Fig leaves can grow big. Massively big, the size of a very large serving platter. They’ve also been around a long time. Scientists have dated a fig leaf found embedded in limestone near Glendive, Montana, at 60 million years old.
There are a lot of varieties, also. TreesofJoy.com has 83 specific figs listed on its website.
And the fruit? We use it for everything from cookies to an acceptable coffee substitute. There’s no end to the ways we can use the fig, including medicinal applications, from treating bronchitis to wart removal.
Figs do have their drawbacks. The fig latex (sap) can produce blisters. Immature fruits can damage the digestive tract and produce wounds on our hands. The roots spread as much as 20 feet into the soil and along the surface of the ground, stealing nutrients from every other plant.
It’s the leaves we notice first, however. Is it any wonder Adam and Eve chose the leaves of the fig to cover themselves when they partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?
The fig is analogous to humanity’s pretense that we don’t need God. Our lies (abortion, atheism, evolution, etc.) taste sweet when matured to manufactured perfection. However, when we begin to inspect them carefully, their touch can burn our skin. Humanity’s lies spread roots that decimate the truth of the gospel, stealing the reality of Jesus’ message from ears that need his love.
Just as with Adam and Eve, humanity has covered our nakedness with the lies of humanism, crying out that God cannot exist. Genesis 3:7 tells us:
“The eyes of both [Adam and Eve] were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.”
When separated from God’s love, the first man and the first woman felt compelled to create a semblance of sanctity. The truth is that our garments of fig leaves are no more than an illusion. It is only in the truth of Christ that we put on our robe of righteousness and stand fully clothed before God and man.
The knowledge of that truth is found in the written word of the Almighty God and in our faith founded upon his Son, Jesus Christ.
Our robe of Christian purity is better than a fig leaf woven from lies any day.
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