Title: mulberry fruit, mulberry (Amos 07:14)
Contents The mulberry tree is 'baka' or 'shikhma' in Hebrew, and it is translated as mulberry tree (2Sa 5:23-24, 1 Chronicles 14:14-15) or willow tree (Psalm 137:2) in Korean. It is also translated as a poplar tree (Luke 17:6, Luke 19:4) in the New Testament.
A place of victory, tears, and memories
The mulberry forest was a battlefield for victory (2 Samuel 5:23-24). When the Philistines went up and camped in the Valley of Rephaim, David inquired of the Lord. The Lord did not go up and fight back, but went back and attacked from the opposite side of the mulberry tree, but when he heard the sound of people walking on the top of the mulberry tree, the Lord instructed him to move. The mulberry forest was the battlefield that gave Israel victory.
It is also a place of tears and remembrance (Psalm 137:2). The Israelites who were captured by Babylon sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept in remembrance of Zion. I hung the harp on a willow tree growing by the river, but I lost the joy of playing the instrument. The word willow used here can be translated as mulberry.
Even a willow tree is open and can be eaten, but it is not comparable to that of a mulberry tree, that is, mulberry. Anyway, the Israelites were taken captive to Babylon and hung a harp on a sycamore tree by the Babylonian River and wept in memory of their country. Consider the scene where the independence fighters during the Japanese colonial rule were fighting for independence in the Manchurian plains, eating mulberry mulberry to fill their hungry stomachs, and sang Independence Song for the liberation of their country.
Zacchaeus and Amos
In the New Testament, the mulberry tree became famous to us because of Zacchaeus, who was a tax collector in Jericho. The short man was able to see Jesus by climbing up a mulberry tree nearby to see Jesus as Jesus and his companions approached him. Jesus approached the sycamore tree and said, “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” Zacchaeus was so happy that he welcomed Jesus into his home with joy and said, “Lord, look. I will give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have extorted anyone, I will repay them fourfold.”
The Lord said, “Today salvation has come to this house, for this man also is a descendant of Abraham. The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” The mulberry tree in Jericho is a tree that Zacchaeus, a prominent rich man in the city, ran up to see Jesus longing to see him.
It is a tree that teaches us the heart of longing like a child. This is the site where the amazing work of salvation took place for Zacchaeus. He said that he would give half of his property to a poor neighbor, and if he extorted anyone else's, he would compensate him fourfold.
The salvation of this society should not be done through hatred and hatred, but through voluntary renunciation of property and giving back to society in the thrill of receiving the Lord. While communism was born out of hatred for the haves, Christianity was born out of love for those who had less. In our society too, beyond the horizon of hatred and destruction, love, compassion, and social interest for the less fortunate should be restored.
Amos is a mulberry farmer who became a prophet (Amos 7:4). As the shepherd of Tekoa, Amos predicted God's righteous judgment because he could not sit and watch the northern kingdom of Israel, corrupted by corruption.
At the same time, there was a prophet named Amaziah in Bethel, and he told Jeroboam, “Amos is a rebel against the king and a person who stirs up the whole country.” He told Amos, “Go south to Judah, get some food, and prophesy.” Amos says, "I am not a prophet, nor a son of a prophet, but I am a shepherd and a cultivator of sycamore trees, and the Lord will take me and say to me when I follow the flock, Go and prophesy to my people."
There was a strong force in the honest warning of an innocent farmer who tended the flock by picking black and sweet mulberry. It's time to listen to the honest and straightforward call of the farmer.