Smoodock's Blog

In ancient times vegetable life wasn’t categorized as strictly as it is today. Thorn bushes and thistles aren’t trees and one simply wouldn’t think of them as fruit bearing plants. However, trees were often spoken of as representing the whole of vegetation. For example, the mustard tree is, strictly speaking, an herb, not a tree, but it is called a tree in scripture (Luke 13:19). Man is also described as a tree in the very first Psalm. There a good man is a “tree” that (paraphrased) is planted by the riverside, where its leaves won’t wither, and in its proper season will yield its fruit.

The point being, that, generally speaking, everything a good man does prospers (Psalm 1:3)! So, when Jesus described good and evil men as good and bad trees in his discourse on the mount, his disciples knew perfectly well what he was talking about. When I was a boy, a good man was sometimes referred to as a good egg, which, if you ever smelled a bad egg, you would know just how good a compliment that was. However, in Jesus’ day a good man could be described as a good tree, but an evil man would be described as a bad tree, a thorn bush or a thistle.

One of my favorite poems is Rudyard Kipling’s “If…” Two of its lines are: “If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken, twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, or watch the things you gave your life to, broken. And stoop and build them up with worn out tools…” Jesus’ reference to false prophets (Matthew 7:15) reminds me of those lines in that poem. He warned his disciples to beware of such men who would take the truth, which they had heard him speak, and use his very words to make a trap for foolish folks. He described such men as savage wolves. Wolves live off the lives of other animals, in the present context, that would be sheep, meaning folks who may have been followers of Jesus, but had wandered from his pasture. How could we distinguish a true shepherd from a false prophet, whose interest in the flock is like that of a wolf?

Jesus said that we would know false prophets by their fruits. Sadly, we won’t be able to tell the good teacher from an evil teacher, simply by looking at him. We may not even be able to distinguish them from the words they use, at least not at first, because their words are like oil, smoother than honey (Proverbs 5:3-4). The only certain proof is understood in the end of their way, the harvest they produce. We can’t make wine from a thorn bush, nor could we gather good food from a thistle. Thorns and thistles represent the Lord’s curse upon the ground after men rebelled. In his later Parable of the Sower, Jesus described the ground as a man’s heart (Matthew 13:19, 23). So, a false prophet is one, whose heart brings forth thorns and thistles, which choke the word of God in a man’s heart, and nothing he does is brought to maturity (cp. Psalm 1:3)

No matter what we believe about Mark leaving Paul, after they left Cyprus for Pisidian Antioch, during Paul’s first missionary journey, or who was wrong, Paul or Barnabas, when Barnabas wanted to receive Mark back, that fact is mistakes will be made, while following Christ, However, a false prophet isn’t someone who simply made a mistake. Jesus is telling us false prophets are who they are due to a corruptness in the characters. They didn’t merely do something false, they **are** false. Moreover, prophets, whether good men or evil, are known by their fruits. A good man will glorify the Lord, while a false prophet will seek his own glory. A good man won’t produce evil fruit, nor will a false prophet ever produce good fruit. We are who we are, because of our hearts. Rebellion is in the heart of the false prophet, but Jesus is in the heart of the good man. Therefore, a man claiming to be Jesus’ disciple will be known by his fruits. (Matthew 7:17-20).