Proverbs 27:18
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Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof: so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured.
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Success is easy, even for lowly and simple men. All you must do is take good care of a successful master, and he will take good care of you. The man who keeps the fig tree gets to eat the precious fruit, and the faithful servant will be rewarded by his master. Here is another proverb to exhort wise men to diligence and faithfulness in their vocations.
You can bet on this general rule! God makes rare exceptions for more important purposes, but if you want to get ahead, make your master so happy he cannot resist cutting you in on the real action. It has happened many times before; it will happen again. A wise servant can be promoted right past a foolish son. See the comments on 17:2.
Faithful men are rare today (II Tim 3:1-5), which makes this proverb even truer than in Solomon's day. The contrast between your diligence and others' laziness will be wider than ever - the same is true of your cheerfulness and their sullenness, your punctuality and their tardiness, your carefulness and their carelessness, and your obedience and their obstinance. Believe it! Find your fig tree and keep it better than others. Success is easy!
A young boy, with average abilities, starts at a fast food restaurant. He is black and stutters; the owner is white and articulate. The boy fears God and reads a proverb every morning. He is early to work, spit polished, cheerful, raring to go, and goes full speed all day, without complaint or letup. He knows only full speed and faster, nothing slower. Sauntering makes the day drag and steals the owner's profits, he explains modestly!
He follows all rules exactly, brings his own lunch, never misses work, asks for more tasks during lulls, cleans beyond his assigned area, does the work of two or three during rush periods, helps a customer change a flat tire, puts his arm shoulder-deep in the grease trap to recover a kitchen timer, doesn't snitch even a French fry, never questions his boss, doesn't offer foolish suggestions, and is friendly and respectful at all times to all parties.
Before leaving for the day, he thanks the owner for his job and offers to do anything else that may be needed. When told an employee for the next shift just called in sick in order to go fishing, he enthusiastically volunteers to work a double, though he has to miss his own basketball game that night. He cheerfully works the second shift at full speed, closes the store securely, deposits the day's sales at the bank, and mails letters for the owner.
When he began, he made minimum wage. After one year, he was a supervisor. After two years, an Assistant Manager. After three years, the youngest Store Manager in the history of the chain. After four years, the owner gave him 25% of store profits on top of his wages and retired to another city. After six years, the owner died and willed him the rest of the store. Today he has 5 stores and is thinking about where to retire.
Too good to be true? Joseph began at minimum wage - slavery, and in thirteen years he sat on the throne of the richest nation on earth! He found three fig trees, and he was the best keeper all three had ever seen - Potiphar, the jailor, and Pharaoh! Let God be true!
Too good to be true? Jacob ran away from home with only a staff. Twenty years later, he had four wives, twelve sons, and much wealth! He had found a fig tree, a gnarled old tree with potential, and he kept it faithfully in spite of setbacks - Laban! Let God be true!
Too good to be true? Elisha was merely a plowman when he found his fig tree, the service of God and Elijah. But so faithfully did He serve both masters that he was given a double portion of Elijah's spirit (I Kgs 19:19-21; II Kgs 2:1-15). Let God be true! Let every man of God heed his royal call as a servant of the King of kings!
Reader, how do you keep your fig tree? Faithful diligence brings honor! Waiting on your master brings promotion! Don't complain; get to work! You don't need an education; you need sanctification! You don't need brilliance; you need diligence! You don't need a sponsor; you need a motor! You don't need an opportunity; you need humility!
First you must find a fig tree. A fence post is not a fig tree. It may be wood, but it bears no fruit; so a dead or dying business is not where you want to be, no matter how much you like it or believe in it. If it isn't making money, guess what? It isn't making money! Cut your losses! You can keep that fence post in bed with you, but it will not bear fruit!
A telephone pole is not a fig tree, though wood and very tall; the "business opportunity" of a promoter with a shiny watch is just a tall tale, even if he flashes leased "wealth." Such men do not have real fig trees, or they would be eating from them instead of trying to get your figs! If he doesn't have a business without you, don't give him your business!
A silk Ficus tree is not a fig tree, though it looks like one to the greedy and hasty eye; so don't listen to hypothetical possibilities too good to be tree. If they sound too good to be true, they are a lie! Simple enough? Chuck promoters (12:11; 14:23)! Find a real fig tree!
You need a real fig tree that bears real fruit you can see and touch - a successful business in a necessary industry with potential. Solomon recommended farming (12:11; 27:23-27; 28:19)! Food works (Eccl 5:9)! Wholesaling works (31:24)! Commercial real estate works (31:16)! And just about anything works, if people already need and/or want it.
Second, keep the tree carefully. The Bible tells you how. You do not snitch a dime (Tit 2:10), answer back to your boss (Tit 2:9), shame your boss (17:2), or goof off even once (Eccl 10:1). You work harder than anyone else (22:29), speak when spoken to (29:19), please your boss well in all things (Tit 2:9), always reverence authority (Eccl 10:7), work smart (14:35), and show friendliness (18:24). It's easy! Pick the fruit, and eat it!
Third, do everything on and off the job to the Lord Jesus, with a single fervent heart committed to His glory (Eph 6:5-7; Col 3:22-23). You put His kingdom first in your life, for which He will add everything else you need or desire (Matt 6:33; I Kgs 3:10-13).
Reader, don't say you have done all this and are still on the bottom rung, for the rule is as true as any verse in the Bible. It is true as gravity. You have been cheating somewhere, for the rule works! Do you have a tree? Are you keeping it well? Is the Lord first?
What if you get the wrong tree? Impossible, if you make a reasonable effort to avoid fence posts, telephone polls, and Ficus trees. Your Master in heaven will see your care of even the wrong tree and reward you accordingly (Eph 6:8; Col 3:25). Believe it! The tree has less to do with the equation; your service and Master in heaven have more to do with it. He will straighten out your tree problem, when you clean up your act! Have you forgotten about Moses? David? Abigail? Mordecai? Daniel?
What of your religious fig tree? Saul of Tarsus ignorantly picked a horrible tree - it bore poisonous plums - but he kept it faithfully. He didn't know any better; but he was perfectly faithful with what he knew. So his Master promoted him to Apostle of the Gentiles for that faithfulness (I Tim 1:12-14). Give God the glory! How are you keeping your tree? With your whole heart? Or with a double mind? Can God count you faithful?
Regenerated reader, there is a glorious fig tree that only you know about. It is the Lord Jesus Christ and His kingdom. Jesus said, "If any man serve me, him will my Father honour" (John 12:26). How much honor? Jesus said again, "Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them" (Luke 12:37). No! Can it be true? Verily, there is a reward for the righteous (Ps 58:11)!
I hear the Blessed and Only Master saying, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord" (Matt 25:21,23). Here is the truly important fig tree - the Lord Jesus Christ. How are you serving Him? A crown awaits the faithful (II Tim 4:7-8)!
How glorious is the honor? "The throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads" (Rev 22:3-4). Glory! Lord, lead me to Thy tree, and I shall keep it faithfully!
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