PAGE 46 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (THE FIG TREE)

By changing the Word of God, the Pharisees self righteously elevated themselves to be co-equals with God. The Prophet Isaiah writes about the religious leaders at the time of Yeshua, Jesus. He says:


"You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'He did not make me'? Can the pot say of the potter, 'He knows nothing'?" Isaiah 29:16


Yeshua explains their self righteousness in a story:


"The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' But the tax collector stood at a distance.  He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' 'I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God.  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.'" Luke 18:11


Satan had hijacked the priestly system in Jerusalem and turned it into his own priestly system:  the Tree of Life had turned into the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He kept people away from the true Word of God and which brings life eternal and turned it into a way to aggrandize the religious leaders to the level of Yahweh.  Satan had them use everything that Yahweh had given them: the land, their heritage, the temple, and the scriptures as a tool to oppress those with less power and stature.  This is always Satan's way; just like his tempting words to Eve: "Don't you want to be like God?" The priestly system in Jerusalem became a system of seemingly righteous works: that man could perform these works and be just as righteous as Yahweh and without any help from Him. This is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: it looks like the Tree of Life from afar, adorned with many leaves (a religious system with seemingly pious works in order to achieve salvation from God), but it has no fruit (Spirit, that which comes from Yahweh).  The Scripture speaks about these "leaves":


"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." Isaiah 64:6


These are the "fig leaves", the fig leaves from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that Satan had prompted Adam and Eve to grab to cover their sin.