need for Priests and replaced them with Rabbis, who were just teachers of the writings of the Talmud. The Rabbis have elevated Man to the level of Yahweh and without any need for help from God by an intermediary.


3.  Satan's words in the Garden were actually true: that if you eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, "...that you will surely not die." Modern Judaism believes that death is no longer required for the atonement of sin. They state that animal sacrifices and Temple rituals are to be replaced by prayer and good deeds.  They state that repentance alone atones for all transgressions.




 Just as Adam and Eve, the Rabbis have reached for the leaves, the self righteous works of Man, off Satan's Tree to cover their sin. The deceptive Tree that leads only to death and enslavement. Just like Adam and Eve, these Rabbis have rejected the Tree of Life, the pure Word of God and his Messiah, which bring the fruit of the Spirit and life everlasting. 

PAGE 48 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST(THE BAD FIG TREE)

Satan's tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,  has been judged by Yeshua, Jesus, and will be totally eradicated in the future, but is still firmly planted in all false religious systems other than the one true system that has Yahweh's Tree of Life as its foundation. The Kingdom of Yahweh has the Tree of Life, which is the Word of God and the Messiah Yeshua in its midst. The Kingdom of Satan, or "Babylon" as it is called in scripture, has the Tree of the the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which is the teaching or doctrines of Satan and his demons and Satan himself. Satan's false religious system is called "Mystery Babylon" in scripture. "Mystery Babylon" is referred to in scripture as a woman prostitute. The scripture says:


"The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." Revelation 17:4,5


 Satan's system is manifested in different ways in different organized false belief systems today; all of these false systems will unite together in the one world religion of the Anti-Christ at the end of times. The symbolism for all of these false systems is exemplified when Adam and Eve "...sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves." Genesis 3:7.  The fig leaves from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.


At one time in the history of the Earth, Satan's kingdom was openly manifested in an actual kingdom on Earth called Babylon.  This kingdom destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and took the Jews captive in 588 BC.  During this time in Babylon is when the Pharisees and the Scribes  formed their sect based on Satanic doctrines and teachings they had learned there. These teachings comprised the "oral law" or the "traditions of their fathers" that Yeshua, Jesus had condemned them for.  Scripture speaks of the Jewish people being enthralled with the teachings of the Chaldeans of Babylon:


"(Jerusalem) increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.  And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them..." Ezekiel 23: 14-17

PAGE 47 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (THE FIG TREE)

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is a copy of the Tree of Life; they are hard to tell apart from afar because they both have many fig leaves, which represent works.  Yeshua,  Jesus, uses a barren fig tree to symbolically curse the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that had overtaken the religious system in Jerusalem and to teach his disciples about the Kingdom.  The scripture says in Mark 11:12-14


"The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Yeshua was hungry."


The name Bethany means "house of figs"; this is where the Tree of Life, with it's abundance of spiritual fruit was flourishing. Yeshua was leaving there and heading near Bethpage, which means "house of unripened figs". This is the city of the religious leaders and where the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil had a stronghold.  The scripture says:


"And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it.  When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs." Mark 11:13


Yeshua uses this fig tree as a teaching tool: he actually knows the truth that this tree has no fruit, but is teaching  his disciples that from afar, it looks like the Tree of Life because of its many fig leaves.  He then curiously tells them  that it isn't the "season" for figs.


The Greek word for "season" is koinos and the Hebrew word is moed.  It means "appointed time". Yahweh has his own calendar set with his appointed times and seasons when he manifests and takes action on Earth.  The remnant of believers in Yahweh Elohim, the triune God, are to understand what season in God's calendar they are in.  Jeremiah prophecies about the religious leader's lack of understanding of the Messiah Yeshua's appointed first time of visitation. He says:


"Even the stork in the heavens knows her times (moed), and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming (moed), but my people know not the judgment of Yahweh." Jeremiah 8:7


Yeshua rebukes the Pharisees and Sadducees for not understanding the appointed time of his coming:


"He answered them, 'When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times (koinos)." Luke 16:2,3


By saying that it "...isn't the season (koinos) for figs...", Yeshua is teaching his disciples that it is not the time for the religious and political structure in Israel to bear spiritual fruit or be the Tree of Life to the world. He later prophecies about the time in the future when that will take place:


"Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near." Matthew 24:32


The Greek word for "summer" is theros  and the Hebrew word for "summer" is quts.  it means the the time or season for the second fig harvest which occurs in August and September. Yeshua's first coming fulfilled God's springtime feasts on His calendar. The fig tree bears fruit in the spring and in the early fall. His first coming brought in a harvest of a remnant of individual believers pictured as in Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany, the "house of figs".  The time between the two fig harvests represents the times of the Gentiles.  The second coming of Yeshua will be about the harvest of souls of the nation of Israel: the time when Yeshua brings down the Tree of Life with him to Jerusalem. The appointed time on God's calendar where the Kingdom of God is restored to the nation of Israel.  This is fulfilled in the appointed fall feasts in God's calendar. This "summer" season is right around that time.


