“Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?…For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the sovereign LORD. Repent and live!” (Ezekiel 18:23, 32)

“The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

The context of the 2 Peter passage is regarding the day of the Lord. It’s talking about the end times of judgment. People are wondering why God doesn’t reveal himself now and destroy the scoffers and judge evil.

2 Peter 3:9 tells us the reason why the second coming of the Christ has not occurred yet is so that people will come to repent and receive eternal life. God is patient so that people may come to saving faith.

I don’t know how anyone came to picture God as a wrathful God with the hammer of justice ready to pounce on any who step out of line. Look at the verses from today. Do these verses reveal a God with the hammer of justice, ready to pounce on sinners? These verses reveal the very opposite.

I actually do know how we came to picture God as such a wrathful God. satan. satan wants us to believe that’s who God is. satan lies.

The heart of God is revealed in the verses of the day.:

• “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?“
• “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the sovereign LORD. Repent and live!”
• “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”.

God loves you. Repent and receive the gift of eternal life in Jesus.

“After I strayed, I repented; after I came to understand” (Jeremiah 31:19a).

I am paraphrasing Karl Barth who said something like, “The more we understand who God is, the more we understand who we are. And the more truly we understand who we are, the more truly we understand God.”

The more we understand how loving, amazing, wonderful God is, the more we understand who we are as someone God values.

And the more we understand who we truly are as wretched sinners, the more we truly understand how amazing God’s grace and forgiveness is.

I think Barth is right.

The verse of the day talks about coming to a place of understanding. Often, we want to understand before we proceed in our journey of faith.

• I will start giving more when I start understanding more
• I will believe once I understand
• I will start living my life in obedience when I understand
• I will forgive after I understand

The problem with this is that it’s backwards. Obedience comes before understanding.

That’s what our verse teaches us. It’s only after we repent, after we obey, after we start down the path of faith that understanding comes.

Faith and obedience leads to understanding. Trust in God.

“The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again'” (Mark 11:12-13).

“The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry.”

Okay. That can happen. Bethany is about two miles east from Jerusalem. Jesus, being fully man and fully God gets hungry. So far so good.

The hungry Jesus sees in a distance a fig tree, and he goes to it wanting to snack on some yummy figs. But when he reaches the tree, he finds nothing but leaves. And, get this, BECAUSE IT WAS NOT THE SEASON FOR FIGS.

So, what does hungry Jesus do? Look for another snack option? Nope. He curses the fig tree for not having fruits. And we are told why – BECAUSE IT WAS NOT THE SEASON FOR FIGS!!!

What’s that about? That doesn’t sound right. What did the fig tree do that Jesus curses the tree? The fig tree was just doing what the fig tree was supposed to be doing during the season when it’s not budding fruit. We are told later that by morning, the fig tree Jesus cursed had withered and died.

Context, context, context. Context matters. If we were to read this verse in isolation, it makes Jesus look like an angry tyrant who kills an innocent tree because he doesn’t get his way.

But read in context, we see why the gospel writer Mark tells this story.

• v.11 tells us – “Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts…”
• v.15 tells us – “On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there…”

The gospel writer Mark “sandwiches” the fig tree story right in the middle of verses talking about the temple. What Jesus was cursing was the Jewish religion as it was being practiced. The temple should have been the place where people were coming to be transformed by God and his word. Instead, it only looked fruitful. It bore no fruit. By this time, after all these years, the temple ought to be the place of transformation. Instead, Jesus says, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17).

Context, context, context. Context matters. Context absolutely matters.

Got it?