Mosaic Teaching 150 - Mark 11:13-15

Mosaic is an in-depth teaching discovering Jesus through all four of the Gospel accounts in the Bible. This teaching is led by Rev. Dr. Chad Foster, reaching into the Hebraic roots, Jewish roots, Torah references and messianic fulfillment of Jesus to find truth and life.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Good morning everyone. Boko Tob. Welcome to the Mosaic Teaching Service today. This is teaching number 150. And just as a note for those who may be listening to the podcast or following on YouTube, just as a heads up, this will be the last teaching for a bit as we take a somewhat of a hiatus for our summer schedule. Next week begins that schedule with our outdoor worship schedule and so forth. Mosaic will resume in the future, so just stay tuned. Again, an excellent opportunity to check out the archives, catch up on any missed teachings or review and so forth. Or maybe check out what's happening on Monday evenings. That does uh continue uh through the summer. Uh our teaching in the chapel uh Monday evenings at 6:30. But just a heads up with that. But let's get started with prayer. If you will, please bow your head. Blessed Lord, who has caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, and grant that we would so hear them. Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, so that by patience and comfort of your holy word, we would embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given to us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. In Mosaic, we value our Bibles, cherish our Bibles. Always encourage you to have a Bible with you in the Mosaic teaching service. But if you need one today, just grab one in the pew or the chair around you. And if you need to keep that for yourself, please accept that as a gift from us to you. But please take a Bible, hold it up, and repeat after me. This is my Bible. Jesus is who it says He is. I am what it says I am. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the Word of God. My mind is alert. By God's grace, my heart is receptive. The Bible is the incorruptible, indestructible, the ever-living word of God. My encounter with the Bible today will transform and grow my faith. And we say together, in Jesus' name, Amen. So let's open up those Bibles to the Gospel of Saint Mark, the second of those Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Mark chapter 11. And where we're at in the flow of things is uh Jesus has made his way to the city of Jerusalem. In fact, he uh has um made his triumphal entry, Palm Sunday entrance. He's made it uh into the Temple Mount area uh where the sacrifices are going on. He is uh as Mark's gospel describes it, spent a day kind of observing things and checking things out. Uh and along the way, uh he comes across uh a fig tree as he is coming uh into the city, and he has a little bit of an interaction with this fig tree, and we're gonna talk about that. So again, we're on the cusp of what is known as Passover. It's not quite yet Passover. Uh remember that pilgrims would be arriving in Jerusalem in advance of Passover because they have many things to get ready for. One, they needed to get there early in case they had any ceremonial issues they needed to take care of, such as purification rituals for themselves. Um that's why surrounding the temple were all of these uh pools are you know what we would call baptistries, uh mikveot in Hebrew, where uh individuals could go through mikvas, go through the ceremonial washings, get themselves ready to go up onto the Temple Mount and participate in the holy services. Uh, they also may have needed to do other things such as secure a lamb for the Passover sacrifice. And you remember in uh the in the Torah, it describes where on the tenth day of the month you you get the lamb and you inspect it and so forth. Uh and it's on uh a different day that you sacrifice it. And Jesus kind of in his entry uh is going to kind of uh mimic that. And that's what eventually, probably in around teaching 151 or 152, whenever we get back to it, we'll begin to see uh more how Jesus in his personhood and what he is living out is very much living out Passover. Uh not only the Passover lamb itself, but also the entire festival of Passover and its meaning of redemption uh and the breaking of bonds and all of that. Um, so all of that is coming on the horizon. Passover is in view, so things are crowded. Uh, the tension between Rome and the Jewish people is gonna be at a great uh height because anytime there's a festival, there's a spirit of nationalism and a spirit of animosity where the Jewish people are gonna be feeling very oppressed and very resentful for having Rome over them and in control of them. There's gonna be a swelling of people there, and so Rome is gonna be on edge thinking, is anybody gonna be up to something? Is anybody gonna try something? Are we gonna have some kind of revolt? Uh so things are