Timing is Everything

My dad used to say those words. He loved a good joke, and a punch line could be ruined if the timing was off. But as I sit and read some details of history I find his statement applies not just to jokes but to lessons taught in the Bible.

Remember the town I mentioned last week? Bethpage? This morning I learned it means "house of the preseason fig." And why is this important? That's where Matthew 21 and Mark 11 take place.

Long story short. The fig-less tree Jesus curses is in this very town. A place known for having early figs. The tree fails to provide what should have been there, so it's cursed and withers away. I've always wondered what that poor tree did to deserve such a punishment, but now I see it. The tree missed its timing for the area but gave ground for Jesus to teach another lesson.

There they are standing by a dead fig tree discussing how it completely died overnight. Then Jesus tells them, "That's nothing. If you tell this mountain, without doubting your words, to jump into the sea it will do it." I've always wondered, why a mountain? What mountain? Remember timing is everything?

Well, this is where it gets interesting. Think of where they're standing. . . in Bethpage . . . which sits on a high hill. In fact, the hill is high enough to see traces of the Dead Sea in one direction and Herodium in another direction. (Note: In building Herodium, Herod and the Romans actually moved the top of one mountain onto the top of another mountain before building the palace/fortress on the higher of the two.) And this is important because of a purpose the Dead Sea held in Hebrew oral tradition. I learned from A Visual Guide to Bible Events that they were to take whatever was a symbol of idolatry and throw it into the Dead Sea. It was part of the process of cleansing the land of idolatry in any form. (This was new to me.)

So think about it. When Jesus tells his men to move the mountain into the sea he's pointing at Herodium then pointing at the Dead Sea. In a sense he's telling them you can do this, you can move mountains, you can work to cleanse the land of sin and idolatry and bring the focus of my people back to God.