Mark 11:12-26 – THE LESSON OF THE FIG TREE

Hebrews 4:15: For we do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted just as we are, yet without sin.

Isaiah 29:13: And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.”

Jeremiah 8:13: When I would gather them, declares the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.

Hosea 9:10: Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved.

Nahum 3:12: All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs— if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.

Leviticus 14:22: also two turtledoves or two pigeons, whichever he can afford. The one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering.

Luke 2:22-24: And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

“Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” quoting from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11.

Psalms 141:1-2 says; O LORD, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!

G. Campbell Morgan points out that “a den of thieves is the place to which thieves run when they want to hide.”

John 15:16: “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”

John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

Prayer must be in the will of God:

1 John 5:14-15: And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Praying must be abiding in the love of God:

John 15:7-9: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.

Romans 12:18: If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Psalm 66:18: If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.