very tense, and then already uh Jesus is drawing attention, and leadership, religious leadership don't like that for a variety of reasons that we have discussed. And so, with all of that, let's look at Mark chapter 11, verse 13, and let's read this together where the he is Jesus. So let's read. He saw a fig tree from far away. It had leaves, so he came to see if he could find fruit on it. He drew near to it, but he did not find anything on it except for leaves, because it was not the season for figs. So someplace on the Mount of Olives, a leafy fig tree catches Jesus' eye. Matthew 21, verse 19 says, Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, he came to it and found nothing on it except for leaves only. Mark then explains, as we just read, it was not the season for figs. So that seems logical then, that that's why there's only leaves on it. Figs in the land of Israel begin to appear on the branches in the early spring, kind of around Passover, a little bit later than Passover, but they don't begin to ripen where you would want to take a bite of one until the summer. So the question, the obvious question, I think, is why would Jesus have expected to find figs in the month of Nisan? Why would he have expected to find figs before the festival of Passover, several months after the last harvest, and several months before the new crop? When Jesus found no figs on the tree, in Matthew's version, Matthew 21, verse 19, it says that Jesus says to the tree, No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you. So he essentially curses the tree. He takes it out on the tree for it not having any figs. In his typical abbreviated style that I have shared with you many times in Mosaic, that's what Matthew likes to do. Matthew truncates the narrative so that the fig tree withers immediately. So in Matthew's telling of the story, Jesus says, No longer shall there be any fruit from you, and the tree withers immediately. Bethany's on the west side. They're staying with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus because you know it's crowded. That's their Airbnb for the holiday season of Passover. And they have to go up and over the Mount of Olives and then into Jerusalem. It's not until the next day that when they're making that journey that they notice Mark 11, verse 20, that they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. So both Gospels tell the same story, but again, Matthew always kind of truncates the story. For Matthew, Jesus goes up on the temple, he immediately turns over the tables. For Mark, Jesus goes up on the temple, spends a day looking around, taking things in, observing, then the next day he turns over the tables. For Matthew, Jesus sees a fig tree, says, Damn you, and it withers immediately. In Mark, Jesus sees a fig tree, says, Curse you, and then the next day they discover it has withered. Essentially the same thing. It's just the Matthew way of telling the story. The story, though, does raise some difficult questions. The destruction of the fig tree does not appear warranted. Worse yet, it seems like Jesus' curse on the tree maybe is arbitrary. Maybe it's some kind of capricious, ill-tempered result of his own irritation, maybe his own personal disappointment over his lack of breakfast because remember, he's hungry and he can't find anything, so he's hangry and he takes it out on the tree because his blood sugar is low. Mark's gospel exasperates the problem by pointing out that it's not even the season for figs. So why would Jesus have misused his supernatural authority like this? Now, some anti-missionaries, that is, Jewish individuals who want to find fault with the Christian faith and want to try to poke holes in the gospel, and critics of the gospel in general, will try to point to the story of the fig tree as what they would see as evidence of a moral failing on Jesus' part. He is accused of destroying someone's personal property. He's accused of ignorance of the agricultural season. He's being accused at times of being generally having a bad temper and having a temper tantrum. And in the classic anti-missionary treatise that a certain rabbi known as Arya Kaplan wrote, he comments on the fig tree as follows, and I'll read to you, which is a little try too hard, and by the way, it has its own logical fallacies, because in order to quote this gospel story as proof of something wrong with Jesus, you're already granting that the gospel stories must be true, which is already going to get you in some trouble if you happen to be anti-gospel. So you can't have your cake and eat it too. If it's a false story, then you can't quote it to prove your point. But nonetheless, he tries, and this is what he writes. Jesus was even able to be vindictive against a tree. He wants to try to prove Jesus is a sinner, that Jesus is a vindictive person. And therefore he quotes the gospels to prove it, which means he sees the gospels at his historically