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Mark 11:12-24 : Jesus Curses the Fig Tree (Gospel of Mark)

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12 The next day, when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry.

13 Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came to see if perhaps he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

14 Jesus told it, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again!" and his disciples heard it.

15 They came to Jerusalem, and Jesus entered into the temple, and began to throw out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers, and the seats of those who sold the doves.

16 He would not allow anyone to carry a container through the temple.

17 He taught, saying to them, "Isn't it written, 'My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations?' But you have made it a den of robbers!"

18 The chief priests and the scribes heard it, and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him, because all the multitude was astonished at his teaching.

19 When evening came, he went out of the city.

20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away from the roots.

21 Peter, remembering, said to him, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered away."

22 Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God.

23 For most certainly I tell you, whoever may tell this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and doesn't doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is happening; he shall have whatever he says.

24 Therefore I tell you, all things whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received them, and you shall have them.

Commentary

 

Speaking to the Enemy

By Todd Beiswenger


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There are times to pray, but there are also times to act. The disciples couldn't cast out a demon because they lacked faith, which is to say they lacked conviction. When we speak to our demons, we don't ask them nicely to leave, we need to command them to leave.

(References: Arcana Coelestia 968; Mark 11:12-24; Matthew 17:14-20; Zechariah 4)

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Arcana Coelestia #968

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968. Some have brought with them from the world the idea that they must not talk to the devil but flee from him. They have been informed however that nothing at all could harm people whom the Lord is protecting, not even if the whole of hell were surrounding them, both from without and from within. This I have been given to know from many amazing experiences. Such were those experiences that in the end I had no fear at all, not even of the worst of the hellish crew, to deter me from talking to them. I have also been granted such experiences so that I might get to know what the members of that crew are like. To people who have marvelled that I have spoken to them I have been allowed to say further that not only would this do me no harm but also that devils in the next life have previously been men who went through life in the world hating, getting revenge, and committing adultery. I have said that some of them at the time were highly respected people, and indeed that some of them are people whom I had known during their lifetime. I have also been allowed to say that 'devil' means nothing else than such a crew in hell, and in addition that people while living in the world have present with them at least two spirits from hell, as well as two angels from heaven, and that these hellish spirits though ruling among the wicked have among the good been overpowered and made subservient. Thus it is wrong to think of some devil existing since the beginning of creation other than those who have previously been men. When people have heard all this they have been dumbfounded and have confessed that they have held an altogether different opinion concerning the devil and his crew.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.