Who Does the Fig Tree Represent

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</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <div> In the Jan/Feb “Prove All Things” there was a article titled <B>“While Men Slept,” </B>it reminds us of what Noah must have experienced while preaching and building the ark. It’s a Similar attitude we find people having today.</div> <div> Jesus said, that the days before His second coming would be likened to the days of Noah. Meaning – His return would come on the world unexpectedly when everyone is <B>pleasure oriented </B>and making plans for the future, eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage, buying and selling, carrying on with the normal course of life without heeding the impending judgment.  Only Noah and his family knew what was coming. They had the revelation  at that time. </div> <div> God speaks and calls His people to prepare now for His sons  return. But the world continues on with its pursuits and pleasures, while the faithful prepares for life eternal.</div> <div> Noah was a great preacher and yet for all his <B>on target preaching, </B>nobody believed what he had to say.  He was a “preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet 2:5). But the people of his day paid no attention to his message. During his time in history was an age when secular things commanded all the peoples interest. No one had any interest in spiritual thing in the days of his preaching and ark building.</div> <div> There is a parable we have heard and read many times. This parable brings to our attention the end of this age that we are now living in.  This end time can be likened to a great coming storm.  We can see <B>a</B> storm coming and feel its effect even though it has not yet arrived fully. So it is with our Lord’s return, the signs are evident even though the event itself has not yet arrived fully. </div> <div>      Concerning the time of the Lord’s return, Jesus’ disciples asked Him, “What will be the sign of your coming and the end of  the age?”  Jesus then began to describe many things that would precede His second coming. Many of which are being fulfilled before our eyes today. “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ’, and will deceive many, and you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, But the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matt 24:5-8). </div> <div>      Only in the Twentieth Century have we seen the world fulfilling these listed events.  This past century could easily be classified as wars, rumors of wars, nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom.  Through out the Bible we read of many other signs of Christ’s second coming. </div> <div>      When we see a dark cloud rising in the west, we say a shower is coming and when we see the south wind blowing, we say there will be a heat wave, both most likely happens. Knowing these things the Bible calls us <B>“hypocrites” </B>in Luke 12:56. “You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?”  Just as the signs of the coming storm are obvious to us we should recognize signs when the end time days are.  Jesus speaks of them  happening or about to happen in our day.</div> <div>      Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the Thessalonians, “That believers could and should know the times and seasons of the Lord’s (second) coming since they were not in the darkness like others. “But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.  For when they shall say, peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” (1 Thes. 5:1-5).</div> <div>      Jesus in verse 3, likened all of the events mentioned above to the beginning of birth pains, and Matt 24 verse 8, alerts us, “this is just the beginning of sorrows.” Just like for a woman in labor, the contractions will get closer and closer until finally the child is born, So it is if we were to consider today’s events in terms of giving birth. We might say that prophetically all that is left is to deliver the berth. </div> <div>      All that the Lord had said so far (discussed above) was a response to the disciples’ question <B>“what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”  </B>Jesus then gave an important sign to look for concerning His coming: the sign of His coming and the end of the age is found in Matthew 24  – Mark 13  - and Luke 21.   </div> <div>      Listen to what we are told to learn  in Matthew 24. “<B><U>Now learn </U></B><B>this parable from the fig tree</B>: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth  leaves, you know  that summer is<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" > </FONT>near. So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near–at the doors! Assuredly, I say to you, <B>this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place” (</B>Matt 24:32-34NKJ). </div> <div> Keep in mind Christ was in the</div> <div>  final stage of His ministry. He had been ministering in Jerusalem for about three years when He gave this parable.  