Please keep in mind my (DISCLAIMER: I know nothing of Rick Renner or Rick Renner Ministries. I am in no way promoting them, only using this writing of his that was very good.) And that all MY (and things the teacher added) thoughts will be in italics.
Part IV
3. The sycamine tree produced a fig that was very bitter to eat.
Luke 17:6 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard see, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
In Matthew 18:8-9 it talks about if thy hand or foot offend thee cut them off...if thine eye offend thee pluck it out...
Definition of PLUCK=to pull quickly or pick off or out from its place of growth; to remove or force out abruptly with sudden force or jerk to remove or detach; to pull or jerk; snatch; yank; separate
This "plucking" is like a "wow" moment. "Be thou plucked up by the root..." jerk it out...it's going to take some effort...some sweating...some doing and you can't get ahold of it and just kind of pull...you have to JERK...YANK with force!
The sycamine tree and the mulberry tree were very similar in appearance; the two trees even produced a fruit that looked identical. However, the fruit of the sycamine tree was extremely bitter. Its fruit looked just as luscious and delicious as the mulberry fig. But when a person tasted the fruit of the sycamine fig, he discovered that it was horribly bitter.
Mulberry
Sycamine
Mulberry figs were delicious and therefore expensive. Because of the cost of this fruit, it was primarily eaten by wealthier people. But the sycamine fig was cheap and therefore affordable to poorer people. Because the poor couldn't afford the luscious mulberry fig, they munched on the sycamine fig as a substitute.
However, the sycamine fig was so bitter that it couldn't be eaten whole. In order to consume an entire sycamine fig, the eater had to nibble on it a little bit at a time. After a pause, the eater would return to nibble on it again, but he could never devour an entire piece of this fruit at one time; it was just too tart and pungent to eat at one sitting.
Jesus lets us know that like the sycamine fruit, the fruit of bitterness and unforgiveness is bitter, tart, and pungent. Like the fig, most people who are bitter and filled with unforgiveness chew on their feelings for a long time. They nibble on bitterness for a while; then they pause to digest what they've eaten. After they have reflected deeply on their offense, they return to the memory table to start nibbling on bitterness again - taking one little bite, then another little bite, then another. As they continue to think and meditate on their offense, they internalize their bitter feelings toward those who have offended them. In the end, their perpetual nibbling on the poisonous fruit of bitterness makes them bitter, sour people themselves.
(They develop a "taste" for it. You know if you don't like something and you keep trying it and keep trying it eventually you can develop a "taste" for it and learn to "like" it.)
And just as the primary consumers of the sycamine fruit were poor people, those who sit around and constantly meditate on every wrong that has ever been done to them are usually bound up with all kinds of poverty. Their bitter attitude not only makes them spiritually poor, but they are also frequently defeated, depressed, sick, and financially poor as well. Those who are bitter are Spiritually poor and nibbling on the sycamine fig.
Psalms 55:12-22
12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him;
13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.
15 Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them.
16 As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me.
17 Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.
18 He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me.
19 God shall hear, and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Selah. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God.
20 He hath put forth his hands against such as be at peace with him: he hath broken his covenant.
21 The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart: his words were softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords.
22 Cast they burden up then Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
It's not the stranger or even the enemy that hurts us so much. We don't know them...they don't know us, so it's easier to just "forget" about it. But it's the person that was our FRIEND! Someone we are/were close too. I think of all the "Parts" of this lesson this one was one of the most touching to me. These passages of scripture really rang out to me in this lesson. Such a personal relationship with God. Forgiveness is all about keeping yourself. It's not so much FOR the other person, but for yourself...to free yourself! Oh the liberating of this!!!
I don't know if these lessons are doing for you what they have been and are doing for me, but I have been thoroughly enjoying them!
Keep,
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