reliable source. Well, if it's historically reliable here, then isn't it historically reliable elsewhere? But nonetheless, Kaplan continues. When Jesus found himself hungry, he was unable to restrain his all too human emotions. Did this innocent tree really deserve such cruel punishment? It was not even the season for figs, and the tree was merely fulfilling its nature. If Jesus had merely wanted to show his miraculous powers as the gospels seemed to indicate, we're going to talk about that, that's not what they were wanting to do. Why did he not command the tree to simply bring forth fruit? After all, Rabbi Yossi's son once wanted to provide his father's field hands with food, and all he could find was a fig tree that was not in season, and the tree was bare, so he cried out, Fig tree, fig tree, bring forth fruit, so my father's workers may eat. And the tree produced fruit before its time, and the men were able to fill themselves. Why did Jesus not do the same? End quote. So let's figure out the figs, and we're going to find out it's not quite the way Rabbi Kaplan described. So let's look at Mark chapter 11, verse 13. Let's read this together again. It was not the season for figs. So it was not the season for figs. So why did Jesus act as if he were anticipating finding figs? At Passover, uh, we'll first go the route of how some study Bibles will try to handle it to at all costs defend the inerrancy of Scripture, and that's okay. And these are valid, but they miss the point also. They're valid, but they still miss the point. We'll eventually are going to talk about what Jesus is really doing. But at Passover in Israel, some species of figs can put forth early fruit. But such figs would only be in an early stage of development and probably not very tasty. The Mishnah, a Jewish source, explicitly mentions eating unripe figs. In Tractate Shavit, it says, at what time do they eat the fruit of the trees? Regarding unripe figs, from the time they begin to glisten, they may eat them. And so Christian Hebraist John Lightfoot explains how one plausibly could find figs even when they are not in season. He cites produce and tithing laws from the Jerusalem Talmud, which refer to certain types of fig trees that retain their figs through the winter. And some figs from the previous year's crops could still be on the branches. And so maybe Jesus hoped to find some branch-dried figs among the new leaves. But instead he found the tree had been fruitless, or that it had already been completely and thoroughly harvested. Along the same lines, our good friend that we've encountered many times in Mosaic, Rabbi Lichtenstein, suggests that Jesus sought figs from the previous year's harvest. Was the fig tree someone's private property, perhaps? If it was, would Jesus have felt free to help himself to its fruit, or would he have been guilty, as Rabbi Kaplan said, of stealing someone's property? Well, the Torah does allow those who are less fortunate to glean the remnants from the previous year's harvest. But the story does not indicate that the tree belonged to anyone. Instead, it grew probably by itself beside the road. You still see that in Israel today. Whenever we're doing tours and we're walking along the side of the road, you'll see pomegranate trees and fig trees and date trees all over the place that don't belong to anyone. They're just native to the land. But I want to move beyond all of this literalness of the text. I want to talk about what's really happening in the Bible. And that is what's really happening in the Bible, what's really happening with Jesus is something that's very prophetic. It's very Hebrew. It's very Jewish. It's very much in line with Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah. It's very much in line with Hosea. It's very much in line with all of the prophets that have come before Jesus. Because as I've said, Jesus did nothing really new. Jesus does everything flowing out of the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament. And so what is happening here is an illustrated parable, right? Jesus loves the parable, does he not? Does not Jesus love to teach in parables? Well, one of the things we learn from the Old Testament prophets, which Jesus is clearly in the line of, is that they didn't just teach parables with stories out of their mouth, but they also taught parables through how they lived. So, like the best, most probably famous example of this is Hosea. What is Hosea's living parable? Hey, Hosea, I need you to go and marry a woman of, shall we say, ill repute, right? Since my wife is in the room, I won't say what the Bible calls her, but I think you know what I'm talking about, right? And Hosea is to be faithful to her, even though she is not going to be very faithful to Hosea. Okay? And what is the point of all of this and all of that story? It's a living parable, right? God, Hosea's playing like the God character, right? The faithful husband, and