Parable of the Date Palms; a long and involved story of detailed lessons from the hand of our Lord, specifically for this day we are entering.
One day the Lord brought me another lesson, straight from His hand, in a display of great power and detail. He brought this particular lesson entirely in parabolic form, in that heavenly language art form He tends to use most often, and as revealed in the Word of God. But, even though it was so symbolic in it’s form of speech, I plainly understood everything He was showing me, having been thoroughly trained by Him in the promised, pure language art form we all will learn from these studies. Then all His people will be better able to understand our Lord in this language of the angels, as is prophesied in this passage:
Zeph 3:9
9 "For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language,
That they all may call on the name of the Lord,
To serve Him with one accord. NKJV™
What I will do is simply lay out what He showed me, the best that I am able to, in the metaphorical form He gave to me, rather than giving the meaning of it, which I might normally do. As the studies progress, what He set so perfectly on His grand stage will become clearer each day. This is the pure language of His Word, which we will learn to master through the power of the Holy Spirit using this humble beginning in this study series. The Resurrected Word is Who we are to look to, for our very life. Only once we have been baptized in these immersion studies will we be able to understand enough of His Word to answer Him in an acceptable manner. So, in this document there will be no attempt to explain what the metaphors in the parabolic story spiritually mean. That explanation will come on it’s own, as the students advance through the studies.
Long ago I learned from the Lord not to add anything of my own to what He brings to me, as though I could improve it; nor to leave anything out, as though unimportant. These are His points to us, in the manner He has chosen to speak them. It is a scene very much like some recorded in Scriptures, such as this one:
Jer 24:1-3
1 The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 3 Then the Lord said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" NKJV™
So it was in this case: for several weeks the Lord showed me many things about date palms, asking me what I saw. It is stunning to note the power and detail of His display in this particular show, which is just one of many He has done before my eyes, over many years. He is so much more Sovereign and Almighty than we currently realize. As the readers progress in understanding, I adamantly encourage all not to underestimate the details in this account.
In the beginning all the people were ignorant of the fallen fruit scattered about on the aquarium lawns, not even realizing the dates were edible, good fruit. The Waikiki Aquarium is situated right next to the Natatorium War Memorial, in the large Kapiolani park many tourists and local families frequent; and that particular region in the park is a sort of crossroads of pathways through the picturesque park, with lots of foot traffic. The dates were being trampled underfoot by the oblivious people passing through the park; even the birds were ignorant, also being slow to recognize them. But, I recognized them right away, and checking them, found that they were quite good. As soon as I noticed them, the Lord began specifically sending me to the many date trees spread out across the whole park, over a series of many days; this is what I observed.
Almost as soon as I noticed the dates were beginning to fall, so did the birds; it was almost as though they saw me react to them, so they came to see what caught my interest. From that moment on, the birds came early each day to ravage the fruit. It became a constant battle for the fruit, between me and those "birds of the air," a phrase from Scriptures, in various forms.
Mark 4:4
4 And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. NKJV™
At first I didn’t fully realize what was going on myself; as I came seeking fruit over a period of days, I began seeing much of it had been severely chewed up, even before I got there, and that each day the decimation was getting worse. I had to actually chase the birds away, because they were quickly building a taste for the sweet fruit. So, I decided to come one day at dawn, when the birds were just getting up from the darkness of a long night, and they were not yet heavily flocked upon the fruit. Almost all the newly fallen fruit was perfect, and I quickly filled up my container, and went on my way, clearly seeing that early efforts are important.
The aquarium lawn where those particular trees are located is immaculately trimmed, like no other in the park. The area where the fruit was landing was quite clean, and free of any debris; even so, I considered all things, and decided upon a minimum of three times rinsing of the fruit before eating it. And, I would not pick up any pieces which had been marred by the biting birds; the fruit I picked had to be without blemish. Though these dates were not as big as the commercial varieties commonly available back at the family home in the deserts of Southern California, their taste was even better than that of the ones in stores, being fresh off the trees, and perfectly ripened.
