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Manna From Messiah
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Pastor Ellen Mumper, Canada
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Getting the Right
Fruit
Did you ever really
notice that the whole Bible deals with salvation and redemption with an
agricultrual theme? The story of man
begins in a garden. At the end of all
things, or rather the new beginning of the new heaven and a new earth we are
again placed in a sort of garden. Rev
22:2 says "in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the
river, there was the tree of life, which bore twelve kinds of fruits, and
yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations."
The right fruit
necessitates the right seeds. A farmer
planting his crops is very selective about the seeds he buys depending on the
purpose and desired outcome of the crop he intends. He takes into account the kind of soil and the climate in his area. This is so much like Yeshua's familiar
parable of seeds and the Sower in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8. In fact many of the things He taught
centered on seeds or fruit. He said
also in Matthew 12:33, "either make the tree good and his fruit good; or
else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt- for the tree is known by his
fruit."
The whole plan of the
redemption of mankind is constructed around the theme of agriculture in
Israel- the seasons and the former and
latter rains. Joel 2:23 says "...He
has given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to rain down for
you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first
month." This speaks of the first
and second coming of Messiah. Our
modern day church has missed so much of both the rich meaning of Messiah in the
times and the seasons of the agricultural calendar, for they teach us about
Him. Adopting the calendar and holidays
of Rome all those centuries ago and for almost 2 thousand millennia ago now has
obscured this from believers in Messiah Yeshua. The festivals celebrated in a yearly cycle
by the children of Israel were rehearsals for recognising who the Messiah would
be and what He would do. The four
spring festivals (the former rain) speak
of one harvest and reveal the redemptive work of Messiah Yeshua in His first
coming. The three fall festivals (the
latter rain) correspond to the second coming and the final harvest. It's all about seeds and crops and harvests!
From the beginning
there was a good seed and a bad seed.
In the garden at the centre there was the tree of life which, if man
ate, would cause him to live forever.
Near this tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After the fall of man into sin, God promised
a Seed who would crush the head of the serpent, the bad seed. The seed can be traced through Scripture
through the choosing of Avraham to be the progenitor of the Promised One. On down through Scripture there is the theme
of good seed and bad seed. We know that
the beautiful book of First John speaks also of the good seed. The seed is the Word of God. What does it do, this seed?
I John 3:9 says
"Whoever is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in him,
and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." His seed.
The good seed, the Word of God both written and now Incarnate, dwells in
a believer and remains in him. Whether
it produces a good crop or a bad crop depends on the believer and how he
nurtures the seed, and what kind of 'ground/heart' it falls into.
Most believers have
heard of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5- love, joy, peace, patience,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. If we want these attributes in our lives we
need to be sure that His seed, the good seed, is remaining in us. The Word of God is the seed, right? How many of us really eat daily of the Word
of God and seek to follow His commandments?
Yeshua said "if you love Me, keep My commandments." IF... and it has nothing to do with
salvation, it has to do with fruit bearing and a crop. Revelation 12:17 speaks of the coming time
of tribulation which MUST come before we can see the return of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ- Yeshua our
Messiah! And to be ready, it says of
the remnant of her seed (the children of Israel- the believing of the twelve tribes and the
church believing and grafted in according to Ephesians 2) - that they
"keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus
Christ."