Hosea's wife is playing the Israel character who chases after other gods, who chases after other political leaders, who does things and breaks covenants and you know, all of that, and yet God remains faithful and will always accept his bride back, right? Will always forgive and will always accept back and will always renew the covenant, we'll renew the marriage. That's a lived out parable. And so it isn't really about Hosea and his wife Gomer, right? The lovely Gomer. Great name. That in and of itself was enough for Hosea to go, no thanks, right? But it really is the story, true as it may be, it's not about Hosea and Gomer. So don't get wrapped up in Hosea and Gomer. Even if it's true, it's not about them. It's about the parable. So don't get wrapped up in the fig tree. Rabbi Kaplan, and Rabbi Kaplan, by the way, knew better. He did. You can read his other writings. He's a genius. He's an MIT graduate. He's a genius. He knew better. Right? What's going on here is an illustrated parable, and as we'll further see, part of that is a prophetic sign act. And we'll talk, we're gonna, this is where we're gonna find out what is this whole thing about. So why did Jesus curse the fig tree? He was not merely showing off his miraculous powers, and that's why he didn't just say, Oh, I'm hungry, give me some figs, oh, you don't have any, it's not the season for pigs. Watch this guy, boom, fig, boom, we're full, right? He wasn't there to show off his power. He never was about that. We've hit that many a time in Mosaic. He never performed miracles for the sake of performing miracles. He was not a magician, he was among many things, including Messiah, Son of God, and all of that. But in addition to all of those things, he also was a prophet. And Jesus used a fig tree to symbolize the generation of the Messiah. He had already taught his disciples a parable in which he compared the generation to an unproductive fig tree planted in a vineyard. So this is a new territory for him. Before he's taught this in an actual word parable, now he's gonna do it in life. The owner of the vineyard, he says in Luke 13 7 Behold, for three years I've come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down. Why does it even use up the ground? Right? So he's talked about this. Before. The vineyard keeper asks for one more year. Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer. In other words, let's give it another time. I've been preaching the gospel. I've been preaching repentance. I've been preaching the kingdom is at hand. I've been doing all of these things, and it's not been bearing fruit, including when it is its season. So let's cut it down. It's time for judgment now. Well, let's not do it just yet. Let's put in some more fertilizer, dig around it. Let's preach some more gospel. Let's preach more repentance. Let's preach the kingdom is at hand just a little bit more. And if it bears fruit next year, fine. If not, then cut it down. In biblical and rabbinic literature, the pairing of a vine or a fig tree symbolizes the peace and prosperity of the kingdom of God. When Solomon ruled over Israel, the Bible says every man set under his own vine and fig tree. And the prophets say that in the Messianic age, every one will again sit under his own vine and fig tree. The vine creates the shade and the shelter from the heat and rain, the grapes provide the wine, and the fig tree provides the food. Everyone will have an essence, the point of that is everyone will have everything that they need. In the parable of the fig tree, however, in Luke, the fig tree planted in the vineyard did not produce fruit, including in its season. Its failure to do so reverses this messianic expectation. And the parable alludes to the prophetic warnings of John the Baptist, Matthew 3, verse 8, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. In biblical terms, in prophetic terms, when a prophet talks about bearing fruit, bearing fruit in the Bible means repent. Repentance is bearing fruit. And then John goes on in Matthew 3:10, the axe is laid at the root of the tree, therefore every tree that does not bear fruit, that does not repent, is cut down. And Jesus used his parable of the fig tree to warn that the time of repentance, the time of the kingdom, the time of the Messiah in their midst, nurturing the soil and proclaiming himself that it's quickly drawing to a close. The owner of the vineyard and the fig tree represents God, and he comes to the fig, comes to the tree seeking the fruit, the fruit of repentance. The miraculous withering of the fig tree should be understood in the same light. The fig tree represents that generation of Jesus. It represents that generation of the apostles, the generation that had the potential. It had the potential to bring the kingdom. It had the potential to bear the fruit of the messianic kingdom, for it was at hand. But they failed to do so, and because of that, they therefore brought