The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Aphek
- Chapter 103 -
A miracle with a symbolic meaning for the priests.
You have asked Me to perform a sign, and therefore I also will perform one before your eyes, but you will not become blissful by the sign but by your faith in Me and by living according to My teaching.
2
Look, here on this hill, which is completely bare and waste, there is still an old fig tree that is withered for already fully 30 years. At that time a terrible thunderstorm broke out. The rain was streaming down from the clouds on the Earth and washed away the already meager soil from the rocky surface, and soon the grass and the trees withered away, for they could not be fed anymore.
3
Look, this hill and its rather vast environment, and thus also this tree, can exactly be compared with your knowledge of the one, only true God. Without the true, inner knowledge of the one, only true and living God, everything is, and must be, dead and waste and barren for men. He withers and pines away because he cannot find any food for his soul and spirit because the storm of his worldly attitude has washed away from him the feeding and life-bringing soil which is God's living Word. So also, this tree, and all the grass around it, is withered and it cannot come to life on its own because there is no soil. And it only can do this with God's power that can create new soil that contains everything that is needed for the life of plants. And so I want that this whole region, and in the first place this hill, will be covered with about 2 ells high of fertile soil. Let it be!"
4
When I had said that, the whole region and also the hill was covered with clearly very fertile soil by which the gentile priests were so surprised and upset that they began to shake, and the one, who was taught the night before, cried aloud: "Yes, I have found here the One whom I searched in vain for already a long time! You, o Lord, great, holy and mighty above all, are truly the One Himself about whom You said that I still would find Him! For only a God can cover by His word in one moment a desolate landscape with the most fertile soil! This is impossible for human beings!
5
Hail to us that we finally have found You exactly as we have desired for a long time to find You! Now the fatal veil of Isis has been lifted before our eyes at one stroke! O, all honor and all love to You only, eternally great, only true God and Lord!
6
O, forgive us our many sins that we have committed in our great blindness against You and also against our fellowmen! We want and will from now on, with Your above all mighty help, as much as possible make up for the evil that we have ever done! Be forgiving and merciful to us! Do not reject us sinners too far away from You, o You our God and our Lord!"
7
I said: "You have well spoken now, but it was not your flesh and blood that inspired you but the Spirit of My word that you have accepted in your mind. You also are now covered with fertile soil just like this hill and this very wide environment, and what was waste and barren and could not produce any fruit for life, will become green everywhere and produce a rich variety of fruits that will really feed and completely satiate your soul for his eternal life.
8
So remain active as you have intended, then you soon will flourish for the life of many, just like this hill and its whole environment will now become green by My word and will flourish. And as you were a man whose spirit of the truth of life had been dead up to now, so you will also - only by My word that you have accepted as a living Word of God and have taken up within you - be awakened to life to produce true fruits of life, like this fig tree will do now before your eyes while for fully 30 years it had been barren and dead and where only the trunk and a few stronger roots and branches can be seen.
9
I now want this hill, together with the whole environment, to become green and flourish to richly produce fruits, and for this old and moldered fig tree to become alive again and produce fruits for the enjoyment of the people and the birds from the sky. So be it."
10
On these words of Mine, the hill and the whole environment became green and flourished, and the fig tree became full of leaves and blossom and was also provided with many new branches and roots.