Derek Prince - Man's Drive For Independence Explained From Scripture
This is an excerpt from: Israel and the Church: Parallel Restoration
Now I want to turn to the book of Joel, if you know where that is. And let me tell you, the minor prophets are minor in length but not in content. Don’t ignore them because they’re just a lot of little books at the end of the Old Testament because they contain jewels of revelation and truth. I want to turn to Joel 1 and just make some comments on the message of Joel. Joel is a prophet of the end time because when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Day of Pentecost, Peter stood up and what prophet did he quote? Joel, that’s right. He said in the last days God will pour out His Spirit. Joel is essentially a prophet for the end time. Now, the theme of Joel as I understand it is in three stages: desolation, restoration and judgment.
In the forefront of the message there are two what I call typical trees, trees that are types, they’re real trees. But they also stand for something. One is the fig tree, the other is the vine. Many, many Bible commentators have accepted the fig tree as a picture of the Jewish people. When the fig tree buds you know the summer is near. The vine was a picture that Jesus Himself used of His true believing people. He said, «I am the vine, you are the branches». So, with your indulgence I’m going to take these two trees, the fig tree and the vine, as types or pictures. The fig tree of Israel, the vine of the church.
The prophet opens with a scene of almost total desolation and it says in chapter 1, verse 6 «For a nation has come up against my land, strong and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion and he has the fangs of a fierce lion. He has laid waste my vine and ruined [or stripped of the bark] the fig tree. He has stripped it bare and thrown it away, its branches are made white». I’m not a horticulturist but I’ve been told that the vessels that carry the sap up into the tree from the earth are in the bark. So, if you strip the bark off you’ve deprived it of its source of life. The fig tree has been deprived of its source of life and the vine has been stripped bare. Then it goes on to say in the next verses: «Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth».
This is just a comment but you will hear people say that the word that’s used of a virgin in Isaiah 7:9, «a virgin shall be with child,» it’s not the normal Hebrew word for virgin. That’s perfectly true, it’s almar which means a young woman just come to the age of sexual maturity. But the normal word in Hebrew for a virgin is bethular. But it’s interesting here that the word used is bethular, and Joel says lament like a virgin, a bethular, for the husband of her youth. So had Isaiah used the word bethular, the critics would have said, «There you are, a bethular can have a husband». You see?
So God is smarter than His critics! Coming back: «Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn who minister to the Lord. The field is wasted, the land mourns, for the grain is ruined, the new wine is dried up, the oil fails». There are three basic supplies of God for His people: the grain, the new wine, the oil. They have all been cut off. Symbolically I think grain represent a source of strength, wine represents joy and oil represents the anointing of the Holy Spirit. All three have been cut off. Then it goes on in verse 12 of that first chapter: «The vine has dried up, the fig tree has withered, the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree. All the trees of the field are withered; surely joy has withered away from the sons of men».
If you turn to Luke 21 for just a moment, Jesus gave a parable to indicate when the age would be coming to its close. It says in Luke 21 29 «He spoke a parable to them, 'Look at the fig tree and all the trees.'» Now if the fig tree be Israel, what are all the trees? All the other nations. Jesus said: «When they are already budding you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near». That’s true even in this climate. There isn’t so much of Spring, but at least you know there is a time when leaves become green and trees put on new leaves. You know that summer is near. In Israel or countries like Britain or in the north of America it’s very, very true. «So you likewise, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near».
I tell people, listen, if you want to know when summer is at hand you can go out and look at the foliage. You don’t have to go to the university to find out. You don’t have to go to a synagogue to find out. You don’t have to go to a church. They might misinform you but nature will give you the correct answer. So, if you want to know the meaning of the time in which we live, don’t necessarily ask a theologian. He may be a theological unbeliever. Don’t ask even the rabbi, he may not be able either. But turn to the evidence that Jesus gave; which is, the fig tree and all the trees.
One of the exciting things that I’ve witnessed firsthand, generally speaking, colonialism has become a dirty word in our generation. It started more or less at the end of World War II. Nation after nation demanded release from colonial domination. Basically, the first nation to do so was the fig tree, Israel, in 1948. And interestingly enough, a whole lot of other nations, especially in Africa, have followed the pattern of Israel. They said, «You succeeded. Show us how to do it». So, the parable that Jesus gave is very relevant to the days in which we live. Also, Jesus said the fig tree and all the trees. That is, all the nations. Now, if you were to sum up some of the main features of the last 50 or 60 years, one of them would be the emergence of countless new nations.
In Africa alone there are about 50 new nations since World War II, and I lived in East Africa at the time when independence was on its way. The key word in Swahili was uhuru, which means independence, liberty. Essentially, those nations: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, were saying, «We are people of our own. We have our own language, we have our own culture, we have our own customs. We want to do things our way. We don’t want to be dictated to by an alien power». That was the real motivation. This spread to Asia and interestingly enough, it’s now very conspicuous in what was the former Soviet Union. Nation after nation is saying, «We’re a nation on our own. We’re Czechs, we’re not Slovaks. Don’t call us Slovaks».
So there’s a Czech state and there’s Slovakia. Probably the most potent political force in Eastern Europe at this time is the force of independence, nationalism. Exactly what Jesus said. If you were to count up around the earth, I think you could find at least 100 nations where this is the driving, motivating, political force. Jesus said look at the fig tree and all the trees, because when they begin to show signs of summer you know the kingdom of God is near. He said see for yourselves, don’t depend on second hand testimony.