The Fig Tree of Israel

Shortly before He went to the Cross, Jesus sat down with His disciples on the Mount of Olives, and held a discussion about the signs that would happen before His Second Coming. To illustrate His meaning, as so often He gave them a parable about a Fig Tree:

“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.” Matthew 24.32-35

The disciples had asked Him:

"Tell us......what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"

The disciples were referring to the period, the "age," from Adam to the current day, at the time they were speaking two ages, two thousand years from Adam to Abraham, and two thousand years from Abraham to Jesus. There have now been a further two thousand years from Jesus to the present day, a total of six thousand years. God's calendar is based on the number seven, six days of creation followed by a day of rest, six working days in a week followed by a day of rest, six years of sowing and reaping followed by a seventh when the land is to lay fallow, six thousand years of man's rule on earth under the dominion of Satan, which will be followed by a Millennium of peace on Earth, when the world will be under the loving but firm rule of the Messiah.

In Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, Jesus describes in detail what will happen at the end of this six-thousand-year period, and then He uses a parable to explain the exact time of the "End of the Age," the parable of the Fig Tree.

Earlier in Matthew's gospel Jesus had told the disciples why He spoke in parables.

“Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:

'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.'"

This should make us sit up and take note of the parable of the Fig Tree. Paul says:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit."

1 Corinthians 2.9-10

What Jesus was describing to the disciples can only be revealed to us by the Spirit. This is one of the most important parables of our time, but the Church largely ignores it.

When Jesus told us to “see the twigs get tender and its leaves come out” He was referring to the return of the Jews to their Land and the formation of the State of Israel in 1948. The tenderness of the twigs and the leaves coming out is a beautiful picture of the Jews being reunited with their Land after nearly two thousand years in the Diaspora, and the growth in the number of Messianic Jews in the Land.

When the State of Israel was declared in 1948, there were very few Messianic Jews in the Land, one estimate is that it was a few as twenty-four. Today, there are tens of thousands of Israelis who know Yeshua as their Messiah, and the number is growing every day. In the epistle to the Romans, Paul describes these Messianic Jews as the "natural branches" of the Olive Tree of Israel. Twigs are small branches, which indicates that Jesus was referring to them.

​He then said, "Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened." The generation that was born in 1948 will not pass away till everything He spoke of on the Mount of Olives happens. It is happening now, and it means that the Church needs to take seriously what Jesus was saying.