God’s word mentions several trees by name: olive trees, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the tree of life, palm trees, tamarisk trees, poplar trees, sycamore trees, broom trees, cedar trees, almond trees, apple trees, walnut trees, oak trees, cypress trees, willow trees, pomegranate trees, mulberry trees, myrtle trees, and fig trees. In fact, in Hosea 14:8 God compares himself to a tree, “I am like a tree that is always green; all your fruit comes from me.”
ISRAEL – THE FIG TREE PROPHECY
Fig trees in the middle east are a fruit-producing tree or shrub. The size of the tree, and its capacity to produce figs, depends mainly on the soil that the tree is rooted in. Typically, the fig tree blooms before sprouting forth its leaves in the spring, and normally would produce, not one, but two crops of figs each year.
During the first dispersion of Israel, God sent a vision to the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, of two baskets full of figs. One of the baskets had good figs while the other basket contained bad figs.
“The LORD showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 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 do you see, Jeremiah?’ And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.” Jeremiah 24:1-3
“Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Thus said 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. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.” Jeremiah 24:4-7
“And like 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, and I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places to which I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.” Jeremiah 24:8-10
In the New Testament, as Jesus was preparing his disciples for what to expect in the future, they asked, “Tell us when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of your coming, and the end of the age?” Matthew 24:3
Jesus said, “Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When its branch is still tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near: So likewise, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Truly I tell you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things are fulfilled.” Matthew 24:32-34
He tells them that the generation of people who will witness the Last Days or End Times will actually witness this blooming, or rebirth, of the “fig tree”. Throughout recorded history, nations have always been typified by “types and figures” to describe them. Russia is the “bear”, America is the “eagle”, England the “lion”, and Israel is the “fig tree”. Jesus was saying the generation that sees ISRAEL re-blooming, whenever that would take place, that generation would be the one to see the return of Jesus as prophesied in Jeremiah 24.
Israel was destroyed in 70 AD. When did it “bloom” again? May 14, 1948 is the date that history records Israel’s Declaration of Independence when they were reestablished in their ancient homeland. How long is a generation? “The days of our years are threescore years and ten (70); and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years (80) yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Psalm 90:10
Many of the generation that were alive in 1948 are still alive and with us today. We are the people Jesus said would be alive on the earth when the Last Days would happen. That time is right now. The time of the “last days” Jesus referred to, is not “in the future” and it’s not “coming soon“. It is here right now. For the past 7 decades, all the major players have been taking the stage and playing the parts God said they would.
Another prophecy of these end times is the parable of the fig tree, found in Mark 11:12-14, “And on the next day, when they were come from Bethany, he [Jesus] was hungry. And seeing a fig tree afar off, having leaves, he came, if perhaps he might find any thing on it; and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said to it, ‘No man eat fruit of you hereafter forever’. And his disciples heard it.” He then proceeded on down to the city of Jerusalem, and into the Temple, whereon he flew into a rage, chased out the moneychangers, and called the Holy Place nothing more than a den of thieves. The disciples must have thought these were the actions of a madman. So then, try to imagine the disciples’ astonishment the next day, when on the same road back to Bethany, they passed right by that very same fig tree and, lo and behold, it had already withered up and died. They had to wonder about this man called Jesus, and why he would curse a fig tree. From Mark 11:20-24
Digging deeper, you will find that everything in the Bible, including the entire life of Jesus, has a divinely intended purpose or message. God does not waste his words, nor would Jesus have behaved in such a manner without signaling some meritorious meaning.
According to Jeremiah’s end time prophecy (Jeremiah 23:5) God says: “Behold the days come, said the Lord, that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and also prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” This scripture continues to say that in the days of the rule of the righteous Branch (when Jesus rules from the third temple in Jerusalem during the millennium) that Judah itself shall be saved, and Israel will dwell safely in their land. Of course, Jesus was the righteous Branch that was born from out of the stem of Jesse, as found in Isaiah 11. In the strictest definition, God is in reality the fig tree, with the righteous branch being Jesus, while the figs are the fruit of the tree. Israel is symbolically represented as the early blooms on the fig tree while the church is typified by the leaves that are on the branch. Later in Romans chapter 11 we find that the Gentiles have been grafted into the branch. So, when Jesus found no figs upon the fig tree on that afternoon and cursed the tree, he was figuratively laying out to the disciples that Israel still, as yet, had not born any fruit from the branch by the mere fact that their immediate generation simply did not recognize the epic “time of visitation” by their Messiah.