Yeshua is telling his disciples to be aware that this summer season is near when they see leaves on the fig tree.  He is talking here about the Tree of Life; that it will happen slowly.  First, they will see leaves and then later, comes the Spirit or the fruit harvest.  The leaves that will appear first are the political and religious structure of Israel being reborn in the land which, miraculously  happened in the year 1948. The Bride of Christ must be aware that we are in the season of Yeshua's second coming at this present time!


Yeshua tells his disciples that the fig tree that they see near Bethpage is not the Tree of Life because it isn't the "appointed time" or "season" for that. Instead, it is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the tree that the religious leaders of that time had embraced. It is the copy, full of leaves or vain religious works. 
He then places a curse on Satan's Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil:


"Then he said to the tree, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again,' And his disciples heard him say it.'" Mark 11:14


He then goes on to cleanse the Temple of it's evil; the disciples then pass by the tree again and see that it had withered and died.  Yeshua will in the next few days judge Satan's tree by being crucified on a tree very near to where this particular cursed tree was. He is stating a prophecy that in the future, mankind will never make the mistake that Adam and Eve made: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and Satan's schemes will completely be done away with, and no one will ever eat fruit from it again!

PAGE 46 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (THE FIG TREE)

By changing the Word of God, the Pharisees self righteously elevated themselves to be co-equals with God. The Prophet Isaiah writes about the religious leaders at the time of Yeshua, Jesus. He says:


"You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He did not make me'? Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'?" Isaiah 29:16


Yeshua explains their self righteousness in a story:


"The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance.  He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' 'I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.'" Luke 18:11


Satan had hijacked the priestly system in Jerusalem and turned it into his own priestly system:  the Tree of Life had turned into the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He kept people away from the true Word of God and which brings life eternal and turned it into a way to aggrandize the religious leaders to the level of Yahweh.  Satan had them use everything that Yahweh had given them: the land, their heritage, the temple, and the scriptures as a tool to oppress those with less power and stature.  This is always Satan's way; just like his tempting words to Eve: "Don't you want to be like God?" The priestly system in Jerusalem became a system of seemingly righteous works: that man could perform these works and be just as righteous as Yahweh and without any help from Him. This is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: it looks like the Tree of Life from afar, adorned with many leaves (a religious system with seemingly pious works in order to achieve salvation from God), but it has no fruit (Spirit, that which comes from Yahweh).  The Scripture speaks about these "leaves":


"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6


These are the "fig leaves", the fig leaves from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that Satan had prompted Adam and Eve to grab to cover their sin. 

PAGE 45 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (THE FIG TREE)

The land of Israel; their Jewishness; the possession of the Scriptures; and the Temple were all to be used for Yahweh's purposes, but instead they used all of it for their own gain and it became an idol to the Sanhedrin.  These things were to point to God but instead they made them point to them.  They made their possession of a building, the land, their Jewishness, and the scriptures their place of refuge.  The following scriptures speak to this:


"Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers. I will thrust you from my presence..." Jeremiah 7:14,15


"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.  These are the Scriptures that testify about me."  John 5:39


The Pharisees defiled the Temple by making something that was supposed to be Holy into a place that enriched themselves:


"The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the LORD.  They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name have defiled it." Jeremiah 7:30


Yeshua drives out the money-changers in the Temple:


"In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen.  And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, 'Take these things away; stop making My Father's house a place of merchandise.' And his disciples remembered that it is written, 'The zeal of thy house did eat me up;'"John 2:14-16


Yahweh hates hypocrisy:  sacrifices being made by men who treat others wickedly, and perform the sacrifices with evil intent and without their solemn holy meaning of bringing people closer to God.  They are intended to be pinnacle of righteousness before God; therefore, he would rather that they not be conducted at all.  The following scriptures speak to this:


"'The multitude of your sacrifices--what are they to me?' says the Lord. 'I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me.  New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations- I cannot endure your iniquity and solemn assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates.  They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.  Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." Isaiah 1:11-18


