Luke 13:1-9 May We Bear Much Fruit
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: September 17, 2018 Luke 13:1-9
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”
(Understanding the Text) The SDA commentary says that this was probably the winter of A.D. 30-31 and that Jesus had been speaking of signs previously. In this context, the people may have brought up the massacre as a sign of something. They may have been the first with the news and since they were focused on it so intently, they believed that Jesus would too. They probably thought that Jesus would be interested in the political happenings of the day since as Messiah, He would be taking over from these rulers. They complained about Pilate killing some Galileans, but they were also blaming the Galileans because God had allowed their deaths when they were sacrificing. The SDA commentary says that this particular massacre is only mentioned by Luke, but that Josephus records many other similar massacres, and in fact, it was “A massacre of Samaritan worshipers on Mt. Gerizim a few years later, in A.D. 36,” that “led to the recall of Pilate by Caesar (Antiquities xviii. 4. 1, 2).” What I do not understand is that sacrifice was offered in the part of the temple that excluded Gentiles. For these worshipers to be slaughtered as the sacrificed meant that the Roman soldiers had entered that area. Unless they were slaughtered as they left?
(Revelation of God) Jesus did not address Pilate’s actions, but instead addressed the assumption that the Father was punishing the Galileans through Pilate. The SDA commentary says “The temptation to think of accident or misfortune as an ‘act of God’ comes from Satan, who seeks thereby to have men consider God a harsh and cruel Father.” Jesus told the crowd that they were just as bad as the Galileans; then, Jesus brought up some other people killed through “an act of God” when a tower fell on them. Jesus does not deny that they were sinners, but said that they were no worse than the people of Jerusalem. It may have been that it was assumed that Siloam was not as good as Jerusalem.
(Understanding the Text) Then Jesus told a parable of the fig tree that did not bear fruit. The fig tree was given one more year with special treatment so that it could bear fruit. If not, it would be cut down. Jesus was warning the Jewish people that their time of probation was almost gone. They had a short time to repent and turn to God before their nation was uprooted and destroyed. Although many Jews repented, the nation as a whole did not. They kept focusing on worldly power and rebellion against worldly powers rather than turning to God. They reaped the result of their focus, and God did not protect them from the results of their own actions. They tried to dictate to God not only what actions He should take for them, but also how He should take them, which was basically to get out of the way and let the people take the power for themselves with God fixing the problems that they could not fix themselves. Instead of changing their insides, their own hearts, they chose to work on the outside situation. They rebelled against Rome and paid the price, not because Rome was to be served, but because they refused to live according to God’s ways.
The SDA commentary says that this parable applies to both the Jewish nation and to us individually. It was a warning to them that they had only a short time to repent and become useful. “The Jewish nation had come to the place where it was not merely useless, so far as fulfilling the role God had appointed it; it had become an obstruction to the carrying out of the plan of salvation for others (COL 215)” The three years may have referred to Jesus’ previous ministry and the extra year to the next events. At this time it had been more than three years since Jesus’ baptism. It is interesting that the parable does not tell the end result of the tree. Did it bear fruit, or did it remain barren and was cut down? Maybe this signifies that the Jewish nation still had a chance to bear fruit at this point in Jesus’ ministry. I am sure it indicates that if we choose to humbly submit to God’s ministrations, we will begin bearing fruit.
(Application) We tend to judge the Jews, but we are doing the same thing today. Rather than repent in our own hearts and humbly serve God in the way He asks us, we have decided that we know what is best. We impatiently decide that God does not know what He is doing and we decide to help Him out by doing it ourselves in a way that makes sense to us.
(Prayer) I pray that I will humbly wait upon the Lord rather than try to push You into doing things my way. I pray to have confidence in Your leading. Please don’t let me lead myself or be led by others in the wrong direction. Instead, I pray that Your way will be done here in my city by me and my fellow believers. I pray that we will follow the leading of Your Spirit.