There are two obvious questions concerning this parable: Who or what is the fig tree? And two, what generation is Christ referring to in verse 34.</div> <div>      To answering the first question, notice  who Jeremiah is speaking too.  “Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the <B>people of Judah</B>, and to <B>all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying”</B>  (Jer 25:2).  <B>What was he saying? </B> Jeremiah chapter 24:starting with verse 1, “The Lord showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord, one basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then said the lord unto me, what seest you, Jeremiah? And I said, figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. <B>Vs. 5, </B>“Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; like these good Figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive Of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. <B>Vs 8, </B>“And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the Lord, so will I give Zedekiah the King of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt.” So we see the “good” are taken out of the land, that is, out of danger, and the “bad” are left to be judged.</div> <div>      Jesus continues His relationship with fruit when He is seeking good fruit from His vineyard. “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and He came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then He said to the keeper of His vineyard, ‘look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground? But he answered and said to Him, ‘sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down” (Luke 13: 6-9).  Jesus had Judah in mind when speaking this parable that is confirmed at the <B>end of the chapter </B>when Jesus laments over Jerusalem because of their unwillingness to receive their Messiah  And declares that their house is left desolate. Notice now verses 34-35. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I Say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you Say, <B>‘blessed is He </B>who comes in the name of the Lord!”</div> <div>      The Jewish leaders of Jerusalem could not say -- <B>“blessed is He…” </B>because they were <U>not</U> living in the land of Israel during the time of their exile.  When they were not in exile the men of <B>the house of Judah </B>were to present themselves before the Lord three times a year to give an offering.</div> <div> <IMG SRC="14e94bb0.png" border=0 width="148" height="187" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">     When Jesus came up to Jerusalem via Jericho on a number of occasions during the three plus years of His ministry in order to celebrate the feasts, He observed a fig tree by the road side,  there was no fruit on it.  Prior to that scripture tell us He came into Jerusalem, and seeing money changers at the temple He immediately drove them out from the temple, relating that experience with the house of Judah, it was like the fig tree, <B>barren!! </B></div> <div>      In the evening He set out for Bethany to spend the night with His friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. Then returning to Jerusalem in the morning, Jesus passed by the fig tree again, and noted again - that there was no fruit on it when there should have been.  Seeing that the tree was unfruitful, He then cursed it. “And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, “let no fruit grow on you ever again.” immediately the fig tree withered away” (Matt 21:19). </div> <div>      Like this parable of the fig tree, Jesus Christ came looking for fruit from the Jews in the house of Judah for over three years - and found none. They were like the barren fig tree producing no fruit. He then pronounced judgment on the worthless tree causing it to withered away, which symbolized the Jews in the house of Judah. </div> <div>      With all of that as our backdrop, we then come to the time markers that He gave us during the Olivet discourse. </div> <div>      When reading  Luke’s account it adds a little more than Matthew did.  “Then He spoke to them a parable:“look at the fig tree,  And <B>all the trees</B>   [Matthew did not add that]. When they [plural] are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near” (Luke 21:29-30).</div> <div> <IMG SRC="14fbb8d0.png" border=0 width="187" height="141" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> </div> <div> When Jesus addressed His  disciples to learn a parable from the fig tree,  they must have had in their minds the parable of  the  recent events of  the cursed fig tree.  The Old Testament background from Jeremiah makes it clear that Jesus is likening the house of Judah, the nation called Israel today to the fig tree. </div> <div> Just as the fig tree withered so too would the nation of Judah be destroyed. That happened by the Romans in 70 AD and then again in 135 AD. After the second Jewish revolt they were warned <B>not</B> to return to Jerusalem, if they did they would face the penalty of death. </div> <div> History reveals they were then dispersed through out the nations on earth without a home or land for nearly 1900 years. Also this curse appears to have apply to the land itself, as well.