Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away.
Mat 21:18-19
If God has a need, it’s because He’s determined to have one for a specific purpose because He doesn’t need anything! Ac 17:25says that God is not “worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.” He doesn’t need us. We need Him! But, God had a need this day. He was hungry. When God determines to have a need, that is an opportunity, a special privilege, for someone to fill that need. Recognizing this fact will change the way we minister to others—when we stop thinking we’re really doing something for God and realize rather that God has blessed us by permitting us to work with Him in that which He could do all by Himself! It is our privilege to fill the needs that God brings to us.
The Literal translation says our main text reads that the Lord came upon “one fig tree by the road”. It was singled out for this visit. The point is that if Christ comes to you with a need, He expects YOU to fill it. Don’t go around looking for someone else to fill it. If God brought it to you, it’s your job! Don’t say, “It’s too hard for me” and start looking for recruits. God knows your ability. If you need assistance, God will see that you have. Your job is not to recruit, especially by guilting others into taking on your burden. It’s not their burden! If you guilt someone else into it, they will be totally unprepared to assist in that need because God didn’t give them that burden!
Recruiting is not our job. Jesus didn’t call Peter, James, and John and tell them, “I need nine more guys, so go get me some recruits!” What did He say in Jn 6:70? “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” If Jesus knows it’s a twelve-man job, He will choose twelve men, not you! If He had given that task to only a few, would they have made sure they picked a devil in the process? Absolutely not! The point is that the Lord alone knew a devil named Judas was a necessary part of His plan. Leave the recruiting to Him, and just focus on what He’s called you to do. When Peter came to Jesus asking what the plan was for John, Jesus in essence said, “That’s none of your business!” What was the simple instruction for Peter? “You follow Me!” (Jn 21:22)
When the need of the people of God came to Esther’s attention, listen to what her uncle Mordecai told her in Es 4:14: “if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish.” God will accomplish His purposes one way or another, but we see the consequences for the fruitless fig tree in the day that the Lord approached with His need. Will we be ready in the day the Lord approaches? Don’t look around when the need comes. Do what God requires! This tree was cursed because it wasn’t ready to fill the Lord’s need in the hour He visited. “Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.” (Mt 24:42)
Jamie