"The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him." Proverbs 15:8


"Ask all the people of the land and the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted?" Zechariah 7:5


"Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the Yahweh, 'and I will accept no offering from your hands.'" Malachi 1:10

PAGE 44 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (THE FIG TREE)

The Word of Yahweh,  the Torah and the Prophets, has a simple and straight message: it all points to the sacrificial system, which is ultimately fulfilled by the Messiah Yeshua.  The sacrifice is what brings humans close to Yahweh and brings salvation and life to all those who sincerely believe it.  The message of God's Word that humans can't get close to God by their own works and without his help.  Righteous works then follow those who have salvation; they are the fruits of the Spirit.  Satan wants to obfuscate this simple message and keep people from it.  The Pharisees were willing participants in Satan's strategy because of their greed and lust for power. Jeremiah prophesied about them:


"...all are greedy for unjust gain; prophets and priests alike; all practice deceit."  Jeremiah 8:10


Yeshua, Jesus, called the temple in Jerusalem a "den of robbers."


The Pharisees, with the prompting of Satan, changed the salvation message of the torah by changing the torah; they granted salvation to those who obeyed their rules and traditions.   The sacrificial system was just another ritual of many and it lost its significance. God warns against anyone changing his Word. He says:


"See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it." Deut 12:32


Yeshua speaks to the Pharisees about the change they made to the Word of God:


"And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, 'Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?' He replied, "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.' You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men." And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, "Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban (that is, given to God), then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down.  Mark 7:5-14


Jeremiah prophesies about these Pharisees and the Scribes:


"How can you say, 'We are wise,  for we have the law of the Lord,' when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely."  The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the Word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?" Jeremiah 8:8-9


The Prophet Isaiah speaks a prophecy about the Pharisees at the time of Yeshua and how their rules are a lie and falsehood that only leads to death :


"...to whom he said, 'This is the resting place, let the weary rest'; and, 'This is the place of repose'--but they would not listen. So then, the word of the Lord to them will become: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule; a little here, a little there--so that they will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and captured. Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem. You boast, 'We have entered into a covenant with death, with the grave we have made an agreement.  When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.'" Isaiah 28:10-15


The Apostle Paul speaks about them:


"For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own,  they did not submit to God's righteousness." Romans 10:2-3


The Pharisees and Scribes masqueraded as religious men having the oracles of God but in reality created an entirely different concept of God based on their made up traditions.  They introduced rites in the Temple which were without foundation in the law.  They declared that priests were but deputies of the people and that the High Priest was just a messenger of the Sanhedrin.  They wrested the power of atoning for the sins of the people from the High Priest and transfered it to the day itself.  They said that people could get close to Yahweh, God, without sacrifice and the priests as long as long as the people followed their rules and traditions.

PAGE 43 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (THE FIG TREE)

The Sanhedrin, made up of Pharisees, Sadducees and Scribes, was the supreme religious body in Israel during the time of Yeshua, Jesus.  They oversaw the priestly duties at the temple and at Bethpage.  They completely distorted what God had intended for the priesthood by: adding to and changing the scriptures; making the animal sacrifice offering a ritual without meaning; and being hypocritical by looking religious and doing evil.  Yahweh had intended his altar of sacrifice in the temple in Jerusalem to be the place where heaven meets earth. 


The Priests were to present the Word of Yahweh, the Tree of Life, which speaks of and leads to the Messiah Yeshua to all in Israel.  Yeshua says in John 5:39 that "...the Scriptures ...testify about me..." The Apostle Paul says that Timothy understood about salvation through faith in the Messiah because of his knowledge of the scriptures.  He says:


"...and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Yeshua the Messiah." 2 Timothy 3:15


Ever since the days of King David, the priestly system had become corrupted and by the time of Yeshua it had turned into the priestly system of Satan. Speaking to the Pharisees, Yeshua says:


"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire." John 8:44


There was a small remnant of true followers of God at the time of Yeshua who held to the pure Word of God.  Three of these were Nathaniel who studied the scriptures and was awaiting the Messiah and the Priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth who followed with their heart the pure Word of God. The scripture says:


"Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and righteousnesses blamelessly."Luke1:6


Satan's strategy is to deceptively make things look like the Tree of Life.  It looks pious and religious which is symbolized by the fig leaves, but is spiritually dead which is symbolized by bad or no fruit.  He kills the Spirit which leads to death by keeping people away from the pure Word of God and the Messiah Yeshua.