judgment to that generation. And so this is the prophetic sign act. The day before the fig tree incident, you may recall from teaching 148, Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Remember about halfway down the Mount of Olives on his donkey, he kind of woes up, right? We have that dominus flavid chapel that kind of commemorates that event, that teardrop-shaped chapel. And he weeps over Jerusalem and he utters that explicit prophecy about the upcoming Roman invasion, where Jerusalem and the temple is going to be leveled, not one stone will be left on top of another. He predicts the Roman siege of the city, and his proclamation again was that change in policy, announcing the reversal of the good news that he had been proclaiming. No longer would he declare, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand. Now he was declaring this generation had failed. This generation season was over, and coming disaster was impending. The prophets of old, of the Old Testament, they would sometimes perform prophetic sign acts to illustrate their prophecies. So, for example, Jeremiah takes his belt off and he buries it in the ground for a year and then he takes it back out to wear it. Ezekiel lays on his side for a long extended period of time. He plays in the dirt and he builds a model city of Jerusalem out of clay and kind of bashes it and all of this stuff. You have Micah who walks around in the nude and barefoot, right? These are all prophetic sign acts. The prophet is doing something that is drawing not only attention, but it is an act. Specifically, it's an act of judgment, but it's also an act so that at least some people still might come to a place of repentance. And so Jesus' curse of the fig tree needs to be understood in line of an illustrated, lived-out parable and a prophetic sign act. All are very, very consistent with the Old Testament prophet. A pertinent story for, by the way, from the prophecy of Malachi provides the prophetic imagery that's behind the fig tree incident. So again, everything Jesus does, you really want to know what's he doing? You go to the Old Testament because everything he does comes from there, right? It's not random, it's not something he's creating out of the blue, it's not something deep and mysterious. And so in um the prophet um uh of uh sorry, it should be Micah, if I said Malachi, I always do that. It's gonna be my forever senior moment that I've had since I was 14, Micah and Malachi. Uh, but here, listen to this prophecy of Micah. Um woe is me, for I am like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers. Remember, in the messianic air, everyone has their vine of grapes and their fig tree, meaning they have the wine, the joy, everything needed for satiation and the fig tree food, everything they need. There is not a cluster of grapes to eat, or a first ripe fig, which I crave. The godly person has perished from the land, and there is no upright person among men. All of them lie in wait for bloodshed. Each of them hunts the other with a net. Concerning evil, both hands do it well. The prince asks also the judge for a bribe, and a great man speaks the desire of a soul, and so they weave it together. So here in the prophecy, the Lord seeks a cluster of grapes to eat, a first ripe fig, which he craves, the first fruits which he seeks. This represents godly, upright people. And he comes seeking the righteous, but instead he doesn't find righteous people. That is, he doesn't find people seeking to do his will, he doesn't find people seeking to worship him in the right way. What he finds are people of violence, what he finds are people of corruption, what he finds are people of greed. And the prophet's description of this man of the men of his generation aptly describes the morally poisoned and politically corrupt generation of Jesus. And so this passage is behind what Jesus is doing. A similar prophecy about the impending doom over a generation also occurs in the prophecy of Jeremiah. And I've mentioned that before, that many, many of the things that Jesus does towards the end of his ministry is deeply connected to Jeremiah because the generation that Jeremiah lived in was the generation that preceded the destruction of the first temple. And Jesus lives in the generation that precedes the destruction of the second temple. And so Jesus aptly sees himself like Jeremiah, and he aptly sees his generation like Jeremiah's generation. And what Jeremiah's generation was like, and therefore what brought about the destruction of the first temple, and what Jeremiah had to say to his generation, Jesus sees the same thing in his generation. And so in Jeremiah chapter 8, verse 13, I will surely snatch them away, declares the Lord. There will be no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf will wither, and what I have given them will pass away. In a later teaching, Jesus used the fig tree as a symbolic sign to gauge the arrival