Matthew 24:32
There are two outstanding allusions to the fig tree in Scripture—the one historical, Matthew 21:17-22; the other prophetical, Matthew 24:32-33—the fig tree being symbolical of Israel, the Land of God’s choice, the earthly centre from which flow God’s designs of blessing for a sinful world.
The historical allusion occurred in the last days of our Lord’s life on earth. Returning to Jerusalem, after resting all night at Bethany, and being hungry, He looked for fruit on a fig tree by the wayside, and finding nothing but leaves, and no fruit thereon, He proceeded to curse the fig tree, and it began to wither away. This incident has been the occasion of a good deal of adverse and irreverent criticism. Our Lord’s miracles were indeed many and beneficent, but here was a solitary exception. Why this exception? The answer is, That thus symbolically the Lord set forth the condemnation and the setting aside of the Jewish nation, who, called of God for His glory, ended by sinking to the lowest depth of an absolutely empty profession with no fruit whatever for God.
Not only have we the incident of the Lord cursing the fig tree as recorded in Matthew 21 and Mark 11, but we also find our Lord uttering a parable concerning a fig tree in Luke 13:6-9. This latter throws further light on the subject before us. When the owner of the vineyard, who had planted a fig tree among the vines, came to seek fruit, he found none. Addressing himself to the dresser of the vineyard, he pointed out that he had come for three years seeking fruit and had found none, the time had now come to cut down this fruitless tree. The dresser of the vineyard pleaded for the trial of the fig tree for another year. He promised to dig around it, and dung it, and if it bore fruit well and good, but if not let it be cut down.
Did not our Lord in this parable draw attention to His own public ministry for three years in the land of Israel, of His widespread proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, of the ceaseless flow of miracles that poured forth as He met the sick, the blind, the deaf, the leprous, even to the raising of the dead to life again? And what was the response to all this stream of beneficence? Nothing but leaves, nothing but an empty profession, no fruit for God whatsoever! The chief priests, who should have been the first to acclaim their promised Messiah with joy, were His bitterest and most relentless foes. In the end in complete violation of justice and righteousness they encompassed His death. It is no wonder that our Lord, knowing all their rancour and the plotting of His death, should symbolically curse the fig tree, as setting forth how God stood in relation to them, how they stood in God’s displeasure.
But a further chance was given to Israel. As it were the fig tree was dug around, dung was given to feed it, and help it to bear fruit for the owner. When the news of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead, and His ascension to glory got to the ears of the chief priests, did it bring about repentance as to the part they took in encompassing His death? What then was the response to this testimony? It was seen in the martyrdom of Stephen. As the stones battered the Lord’s servant to death, the Jewish nation was practically sending the message to heaven in defiance, “We will not have this Man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14). They killed the King. They stoned His servant. They crucified the Lord of glory. They battered to death Stephen, the first Christian martyr.
We can now see how the fig tree withered away. The Jews were dispossessed of their ancient land. They became aliens among the Gentile nations, subjected to much persecution, and continued so for nigh two thousand years. For the moment Israel is set aside. “Blindness in part is happened to Israel” (Rom. 11:25). Yes, judicial blindness at the hand of God is their portion. “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell [the Jewish nation], severity, but toward thee [the Gentile], goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shall be cut off” (Rom. 11:22). This is a matter of history and indisputable.
But let us pass on to the prophetical allusion to the fig tree found in Matthew 24:32, where we read, “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it [the coming of the Lord to reign on the earth] is near, even at the doors.”
Are there any signs that the fig tree is shooting forth leaves? In other words, are there signs of fresh life in connection with the Jewish nation? We answer, there are assuredly many and manifest signs. Within living memory the fig tree has indeed been putting on leaves. A change most remarkable and startling has taken place. After nearly two thousand years of wandering here and there among the nations, a hunger for Palestine has arisen in the hearts of God’s ancient people. Zionism, as a movement to meet this hunger, is very striking. Hundreds of thousands of Jews have again entered that downtrodden and stricken land. This is the fulfilment of prophecies lying scattered on the Old Testament page. See Ezekiel 11:17; 28:25; Amos 9:14-15, etc., etc. Under the British Mandate a new phase of prosperity was entered upon. Latterly circumstances led the British to give up the Mandate, and leave Palestine. The day before this took place, the Jews without asking support from any, with immense courage, proclaimed a sovereign Jewish State. If anyone had prophesied fifty years ago that Palestine would become a sovereign state, he would have been written off as prophesying the impossible. The impossible of fifty years ago is a fact today.
All this is fulfilling prophecy in a most remarkable way. We have long noted the wonderful prophecy of Daniel 9:27, that the seventieth week of his prophecy would see the head of a revived Roman Empire (call it the United Nations of Europe, or by any other name), making a treaty with the Jew in the land of Israel. It is clear that Israel, if still a mandated territory, would not be in a position to make any treaty over the head of the country which held the mandate. But once it becomes a sovereign state, it would be in a position to make treaties with other powers.
Our Lord prophesied the capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Temple, and the dispersal of the Jews among the Gentile nations (Luke 21:24). All this has happened, and is happening, as far as the scattering of the Jews is concerned, before our very eyes today. But now a remarkable change has taken place. The Jews finding themselves without a mandate, and in sufficient numbers, felt competent to set up a Jewish Republic. Our Lord prophesied, “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24). No longer is Jerusalem fully under the power of the Gentiles. The Jews have asserted their independence, as far as a large part of the land is concerned, and refuse to share it with the Arabs, and none can say them nay. The Gentiles, which have dominated Israel ever since the time of Nebudchadnezzar, King of Babylon, to this present time, are releasing their grasp. It looks as if the times of the Gentiles are nearly over.
This is a startling pronouncement, and it speaks loudly that this troubled age is drawing to a finish. Before long the Church will have been raptured to meet its Lord in the air, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. On earth God’s severity will be known as the judgments of the Lord fall more and more on apostate man. The seals, the trumpets, the vials, will follow one after the other. Finally the Head of the Roman Empire will treat his solemn treaty of seven years as “a scrap of paper,” for in the middle of it, he will cause the Temple service to cease, and set up an image of himself to be worshipped, “the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet” (Matt. 24:15). Then will burst forth the great tribulation, followed by the great battle of Armageddon, our Lord finally setting up His kingdom, and to reign for a thousand years.
We may well learn a lesson of the fig tree.