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QUESTION 38
Could you explain this verse for me? " Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:" Matthew 24:32.

ANSWER:
This is a parable, like all other parables, they illustrate something else.

It is simply known fact that the putting forth of leaves indicates that spring and summer is at hand. In this context it is speaking, not about the seasons of the year, but the coming again of the Lord to Israel.

In the life of Jesus on earth He spoke of the fig tree three times. In the Old Testament, it represents the nation of Israel. "He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white." Joel 1:7. In this verse God is speaking of a nation which has plagued Israel; His fig tree. In Luke 13:6 Jesus gives a parable about a fig tree that a husbandmen was seeking fruit on for three years. This is Christ and His ministry to Israel during His three years of public ministry. In Matthew 21:19 Jesus cursed a fig tree because it had no fruit and it withered up. This is Israel during the past 1900 + years. "...that blindness in part is happened to Israel,..." Romans 11:25. In Matthew 24:32 He speaks of Israel in the future as beginning to bud and bring forth leaves. This is Israel since 1948. She is a nation again, after being dead for 2600 years. "So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." Matthew 24:33-34. The generation here seems to be the Jewish race of people who have been miraculously preserved over many years.

The Lord is coming. Are you ready? Have you been born again? Have you repented? Have you trusted Christ?

All comments and questions to: Harold Smith

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Updated July 2009, by Shelly Allen