of the messianic age. His generation expected the Messiah to usher in this golden age when every person would sin under his own vine and fig tree. If he had found the fruit of repentance in his generation, Jesus would have done this. He sought figs out of season because he hoped to bring the kingdom early. Remember that when we talked about that prophecy where the kingdom can come early or it can come on time? He's seeking to bring it early. But since he did not find the repentance that was necessary for that, the messianic error was delayed until its appointed time at the final harvest. From this perspective, Jesus did not curse the fig tree in some kind of capricious temper tantrum. He did so as a deliberate, acted-out parable and prophetic synact to indicate that that generation failed to bear the fruit of repentance, and that they had therefore forfeited the kingdom, and they were now facing a terrible withering judgment as a result, just as Jeremiah's generation did. That's the point behind the fig tree. Let's read this together. He answered and said to it, From now on, no one will eat fruit from you ever again. And his disciples heard. Now, some traditional interpretations have tried to explain the cursed fig tree as some kind of curse on the nation of Israel, under the conviction of what is known as replacement theology. Some will say that Jesus cursed the fig tree to demonstrate to his disciples that God was cursing Israel. Another common interpretation aims the curse at the temple itself, which is very similar to the curse of Israel. After all, Jesus went on from the fig tree to overturn the tables and the temple. He also predicted the destruction of the temple, as we've talked about when he was on the Mount of Olives. But according to this interpretation, the cursing of the fig tree represents God's final and ultimate rejection of Israel and the Israelite worship system. But this interpretation cannot withstand scrutiny. It's not true. This is all based squarely on wrong assumptions. So let's break it down. The Apostle Paul is very clear when he writes in Romans 11, verse 12 God has not rejected his people. Jesus did not teach an ultimate, final, complete, and total annihilation and rejection of Israel. That would mean there's an entire part of the population that never have any hope whatsoever in the gospel. That's not what the gospel is. And so, therefore, it can't be a true statement that they have been utterly rejected. Nor did Jesus come to completely cancel the Torah or the prophets or any of that. Like Jeremiah the prophet, Jesus did predict tragedy that was going to befall the people and the temple. That's for sure. Just like Jeremiah said, hey, this temple is going to be destroyed, and it's going to be destroyed because of punishment you've brought upon yourself. Jesus is indeed saying the very much the same thing. Your actions and your greed and your corruption, your sin, yes, it very much is going to bring judgment upon you and your generation, and it will indeed destroy this temple. For sure, Jesus absolutely says that. That's not the same as forever and ever from that point on rejecting an entire ethnic group of people. As we have discussed in Mosaic many times, and in most recently today, with the fig tree, all of this should be understood in continuity with the teachings of like John the Baptist and with the fig tree, right? It represents the doomed generation of Jesus and their failure to bear the fruit of repentance. Jesus' generation stood at a unique point in Israel's history. They had inherited a long legacy of accumulating sins, stretching all the way back to the Hasmonean kings. And the Jewish people in the late Second Temple period virtually swam in the blood of civil wars and godless fraticide. Hundreds and thousands of Jews died in wars between contenders for their throne. Roman subjugation continued the legacy of violence, intrigue, and corruption. The Herodians brought more atrocities and alliances with idols and with oppressive governments. The weight of accumulated sins demanded judgment. And yes, Jesus spent his ministry trying to avert this judgment, seeking the fruit of repentance instead, so that they might bring about a complete reversal and initiate the final redemption. But instead, that generation did refuse. That generation did refuse the Messiah as a critical mass. And as a result, as Luke 11, verse 29 says in Luke 19, 44, right? You did not recognize the time of your visitation. That generation didn't recognize it. And this generation is a wicked generation, Jesus lamented. But I want to give you now what is one, two, three, four, five, at least five statements from Jewish sources. Non-Christian, non-Jesus connected. Back in the day sources of why the temple was destroyed. And it also will tell you it was because of the sins of that generation. Even Israel recognized that the generation of Jesus was a particularly wicked