John the Baptist, the desert priest, filled with the Holy Spirit, made a prophecy of judgement on the Jewish nation. The time to change was at hand. However, the maximum boa constrictor’s life span (forty years) was all that God had allotted for them to change from crushing others around a tree to becoming a fruit-giving tree.
Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his ministry (3:23). Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D. During the forty years in between, the Jewish nation, especially the religious leaders, were given the ministry of John, Jesus the Son, and his disciples to repent. “The ax was already at the root of the trees,” John warned, meaning it is lying there ready for judgment.
God and everyone else would know that a person had truly changed if they bore fruit of repentance. During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, “By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 7:16-19)
As it was Israel’s time for testing then, it is now time for the Gentiles for the Apostle Paul wrote, “There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.” (Romans 2:9-11) The axe is already at the foot of the tree.
