The Watchful Servant and The Barren Fig Tree

The Watchful Servant     Luke 12:35-48

Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning:

And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.

Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.

Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?

And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?

Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.

But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;

The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with a few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

In case you didn't already know: The word lord is an English word. I don't know what the Hebrew word was that the translators changed to lord. But because the word lord had two different meanings they changed the first letter to keep track of which lord they were referring to. When using the word lord as a common title (there were many lords in England) they used a lower case L. When using the word to talk about Jesus they capitalized the L.

Classification: The Church of the Future - The Final Judgment of it

Interpretation:  The patiently waiting servants are those who have committed to do the Lord's work and are doing it so that the people may be ready for His return. This parable talks about a servant who assumes the Lord won't return for a long long time or even return at all and so lives for the Natural Man. But he is an unwise servant because there's no telling when the Lord will return.

Application: Jesus has promised that he will return to earth and rule over the house of Israel. This parable is a reminder to us to be ever watchful. We don't know when it will happen, we just know it will. Continue doing the work of the Lord, no matter how late, no matter how tired, no matter how hopeless it all seems. Continue going forward the best you can.


The Barren Fig Tree    Luke 13:6-9

He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.

Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth the ground?

And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:

And if it bear fruit, Well: And if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

Classification: Not sure.

Interpretation: Please let me remind you that I do not claim to be an expert. There are a couple of things I am not positive with this one. Here's what I'm pretty sure of: The vineyard - the Earth. That's it. That's all I'm sure of. I thought the Fig tree would be the house of Israel but why a fig tree? All of his other allegories use the olive tree to represent Israel so why a fig tree in this one? I thought the dresser would be a prophet but I really don't see the prophets asking for more time. Which leads me to think maybe the dresser is the Lord himself asking Heavenly Father for more time. And that would make the owner Heavenly Father, not Jesus. But I Don't Know! The only thing that is clear is the tree is not producing good fruit and the owner is not well pleased.

Application: Let's do this: Let's say that the Fig Tree is an individual person. We are all fig trees. If the Lord were to come examine your fruit what would He find? Is your fig tree producing good fruit? Or have you become cumbersome to your ground? If we look at it this way then we can imagine that the dresser is everyone around us trying to teach us, trying to help us change. This could be Mom, Dad, siblings, children, friends, teachers, leaders, all of those people who surround us and beg the Lord in prayer to change our hearts. 
    If you're willing to apply this parable in this way then the message would be our time is not infinite. The Lord will allow those around us to have a little more time to get us to change but eventually the Lord is going to say, Enough. So, apply this parable by asking yourself, "How am I spending my time? Am I working to produce good fruit? Am I helping the fig trees around me to produce good fruit? Or am I giving first class time to things that are so completely unimportant?"


 "Do Not Delay" by Henry B. Eyring

Parable of the Barren Fig Tree by Jan Luyken