generation. And it was that generation that brought the judgment of God to the point that God destroyed the temple. Which is still not the same as rejecting an entire ethnic group of people for all time and into eternity. I know that's tiny, but I'll read them to you. You did not recognize the time. This is tractate Shabbat. Because of the crime of bloodshed, meaning between each other. The temple was destroyed, and the Shekinah, the presence of God, departed from Israel. That's a Jewish source from the same period of Jesus. Tractate Yoma, right after the destruction of the temple. Why was the second temple destroyed at a time when people occupied themselves with the study of Torah, the observance of commandment, the practice of charity? In other words, they were asking themselves, look, it seemed like we were doing everything right. We had a priesthood, we had a temple, we had people studying the Bible. Why did God allow our temple to be destroyed? What was their own answer? Because of baseless hatred that prevailed within them. They hated each other. Which, by the way, this needs to be a good lesson for the church. When church members hate each other, when church members smack talk each other, when they talk bad about each other behind their back, God doesn't just punish that individual, he brings judgment and wrath upon his church. Because these are the things that ought not to be found in the people of God. And if we do not purge it, he will purge it from us. He gives us the opportunity to purge it, bear the fruit of repentance, but there's a time limit on it. And if we don't do it, he'll destroy it and he'll build it up again. And that's just their answer. Like, well, I thought we had everything. I thought we had a beautiful church, I thought we had a beautiful building. I thought we had a pastor who preached the word of God. I thought we had Sunday school. I thought we had confirmation programs. I thought we had Bible study. I thought we were doing everything right. Yeah, but you talked smack about each other and you hated each other's guts. And so God said, Enough. You don't get it anymore. I'm taking it away. From Tractate Khagiga. Jerusalem was not destroyed until honest men ceased therein. Tractate Shabbat. Jerusalem was destroyed only because men of faith ceased therein. Tractate Baba Metsiah. Jerusalem was destroyed only because the courts ruled strictly without mercy. In accordance with biblical law, they had no chesed. In addition, the Talmud charges Jesus generation, the New Testament generation, with the desecration of the Sabbath, the neglect of prayer, the neglect of children, brazenness, uh, the profaning of the priesthood, failure to rebuke sin and others, disrespect for clergy, gossip, slander, public humiliation, placing ritual purity above human life. And the list goes on and on. I gave you just a very short list of intro, introspection from themselves. In other words, Jesus didn't curse Israel. That generation brought it upon themselves by their behavior. They had the opportunity to bear the fruit of repentance, but instead they chose hatred of one another and gossip and slander. They chose to belittle things that are holy. They chose the sacred or the profane over the sacred. They chose the world over what was holy. And finally, God said, If that's how you feel, then I will take it from you, and you will find out what you really missed out on. That's what's going on. Mark 11, verse 15. Let's read this together. In six to eight weeks, and we'll pick him back up in Mosaic with that. Because that's the perfect place to end. Because he's about to take care of business with some tables, and that also gets misunderstood because maybe it'll give you some research for the little hiatus. Did you know that Deuteronomy actually prescribes that there be money changers? It's biblical law. So Jesus isn't upset that there's money changers there. If you were ever taught that, you were taught by somebody who didn't know their Old Testament. He's not upset that there's money changers there. In fact, the Torah is adamant there has to be money changers there so people can fulfill the law. People are coming from Cyprus, they're coming from North Africa. They're coming with, you know, money that isn't worth anything there. They got to change it over so that they can buy a sacrifice, so they can do all these things. And so the Torah says you always need a system so that people can always have access to the sacrifices. So he's not upset with that. He's not upset with that there's money up there. And you also maybe need to do a little research on what is a den of thieves or a den of robbers. A den of robbers is not where robbers rob. A den of thieves is not where thieves thieve. A den of robbers is where robbers hang out in the open and are very safe. It's their place. It's not where they do their robbing. So there's something else going on with the turning over of the tables.