From the fig tree learn this lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. (Matthew 24:32-33)In employing the imagery of “the fig tree,” Jesus is driving home his point to his disciples in language they would have been quite familiar with. Unfortunately, two thousand years of interpretation by exegetes wholly divorced from the Jewish culture of Jesus’ day have obscured his very simple, yet profound and uplifting, message.
Dispensationalists, who believe God has a separate plan of salvation for Israel and the Church, see “the fig tree” as a reference to the nation of Israel. Its blossoming, when “its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves,” is seen as the rebirth of Israel which, in turn, is interpreted as a “sign” of the approaching “rapture” of the Church, followed by a seven-year period of “great tribulation” and, finally, the return of Christ in glory to set up his eternal kingdom.
While this view enjoys great popularity among English-speaking evangelical Protestants, the basic premise which informs the dispensational interpretation of this passage, separate plans of salvation for Israel and the Church, is flatly contradictory to Scripture and Apostolic Tradition. Throughout his epistles, Paul repeatedly emphasizes that, in Christ and through Christ, the distinction between Jews and Gentiles has been abolished.
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:11-22, ESV)Paul could not be more clear. There is but one plan of salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike. In Christ, all who believe are one body and the temple of stone and mortar has been superseded by this one body whose many members are “being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” Yet, dispensationalists routinely take other passages from Paul out of context and offer them as proof of their assertion that Jesus’ “fig tree” parable is a reference to the restoration of the nation of Israel. In particular, they point to Romans 11:25-26a, “Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved.”
If “all Israel” is a reference to the descendants of Abraham according to the flesh, then the dispensationalists might have a point. But the full context indicates that Paul’s emphasis is not on some future restoration of physical Israel, but upon the present work God is accomplishing by his grace through the power of the Holy Spirit among all those who are being saved in Christ.
For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Romans 2:25-29, ESV)Paul thus abolishes any claim which “Israel after the flesh” might have to being God’s chosen people. For even those saved under the Old Covenant were not saved by following the law, but by grace through faith.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26, ESV)
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: "About this time next year I will return and Sarah shall have a son." And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call—she was told, "The older will serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." (Romans 9:6-13, ESV)
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life." But what is God's reply to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal." So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.What, then, are we to make of “All Israel will be saved?” If “no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly” and “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel,” then the “Israel” out of which “all” will be saved is not a “flesh and blood” entity. As Paul says elsewhere, “I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50a). “All Israel,” then is the totality of God’s people saved not by observing the law (Old Covenant), but by grace through faith (New Covenant). This salvation is open to all, whether Gentile or Jew. For Paul, while serving as “an apostle to the Gentiles,” still holds out some hope that he might “save some” of his fellow Jews (Romans 11:13-14).
What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. . . (Romans 11:1-7, ESV)
Paul’s eloquent discourse on the superiority of the New Covenant of grace over the Old Covenant of the law is key to understanding Jesus’ “fig tree” parable. Paul explains in practical terms the law’s utter inadequacy to effect salvation. This is necessary because his primary audience consists of Gentiles who are not familiar with Jewish law and prophetic imagery. Jesus, on the other hand, was speaking to a Jewish audience and thus employed the imagery with which any good Jew would have been familiar. The most significant of those images was “the fig tree.”
Dispensationalists often employ a rather dubious hermeneutic known as “the law of first mention” to every Scriptural reference to “the fig tree.” Since, they claim, the “first mention” of “the fig tree” in Scripture is a reference to Israel, then every subsequent reference must also refer to Israel. The absurdity of this “law” is easily demonstrated by applying it to another of the dispensationalists’ favorite biblical terms, “the son of destruction” mentioned by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. If “the law of first mention” holds true, then Paul can only be referring to Judas Iscariot because the “first mention” of “the son of destruction” is found in John 17:12 in reference to Christ’s betrayer. Yet, if anyone were to suggest such an interpretation of 2 Thessalonians 2:3, there is no doubt the dispensationalists would rend their garments and scream, “Blasphemy!”