</div> <div>      Rabbi Menachem Kohen wrote a book titled <B>“</B>Prophecy for the Err of Muslim Territory.” <I>“He claims he discovered that the land of Israel today suffered an unprecedented, severe supernatural drought that lasted from the first century until the 20</I><I>th</I><I>, a period of 1,800 years, coinciding with the forced dispersion of the Jews.” </I></div> <div> <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" ><B>     </B></FONT>Journalist Joseph Farah<B>, </B>prompted by the research of Rabbi Kohen<B>,</B> later discovered that only after the Jews returned did the rain begin to appear again. They say for 1,800 years, it hardly ever rained in Palestine where the area of Israel is located today.  They said this was the barren land traveled by Mark Twain, and it was a wasteland and very few lived there. There was no large Arab population there to speak of. The population only returned around the time the Jews came back. </div> <div>      Beginning in 70 AD and lasting until the early 1900 AD there was hardly any rain.  The rainfall data for the last 150 years in Israel beginning in the early 1800s and leading up to the 1960s was found increasing rainfall almost every single year – with the heaviest rainfall coming in and around 1948 and 1967. </div> <div>      Then after those years just as <B>Isaiah</B> had foretold, the nation of Israel would be born in one day!  “Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a Nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children”(Isaiah 66:8).   On May 14, 1948 the house of Judah, now called the nation of Israel and the fig tree declared independence and then was ratified as a nation by edict of the United Nations and literally was born in one day. 1948 becomes the year by which a generation can be measured against. “Early Christian Commentary on Scripture” confirms the fig tree parable is talking about the house of Judah, the nation of Israel today. </div> <div>      In early Christian writing, “the Apocalypse of Peter” written in 100 AD, identifies the fig tree as the house of Judah and the time of its budding as the time of the end of the age. I want to mention here, while the Church of God, In Truth does not consider extra-biblical sources to be spiritually inspired scripture, yet outside sources can occasionally serve as a type of commentary from early Christian history.</div> <div> <B>     </B>In “About Bible History . com” is written the Romans under Caesar Hadrian killed an estimated 580,000 Jews to suppress the Bar Kochba uprising and ran a plough over Jerusalem to completely destroy the holy city. Scholars generally accept this date of composition around A.D. 135.  This is a significant date because the early Christians had seen Jerusalem destroyed once in 70 AD under Titus who destroyed the temple, and killed upwards of a million Jews and took the rest as slaves.  However, not all of the Jews were taken away and those that remained - had made a comeback.  Again making clear we are not to treat a Commentary on the scripture as equal to scripture.</div> <div>      Quoting again Luke 21:30 that clearly states, “that when the fig tree has budded, the end of the this age would begin.”  The text here has interpreted Jesus’ parable of the fig tree to be speaking of the house of Judah.  1). This is when the house of Judah comes back as a fresh nation, in the last days – or end of days.  2). the obvious acceleration of lawlessness;  3).the increase of apostasy; 4). the world and religious climate preparing for a one world order;  5).  the rapid acceleration of life’s threatening conditions – such as potential atomic annihilation; 6). population explosion.</div> <div>      Draw your attention now  to what Christ said in verse 29 of Luke 21, “And He spoke to them a parable; behold the fig tree, <B>and All the trees.”  </B>We have seen that the fig tree represents house of Judah in the parable Jesus told His disciples.  And we have seen three apostles and a couple prophets clearly used the fig tree as a representation of the house of Judah.  Jesus also did in the parable of the land owner and the fig tree,  He then cursed the fig tree and told the parable of the fig tree concerning the last days.</div> <div>      However, when we read Luke’s gospel account, Jesus mentioned <B>“all the trees.”   </B>What are we to make of this? Remember Jesus said “to learn the parable of the fig tree <B>and all the trees.”  </B>But what do <B>“all the trees” represent? </B></div> <div>      Sometimes when Jesus would tells a parable He would then give its interpretation.  For example in Matthew 13:18, Jesus interpreted the meaning of the parable of the sower in which each ground represented a type of person and their particular spiritual condition. So it is to be the same with our fig tree parable.  To find the answer, we need to stay with God’s word.  