Some of the people of the park, who knew me, wondered what I was doing, what I was eating; so I freely shared some with whomever asked, and also took some to other people I knew in the park. The first person I took some dates to happened to also be a serious Bible student, nearly a self-taught scholar. I even mentioned to him that this ongoing display was from the Lord, and was a deep, symbolic study. Though he didn’t seem too interested in that perspective, he was familiar with dates, and helped himself to some of the tasty fruit. But, when I returned a couple days later, more fruit in hand, he was not too interested, being concerned about the sanitation of the fruit. It seems he had let the fruit sit for a day, instead of quickly eating the fresh fruit. Without refrigeration it didn’t take long for the fruit to begin some minor fermentation; it was all it took to sour his taste for the dates, and he never had any more from me. He made a point of making it clear he felt more comfortable with processed, store bought varieties than the fresh ones I had gathered, which had just fallen to the ground.
Another man who had gotten to know me a bit saw me gathering the fruit, and asked me about it. He was completely unfamiliar with dates, other than having heard the name. But, when he tried some he was really surprised at the rich and sweet taste. The next day he came to me as I was gathering fruit again, and told me his wife was really interested in the fruit for cooking; so I gave him some to take to her. But, the tree was nearing the end of it’s cycle for bearing, and the supply was not as great. As we spoke in the ensuing days, he noted to me that the next season he would be ready himself, and pick some for himself and his wife, to eat and cook with, now having been shown what was always there before, but he had just never noticed nor appreciated.
Many of the poor people who frequented the park also enjoyed the fruit with me. One lady, who was quite particular about what she would accept from me, often filled her hands with the dates whenever I came by. She was very familiar with them, and had also noted how I carefully rinsed the fruit after each gathering. Many others, though, were more timid about diving right in to this fruit I was gathering, which they really did not know on a first name basis. Most often though, once they had tasted just how surprisingly good it was, they opened up for more.
I was also led to take some of the dates to some potlucks, at a congregation which the Lord had me monitoring [offering them my writing service]. Though I tried earnestly to explain a little of the significance of the fruit, no one could see what such metaphores might mean, not even the rabbi [the group was a Messianic Jewish group]. Though the fruit was cleared from the dish I brought it in, not one person ever got he gist of what the Lord was showing me, nor any of the other works I was openly making available to them, for their edification before the Lord. They merely enjoyed the carnal fruit. Though they were all quite nice, their indifference to the wonder of what God is revealing this day was stunning. Not long afterwards the Lord pulled me from the effort, no longer allowing me to offer my service to them.
Normally steady trade winds rattle the branches of the palms, helping the ripe fruit to fall. But, there came a period without much wind overnight, to shake the fruit out of the trees. The following mornings there was little fruit to be found. But then there was one night of especially strong winds, and I knew the trees were being severely shaken in the wind. Sure enough, even from the tree of thinning fruit, there was far more fresh fruit than the previous mornings. The amount of wind overnight proved to be a major factor in the supply of good fruit: if the trees don’t get shaken, I could not harvest the fruit, because it had not been thrown to the ground. So, I began to monitor the wind, and would more aggressively search for fallen fruit after nights of heavy winds. And more importantly, I was beginning to deeply consider all these details from our Lord, in this incredible parable unfolding right before my eyes.
As I did my daily walks and meditations with the Lord, discussing everything He was bringing to my eyes, I came across another date palm tree one morning; but the fruit was not yet ripe, so no fruit lay on the ground. But, I marked the tree in my mind, to begin checking it regularly, to beat the birds to the falling fruit, once it finally began to come down.
Then I looked up and across the trees of the whole park; I could see easily at least fifty other date palms mixed in among the thousands of other palms in the park. Their fronds are different from those of coconut palms, and if one is familiar with date palms, they stand out to the eye, even when totally surrounded by coconut palms. I guessed the date palms came into the Islands with the early missionary groups, and according to the wording on the park signs, they became abundant around the horse track of King Kalakau’s time, which was within the boundaries now making up this park. So, as I scanned the tree line, I planned out which trees I would check, on my next therapy walk, as I headed up Diamond Head every other day.
Dawn of the next morning found me slightly adjusting my normal Diamond Head workout route, cutting across the large open fields, empty of the soccer teams which would throng later in the day. I was headed towards a clump of five trees, all date palms. As I approached from a distance I could see a few birds already on the ground, pecking the fruit, even though it was only half light. I ran the last leg to the trees, shooing away the birds, to see what the story was. The ground was covered with date carcases, pecked to pieces, much of them also spoiled from days in the sun. I looked up to see that the tree was mostly bare, having already dropped most of it’s fruit. Unlike the trees at the aquarium, I was too late, not having noticed that the tree was dropping fruit, since I never came this way across the park.
