How many times have we heard it said that if we would have faith enough, we can speak into our problem-mountain, “Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea” and it would obey us? That when we speak these words out in faith against the problematic situation, it is supposed to scamper and dive into the ocean? And how many times have we been disappointed?
By the way, when we use Scripture in prayer and they don’t work, the reason is not that we were out of context in applying the verse. It simply means that’s not the way God wants the problem resolved. God delights to answer our prayer, but He is more interested in us learning from Him as we work on it in our yoke, side by side with Him. This is what He said in Matthew 11:28-30 “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavily laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Problematic situations are not to be waved off, but to be trudged through with Him. That is where and how we learn of Him.
Now back to how to sink a mountain.
Matthew 21:21
“…If ye have faith, and doubt not…” – Let’s replace the words “faith” and “doubt” with the other Greek words they could mean. We can then restate this as: If you have “moral conviction/constancy/fidelity”, and do not “withdraw from / oppose yourself / hesitate/waver”, then the impossible – which is in the next part of the verse – will come to pass.
“…ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast unto the sea; it shall be done.” – The fig tree is the national symbol of the nation of Israel, just as Mt. Zion represents its faith in the true God. Mt. Zion can also stand for the Church today. What is interesting here is the word the Lord used for “say”. It is the Greek ἔπω, which according to Strong is a primary verb (used only in the definite past tense, the others being borrowed from three other Greek words numbers G2046, G4483, and G5346.
Looking at G4483, ῥέω which Strong says is perhaps akin (or identical) with G4482 (which has the idea of pouring forth, to flow (run) as water).
What else do we find here? The Greek βάλλω translated as “cast” includes the notion of intensity or violence and can mean “arise, dung, lay, lie, pour, put up, send, strike, throw down, thrust” (according to Strong). The Mounce Concise Greek-English Dictionary includes an interesting meaning “to place, deposit”. Thayer does the same with “to throw or let go of a thing without caring where it falls, scatter, to give over to one’s care uncertain about the result”.
Could it be that in this verse Jesus has foretold that Israel as a nation would never have the opportunity to bear the Fruit of the Spirit? Remember that the previous day Jesus cursed this fig tree because it did not have any fruit in it but it was showing off leaves alone? Any fig tree farmer will tell you that when the leaves are lush on a fig tree, that is a sign that it has much fruit. So when Jesus came near and found nothing to eat, he cursed it because God hates hypocrisy! That is exactly how He found the state of the religion of Israel under the “leadership” of the Pharisees and the Sadducees! They were practicing a religion that was all for show!
We know from Revelation that Israel will only at a very late stage realize that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. This would happen only at the end of the Great Tribulation – at the Battle of Armageddon when Israel is hemmed in by the armies of the world which have come to destroy her. This is the climax of Israel’s history. It is when Israel understands her destruction is imminent, she cries out in surrender to God as a nation, “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the LORD!” These are the words Jesus foretold of, saying, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (Luke 13:35)
When this happens, they will be miraculously rescued from their enemies by the arrival of the LORD Jesus Christ with all of His raptured Saints!
Could it be that after Jesus’ ascension, the nation of Israel (especially the Messianic church) was forcefully scattered, dispersed, poured out into the Gentile world by way of the persecution? That this was God’s way of turning them into a blessing to all the nations as they were poured forth and flowed as running water into the rest of the world, with the “sea” as representing humanity?
Therefore, Mount Zion fulfilled Jesus’ prophecy of the Jewish believers. When Jesus uttered these words about the mountain, it was mission-oriented. We can now try to re-phrase Matthew 21:21-22 as: “I assure you, if you have faith and not doubt, you can not just expose and rebuke hypocrisy among you, but more importantly, encourage and rouse the Church into missions involvement, to move the Church from lethargy into action reaching the unreached part of humanity. And when you pray and act on your prayer because you believe this to be God’s will, you shall receive.”
Musings of Anax Jos 