But let us carry this foolishness a step further. Where is “the fig tree” first mentioned in Scripture? As it turns out, it enters the picture quite early.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. (Genesis 3:6-7, ESV)“The fig tree” first comes onto the scene as the source of clothing for Adam and Eve, attempting to hide their nakedness—that is, their sin—after eating from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is plausible in this context to suggest that "the fig tree" and "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" are one and the same tree. For, in seeking an immediate remedy to the shame of their nakedness, Adam and Eve would most likely have taken the "leaves" from the "tree" in their closest proximity, namely, the tree from which they had just eaten. If, indeed "the fig tree" and "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" are the same tree, then Adam and Eve's seeking to cover themselves with its leaves would illustrate an all too common human tendency, namely, seeking a solution to a problem from the very source of the problem itself.
But Adam and Eve realize that their “fig leaves” are woefully inadequate to hide their shame and when they hear “the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (v. 8), a sound that once brought them comfort and joy, they are seized with fear and hide “themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” After being confronted by God and judged on account of their sin, Adam and Eve make a crucial decision; one which literally gives them a new lease on life.
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And The Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skins and clothed them. (Genesis 3:20-21, ESV)In naming his wife “Eve,” meaning “living,” Adam was declaring his faith in God to provide a way by which he and all who would come after him would be restored to life, that is, to the perfect relationship with God they had enjoyed before the rebellion and consequent fall. Thus, God “clothed” Adam and Eve in “garments of skins,” the flesh of a slain animal, namely, a lamb. This “clothing” was adequate because, unlike the “fig leaves” which Adam and Eve had hastily sewn together, the “garments of skins” were fashioned by God at great cost, the cost of the life of a lamb.
The “fig leaves” and the “garments of skins,” therefore, represent the two covenants which serve God’s purpose in redeeming his creation. The “fig leaves” are the Old Covenant, the covenant of the law, humankind striving after righteousness by its own efforts but ultimately unable to cover its nakedness. The “garments of skins” are the New Covenant, the covenant of grace, new life offered as God’s free gift, made possible by the shedding of the blood of the lamb. The “fig leaves” lead ultimately to death; the “garments of skins” lead ultimately to eternal life.
The image of Israel, God’s Old Covenant people, as a “fig tree,” then, is not intended to emphasize resilience or eventual restoration. On the contrary, if Israel is a “fig tree,” then the provision it offers for sin—the Temple sacrificial system—is ultimately inadequate. In fact, it is so inadequate that it must be supplanted by another tree; a tree which brings life from the dead.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:24-25)That “tree,” of course, is the cross of Christ, which stands at the very center of God’s redemptive plan. Here, Old Covenant and New Covenant come together. The dividing wall between Jew and Gentile is abolished and God in Christ forms a new creation, the Church, as his eternal covenant people chosen by grace from before the foundation of the world.
But the question remains, what becomes of the “fig tree?” What “lesson” does it convey, even to those of us two thousand years removed from Jesus’ stirring and often frightening prophecy on the Mount of Olives? In employing what ought to be a familiar image, Jesus is reminding us yet again of the futility of seeking any other “clothing” for our nakedness other than that which he himself provides. The fig tree may blossom for a season and its leaves may shelter us from exposure to sunlight, but summer eventually yields to winter. The fig tree withers and we are left cold and naked to hide “among the trees of the garden.” Confronted with the ugly reality of our sin—nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, famines, earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars—we have only one hope: to cry out in faith to him whom we hear “walking in the garden in the cool of the day”; the One who says, “when you see all these things, know that he is near, at the very gates.”
The lesson of the fig tree is, for those who believe, a message of hope and comfort in the midst of the tribulation inevitable in this life. For what Jesus says is that whenever our human efforts fail and we are confronted with the devastating consequences of sin, not only upon ourselves as individuals but, indeed, upon the whole of creation; whenever it appears that “the end of the world” is indeed near, we can take heart because we know that the Lord, our Redeemer, our Savior, the One who will “clothe” us in heavenly splendor, is nearer still!
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