That is why the birds were on the ground so early: they were long aware that fruit was falling from this tree, and so it was the first location they would come to for breakfast. Looking to the other trees in the group, I saw two which I presumed were males, without fruit; and the other two had lots of fruit, but not yet ready to fall. But, I did observe one of the two with fruit was beginning to change color, ripening. I made a point of returning regularly to these trees, so that the next time I would not be late, and loose so much fruit to the birds. I gathered all the good fruit I could find among the pecked and rotting carcases, and continued my workout, which also was a major meditation time, as I consulted with the Lord about His concerns and agendas. Noticeably, He was spending a lot of time on the dates.
All the while I was keeping up with the remaining fruit falling from the aquarium trees, so that it would not be lost to the birds or trampled obliviously by passing park visitors, I realized that I needed to check the other trees of the park, to see what their status was. I also was now alerted to the changing color of the fruit, indicating which ones were ripening for the fall. The brightly golden fruit was still a long ways away from the ripened condition, ready to fall. But, once the fruit darkened, it was only a matter of days before lots of fruit began falling out of the tree’s boughs. So, searching the tree line again, I noted which trees had darkening fruit, and planned a course of action.
Fortunately, most of the trees were still in the brightly golden stage, and so not much fruit had been lost. There was one other tree, though, that had already gone through it’s entire cycle, leaving the ground covered with decimated fruit, blackened under weeks of tropical sun; the bough was completely bare, except for a couple of deformed pieces, still stuck in the branches. But the rest of the trees in the park were still with fruit, and a couple already had fruit falling, with several others soon to begin their cycle. For many more weeks, the Lord would again and again send me out to gather dates, making more observations each time.
As I began my rounds, the next tree I came to surprised me how large the fruit was, being easily twice as big and meaty as any others I had encountered. But, the tree was very tall; and more importantly, there was no grass below it. Because the sprinklers right there were not working properly, only hard, sandy and rocky soil was under any of the trees in that area. As I searched through all the fallen fruit, I could not find any I could eat. The fall was great from such a tall tree, and the grits of sand and small rocks were buried deep into the flesh of the dates from the impact, making inedible all which were ripened; but the harder ones which survived the fall were not ripened enough to eat either. Picking a ripe date, I had to bite around the torn, gritty flesh, just to taste a bit of the fruit, to see if it was even any good in the first place. What I found was that the taste was not nearly as good as the smaller ones anyway; and the flesh was also stringy. The harsh conditions were all so contrary on that one tree, that for the entire cycle I never found one piece of good fruit, without any damage, even though it was the biggest, meatiest fruit in the whole park.
Right next to that tree was a very short one, and it also had fruit just beginning to fall. That fruit was not half the size of the huge fruit of the neighboring tree, but the meat was perfect: very tender and smoothly sweet, rich in date taste, as good as any I encountered in the park. Fortunately, since the tree was so low to the ground, some of the fruit was undamaged when it fell, and only got dirt all over it. As I studied this fruit, I could see that more washings than normal were necessary; but the fruit was very good. Most of the fruit was still lost from impact on the grassless ground; yet some survived the short fall, and with enough washings, of up to seven times, it was good to eat.
Another thing about that particular tree was the terrible thorns surrounding the fruit. Because it was such a short young tree, my face height was right at the level of the bottom of the boughs of the tree. For the first time, I was eye to eye with the masses of fruit, and could see that these trees have a defense system of sword-like thorns. So, it became quite important that I pay close attention, lest I put my eye out on one of those thorns. Yet, as I considered this thorn defense system of the other trees as well, the strange thing about it was that the birds of the air had no difficulty at all attacking the fruit anyway; it did not appear to slow down the attacks one bit. The thorns only seemed to hinder me, the harvester. I guessed that in other situations there must be other animals which were deterred from attacking the fruit; but the thorns sure did not defend the fruit against the birds.
