In Matthew 24, Jesus tells the disciples how to recognize his imminent return. While he starts with generalities about wars and rumors of wars, famine, false messiahs, earthquakes, etc., and notes that these are the “beginning of sorrow,” such events have always been present in the world. We might point to escalations in these general signs as a metaphorical worsening of “birth pains” just before the delivery of a new baby. Nevertheless, Jesus goes on to make an interesting analogy to a fig tree. More precisely, He notes:
32“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; 33 so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. 34 Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My Word will not pass away.” (Matthew 24:32-35)
On one level, Jesus may be speaking about the general events that He has just described (e.g., wars, earthquakes, famine), but on another He may be referring symbolically to the Nation of Israel, which was often referred to as a fig tree. Some have suggested that Jesus was indicating that any who see this specific event (i.e., the restoration of Israel after its long absence from the world stage), would not pass away until His return.1
From the venerable Ironside commentaries: “It should be understood by those studying the prophecies of Christ’s Second Coming that the preeminent sign that Christ gave for the closeness of His return was that of the budding fig tree. The fig tree is the well-known symbol of Israel nationally. To those observing the nation Israel today, it will be noted that large numbers of Jewish immigrants are returning to Palestine. Thus, the fig tree is putting forth its “green leaves,” and thereby proclaiming the near return of Christ” (page 323, Ironside, H. A., 1948).
Contemporary Christian leader, Jonathan Cahn, has stated that the budding of the fig tree represents Jews converting to Christianity, and states that there has been a growing movement (including himself), that will culminate in such believers calling out for the Messiah to save them (e.g., this is stated in several of his sermons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NViwf7uGk2A).2 This fits with Jesus’ statement to His contemporaries that they would not see him again until the people of Israel call out for Him (Matthew 23:39). Similarly, many modern theologians and pastors have come to the same conclusion (see Donald Gray Barnhouse, Clarence Larkin, Hal Lindsey),3, 4 although there is not universal agreement (e.g., John MacArthur, Louis Sperry Chafer).5, 6 There are certainly multiple OT and NT passages that establish the “fig tree” as a symbol of Israel. (Click here for a more detailed discussion of this issue.)
Jesus himself also used the fig tree analogy to speak of Israel, their rejection of His ministry, and their ultimate judgment.
If Jesus did intend to link the return of Israel to the land as a sign that the Day of the Lord was drawing close, then its return in 1948 would suggest that His return should be soon. A generation in the Bible was most frequently 70 years, and, as noted 70 years has recently passed since the restoration of Israel. If this is an accurate interpretation, then the return of the Lord would again appear to be imminent.
Prior to the Matthew 24 conversation about last days events, Jesus had cursed a fig tree, noting that it was not the time for figs, as He and the disciples were entering Jerusalem the day after he had driven the money changers out of the temple. The fig tree immediately withered on the spot. Some are perplexed by Jesus condemning a tree for not producing fruit out of season. However, Jesus seemed to be pronouncing judgment on Israel, a nation that had been given specific prophecies pertaining to the arrival of Messiah (recall that the wisemen knew to follow a star to Israel/Israel’s own prophets could have as easily been prepared) yet had lost sight of them in their apostasy.
The Gospel of Luke appears to confirm this possible interpretation:
Then he (Jesus) told this parable: “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So, he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’” (Luke 13:6-7).
The man in the parable of the vineyard refers to Jesus, while the fig tree symbolizes the Nation of Israel. Jesus conducted a three-year mission in Israel, proclaiming the year of the Lord and the coming of the Kingdom of God and calling the nation to repentance to deal with their problem of sin (see Matthew 3:8). Luke captured this parable, which suggests that Jesus was condemning the Nation at His coming, as it was not fulfilling its call to be a blessing to the entire Earth. However, as God has always done, He made a promise to a remnant of people that He would one day restore to the land.
The incident with the cursing of the fig tree appears in Matthew 21, and it occurs as Christ is going into Jerusalem the second day after cleansing the temple. He stopped before the fig tree just before entering the city and seemingly proclaimed the destruction of both:
18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. 20 When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked. 21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
The fig tree was unfruitful and was the symbol of the city of Jerusalem before which Christ stood. They turned into a place of buying and selling. The withering of the fig tree was Christ’s judgment upon Jerusalem (as described in Luke above), and, not only that, but He appears to have been letting us know that the purpose of the sanctuary/temple was about to be ended. With Jesus’ death and resurrection, the temple would no longer be needed. The faith and work of the disciples when centered on this central task of Jesus, which he was about to perform (i.e., death and resurrection), would no doubt contribute to this change in thinking, and likely the events that would lead to Rome cracking down on Israel – ultimately scattering it to the wind.
