February 28
A Final Warning
“Behold, these three years…” —Luke 13:7
Read Luke 13:6-9
If you really enjoy gardening you will often admire your garden; watching how it grows and blooms. You will do everything to nurture your garden so that it flourishes.
We meet such a gardener in our Scripture passage today: he is called the dresser of the vineyard and took very good care of it. The fig tree in this garden received fertilizer and all kinds of care. In spite of this care, there had been no fruit found on the tree for three years. For three years it had stood there, taking up much-needed space, space that could be used in a more useful way. So the owner of the vineyard tells the vine-dresser to cut down the fig tree. But the dresser steps forward and pleads with the owner to give him one more year to care for it. Would all the labour already spent be wasted? “Give me another year to see what I can do. I’ll give it everything it needs and if my efforts fail you can cut it down,” he pleads.
In the same way, the Lord Jesus pleads for unfruitful fig trees as their Representative before God the Father. The Lord Jesus also pleads for those who are obstinate in their ways, unwilling to listen to His calling. So much fertilizer has already been spread around the tree of their lives. Perhaps you have been spared during a lengthy illness, or from serious injury and death in an accident. You must realize that your daily food and drink, your clothing, your home, and the freedoms you enjoy are all dung spread around the tree of your life! Where are the fruits? Do you know the Lord? Would you not serve Him? Would you not seek His favour? Do those around you know that you fear the Lord? Are there no fruits to be seen as yet? Then listen carefully. Today the Lord is spreading dung around the tree of your life. We do not know how long He will do so; a year passes by very quickly.
What does it mean to have dung spread around the tree of your life?
This devotional was taken from “The Time of Your Life” a daily devotional published by the Youth & Educational Committee of the FRC. To order a printed copy of this book, contact: bookorders@frcna.org.