Near to these two trees was yet another tree, below which were weeds and trash, of the most unsavory kind. The fruit of this palm was also very good looking; but because the grounds were so defiled by all manner of grotesque things, there was no way I would be comfortable eating the fruit, no matter how many washings I might do. So, as I considered the tree, I realized the only way to harvest such fruit was to spread out some system of nets, to catch the fruit before it hit the ground. I never did get any fruit from that tree, because I didn’t have the equipment for such an endeavor.
Then the Lord sent me out into another direction, to an area with six tall, fruit bearing trees. Three of the trees were already dropping fruit, and the fruit was good. The first tree had some damaged fruit, both from birds already working the fruit, as well as from the sun, fruit which was not harvested for days, lying in the hot, tropical sun. There was also some newly fallen fruit, which I gathered; then I moved on to the next trees. But, as I looked out ahead of me, the most distant tree had several birds on the ground, beating the fruit to pieces. I decided to run to that tree next, to chase off the birds, and stop the carnage. I found that much of the fruit was already damaged; but what was left was so good that it was no wonder to me that so many birds were attacking the fruit.
The grass around these first two trees I visited in this group was thick, but very firm. The trees were quite tall; so when the fruit fell from such a height, because the grass was so firm, it damaged some of the fruit upon impact, tearing the flesh of any fruit that was real tender. The grass also was firm enough that the fruit sat right up on top of it, in plain sight. This was different from the aquarium lawn, which was a little softer, for an easier landing, as well as letting the fruit sit down a little in the grass, more out of sight of the birds. It seemed for that reason it took longer for the birds to begin attacking the fruit of the trees at the aquarium than what was happening with these trees. I finished gathering the fruit that was unblemished, and headed back to the one palm of the group that I had skipped.
As I approached the tree, I could see no fruit on the grass; and there wasn’t a bird in sight, so I was not sure the fruit had actually begun to fall. But, as I neared the base of the tree, I felt my feet step on some fruit, and I came to a halt. This grass was different from any other I had seen: it was very soft and deep; and it was full. Looking very closely I could see fruit all around my feet, buried deep in he soft grass. I stooped to pick one, and sure enough it was in perfect condition. I picked another, and it too was fine. One after another, each date was not only unmarred from the fall from such a tall tree, but also had no peck marks from bird attacks. And the grass was filled with dates. Watching my step, lest I step on any more accidently, I soon ran out of room in my containers, until they were overflowing, and my pockets too. I went to get another container, and when I returned there still were no birds; they just could not see the dates easily. Besides, the other trees had fruit sitting up in plain sight on the hard grass, attracting them to those trees instead. Over the weeks to come, I never found one bird on the lawn under that tree; and I never found one date that appeared to be harmed from the fall. Clearly this lawn was perfect in design.
Interestingly, the fruit of this one tree was also different from all others, in that it was speckled and streaked, markings in the skin tone of the fruit; but the taste and texture was just as good as the other good fruit. Some fruit of different trees had larger pit to flesh ratio; and some were bigger all around. But, all the dates had that same date taste and texture, to one degree or another: a date is a date, and is like no other fruit.
All this time, the Lord also kept assigning me my normal duties, handling the many personal contact needs as they arose, as well as sending me back to part time canal work [due to lack of funds]. So, in one small stretch I was unable to get to the dates for a few days. When I was finally able to return to harvesting the fruit, what I found was quite depressing, even though this truly was only fruit, in and of itself [but my understanding of this language made the fruit mean so much more]. Most of the fruit was pecked severely by birds, because I had not be there early each morning to chase them away, and harvest. And any fruit which the birds had missed had begun to rot in the hot sun; the tender fruit simply cannot endure much of the blazing heat of day. Virtually none of the fruit was any good, except the few from the fresh fall of the night before. All I could do was pray to the Lord of the harvest to send workers to help, because there was no way for me to do such a vast undertaking alone; and truly the harvest was plentiful.
There is actually more information which the Lord brought to me, using these incredible metaphors; but, without a whole lot more training most people would not be able to endure it for now. So, another date document will be reserved for the students in the study series, to be handed out as an addendum. Do not be surprised at this; after all, even after spending three years face to face with Christ Himself, the apostles were told this by the Lord just before He died for our sins:
John 16:12
12 "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. NKJV™
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