Some theologians have speculated that the mountain the disciples could move by faith was the kingdom of Judah, and more precisely the temple (Nevertheless, consistent with our belief in restoring the supernatural to theology, we believe God can move literal mountains as he sees fit as well!). Mountains in the ancient near East were typically considered the dwelling places of gods (eventually add links to references about mountain dwelling places of the gods of the Near East and beyond).7-9 Casting the mountain into the sea could be seen as a prophesy of casting down the nation of Judea, which occurred at the destruction of Jerusalem and all of Palestine during the Roman-Jewish wars of AD 67-70. Jesus could have been telling His apostles that by exercising faith in Him and ultimately disseminating the “Good News” (i.e., Gospel) that would come from His life, death, and resurrection, that they would facilitate the fulfilment of the prophesy of the song of Moses and the broader prophets. The nation of Israel would be expulsed from the land due to their waywardness in matters of faith, and their mission to take their God to the broader countries of the world would be fulfilled by Christ’s followers. When God chose Israel as His people after the Tower of Babel incident (Tower of Babel: Genesis 11:1-23; Call of Abraham – Patriarch/Father of Israel – Genesis 12:1-7), He “divorced” the other nations of the world (Deuteronomy 32:8). His goal was to work through Abraham and his seed (Israel) to reconcile all of the nations of the world to Himself. However, as already stated, He prophesied that they would lose their land and be scattered for a time in order to fulfill His desire to recover the divorced nations and to provide a means to deal with humanity’s fallenness once and for all, with their regrafting as a people at the end of the age. The apostle Paul wrote extensively about God’s plan for both the Jews and the Gentiles and how the former would be restored at the end of the age (See Romans 11 among many other passages).
The church was started by Jewish followers of Jesus, but within two decades would contain many gentile converts. Paul reminded these early gentile believers, “You, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them (the Jews) and became a partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree” (Romans 11:17). Paul also reminded that a time was coming when the natural branches would be grafted back into the olive tree (Romans 11:23-24), and connected this occurrence with the return of Christ (Romans 11:26). That is the day when Israel will mourn over the One whom they pierced (Zechariah 12:10), and God will finally save them all (Romans 11:26).
The possibility that Jesus was talking about the end of the temple period is also suggested by his encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in Samaria (see John 4:4-26). Jesus had a very meaningful encounter with this woman, offering her “living water” and miraculously knowing about the specifics of her life although she had never met Him before. He tells her that worship of God will one day be completed “in Spirit and in truth” and not tied to a specific geographic location. He notes that people will not have to go to the temple or to a Holy mountain to interact with God.
John 4:4-26
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Statements by John the Baptist are also consistent with the interpretation of Jesus’ Matthew 24 fig tree analogy as a judgment upon the nation of Israel, as he indicated that the axe was already laid to the root of the tree, implying that Jerusalem and Judea were ready to be cut down (See Matthew 3:10 and Luke 3:9).
This interpretation of Jesus’ teachings of the fig tree and its cursing parallels the Old Testament use of the fig tree as a symbol of Israel and the earlier judgments of God for the very same shortcomings. If Irenaeus’ interpretation is correct, this would be just another repetition of history, but one that is bringing world history to its rightful biblical conclusion.
As an example from the OT, we can observe that Jeremiah the prophet proclaimed the same prophecy upon Judah before the coming judgment brought by the Babylonian empire: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah (think ‘remnant’), whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians.” (Jeremiah 24:5)
God regarded the exiles (remnant) from Judah as the good figs.
Finally, the Roman destruction of the Temple came in 70 AD, less than a generation after Jesus’ pronouncement of judgment upon Israel. The Israelites were scattered all over the world at that time, and the land of Israel was left desolate for a period. Their regathering has commenced and perhaps the time of their regrafting to the root of the branch is at hand?
References
- Ironside HA. Expository notes on the Gospel of Matthew. New York: Loizeaux Bros, 1948.
- Cahn J. Israel’s return, judgement, and the millenium. 2023.
- Larkin C. Dispensational truth: God’s plan and purposes in the ages. PN: Clarence Larkin Estate Publishers, 1918.
- Barnhouse DG. The meaning. behind the fig tree [online]. Accessed December 01, 2023.
- Macarthur J. Signs of Christ’s return: The imminence of Christ’s return [online]. Accessed April 15, 2024.
- Chafer LS. Systematic theology, Vols. 5 & 6: Kregel Publications and Dallas Theological Seminary, 1976.
- Clifford RJ. The cosmic mountain in Canaan and the Old Testament. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.
- Heiser MS. The unseen realm: Recovering the supernatural worldview of the Bible: Lexham Press, 2015.
- Morales LC. The Tabernacle pre-figured: Cosmic mountain ideology in Genesis and Exodus Leuven: Peeters, 2012.