Since the fig tree represents the house of Judah as the nation Israel today,  then we should expect that <B>“all the trees” </B>would represent nations as well. </div> <div>      When looking in the Bible - God’s word, we find this is indeed to be the case.  In fact, we find that trees are often used to represent people and especially nations. We first encounter a parable of trees in Judges 9: where Jotham, a son of Gideon, addressing the men of Shechem who had just killed seventy in order to follow his brother Abimelech.  “Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted his voice and cried out. And he said to them: the trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, reign over us!' but the <U>olive tree </U>said to them, should I cease giving my oil, with which they honor god and men, and go to sway over trees?'  Then the trees said to the <U>fig tree</U>, you come and reign over us! But the fig tree said to them, should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to sway over trees? Then the trees said to the <U>vine</U>, you come and reign over us! But the vine said to them, should I cease my new wine, which cheers both god and men, and go to sway over trees? Then all the trees said to the <U>bramble</U>, you come and reign over us!' And the bramble said to the trees, if in truth you anoint me as king over you, then come and take shelter in my shade; But if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon!' Now therefore, if you have acted in truth and sincerity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done to him as he deserves” (Judges 9:7-16).  Notice Isaiah 10:33 – where God refers to chopping off <B>“the tops of trees” </B>as to those who are arrogant and will be “hewn down.” </div> <div>      Similar imagery is used in the book of Ezekiel.  God in Ezekiel 15:2-6, likens the wood of the vine to the inhabitants of Jerusalem which will be burned in the fire because they are useless (that is idolatrous).  God uses the tree image –  to speak of Judah being taken into captivity in Ezekiel chapter 17 as well. </div> <div> <IMG SRC="150ebbc0.png" border=0 width="235" height="188" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">“Thus says the Lord God: ‘a great eagle with large wings and long pinions, full of feathers of various colors, came to Lebanon and took from the cedar the highest branch.  He cropped off its topmost young twig and carried it to a land of trade; he set it in a city of merchants” (Ezek 17:3-4).  In 606- 5 BC, Nebuchadnezzar took some of the leadership of Judah into captivity – the highest branch represents the leadership of Judah, which probably included Daniel.</div> <div>      We know this to be the case because God gives us the interpretation in Ezekiel 17, “Say now to the rebellious house: [Judah]‘do you not know what these things mean?’ Tell them, indeed the king of Babylon went to Jerusalem and took its king and princes, and led them with him to Babylon’” (Ezekiel 17:12).  God later in the chapter tells what He is going to do with the highest branches in contrast to what king Nebuchadnezzar had done.  King Nebuchadnezzar made it a “spreading vine of low stature” according to Ezekiel 17:6.  Then God said in verse 23, “He would set up a king and a kingdom that would be great among the nations. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it; and it will bring forth branches, and bear fruit, and be a majestic Cedar. Under it will dwell birds of every sort; in the shadow of its branches they will dwell.” God then makes reference in verse 24, to all the trees of the field, which represent the nations in the area  of Jerusalem.  “And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the Lord, have brought down the high tree and exalted the low tree, dried up the green tree and made the dry tree flourish; I, the Lord, have spoken and have done it.”   Ezekiel 20:46-48,  contains another example of nations represented as trees. </div> <div>      The most telling of all on this subject is found in <B>Ezekiel 31:3-15.  </B>There, Assyria is likened to a cedar of Lebanon that was greater than all the other trees, which is to say nations. <B>Vs 5 and 6, </B>“Therefore its height was exalted above all the trees of the field. And in its shadow all great nations made their home.”  God describes how Assyria, the cedar of Lebanon was greater than other kinds of trees, yet God would send another to cut it down.</div> <div> In Daniel 4:10-11 and  Zechariah 11:2 you will find more examples of rulers and nations that is represented as trees. </div> <div>       Then with all the background from the Old Testament, you can turn to the New Testament and find Jesus’ use of seed in Matthew 13:6,and 40, vine branches in John 15:6, and trees in Luke 3:9 and Luke 21:29.  All these represent people or nations keeping with the scriptures.   </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> James Russell</div> <div>    The rest of this story is found in    </div> <div>  <B>“WHAT IS A GENERATION? ”</B></div> </td> </tr></table></body>