In Luke 18:31-33; Jesus had already instructed the disciples that he was going down into Jerusalem, and while there all the things prophesied concerning the Son of Man would be accomplished. He informed them that he would be mocked, scourged, and put to death; and yet rise up again on the third day. The symbolic paradigm acted out at the roadside fig tree was simply a public display of the rejection of Israel’s king, and that “Israel”, would suffer a historical curse in like manner as the fig tree that the disciples saw. Recall in Luke 12:56, that Jesus took to task the Scribes and Pharisees for not being able to discern the signs of the times. Israel should have anticipated that the season for Messiah’s appearance, the time for the harvest of good figs, was nigh at hand.
In Daniel 9:25-26 the prophet Daniel had foretold that the Messiah would appear in the rebuilt city of Jerusalem in exactly 483 years on the Hebrew calendar, after the commandment went forth from the Persian King Artaxerxes Longimangus, which was issued on March 14, in the year of 445 B.C. This commandment is recorded within the Bible in the book of Ezra, chapter 7, and again in most of the book of Nehemiah.
So then, on Palm Sunday, in the year of 32 A.D., every single Jewish believer should have been down at the Eastern Gate in anxious anticipation of giving a rousing welcome to the expected King of the Jews. Although there was a large crowd assembled to welcome Jesus into the city, spreading some palm branches before him, by and large Israel was very unimpressed with Jesus’ appearance. Even the disciples were not altogether sure who Jesus was. In Luke 10:23-24, Jesus said to them: “For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which you have seen, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard them.”
Many people throughout Israel’s history had desired to see the Deliverer, the Messiah King, but to no avail. They had never been afforded that wonderful opportunity. However, a particular generation was providentially destined to be witnesses of the Kings timely presentation. Even today, there is a generation that has a divine destiny to not see death, but to be transported away by the returning King, much in the same manner Enoch was ushered up into heaven, Genesis 5:24.
The Bible is accurate, right down to the very minutest detail. God expresses everything in a carefully designed pattern. Every single word, phrase, jot or tittle, has purpose. It is absolutely foolhardy to alter any of it, or to not consider any portion as intensely significant.
All of Israel should have been on hand that Palm Sunday to thank God for being faithful to his word. There indeed was a very devout man, who had discerned that the Messiah would come during his lifetime, and he had been individually promised via the Holy Spirit that he would see Jesus arrival before his death. “And, behold there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” Luke 2:25-26. Simeon had a direct promise from God that he would see the Messiah before he passed away. Simeon was not simply lucky, or rewarded for good behavior. Simeon was an old man by the time of the affixed timely event of the Virgin Birth, and he recognized fully that the anticipated date of the Messiah’s mission was only 3 short decades away and, therefore, was afforded the opportunity to live to see the time of Israel’s promised visitation by God. Simeon probably believed that Israel would accept their long-awaited King. He had no idea that Israel would kill the very one that was the lifeblood of the kingdom of Israel. He most likely died comforted in the notion that Israel was rejoined to their King. The generation that immediately followed Simeon should have expected Jesus.
Jesus’ very own generation should have had great expectation from among its own ranks that someone special from God would emerge. But the generation that failed to recognize him, later endured to see the total destruction of the beloved rebuilt city of Jerusalem. When Jesus approached the city on a high overlook, he wept over it. “And when he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes. Before long your enemies will build ramparts against your walls and encircle you and close in on you from every side. They will crush you into the ground, and your children with you. Your enemies will not leave a single stone in place, because you did not recognize it when God visited you.” Luke 19:41-44;
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no food; and the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk 3:17-18
Make no mistake about it, God’s promises to the prophet Jeremiah concerning the good basket of figs still remains intact. God still intends to glean a second harvest from the fig tree of Israel, but only after that fig tree (Israel) has again put forth its blossoms; producing the second harvest, another budding of the fig tree, later on in the growing season.
The leaves that sprouted forth from the Branch of the fig tree could have been for the healing process to be instilled in the souls of all the nations of this world. Had the church so conquered the nations in total, as did Jonah’s preaching to the Ninevites, Israel may have been spared the onslaught of Anti-Semitism. But alas, the church has not brought peace, but it has brought separation. The nations are all at enmity with the God of Israel and its grafted Christians! This is, at least in part, the reason for the need to heal the nations in the Post Millennial Kingdom of Israel.
Without question, the rebudding of national Israel in 1948, is the most powerful message that God has sent to the nations and peoples in the last 20 centuries, since the first visitation of the Branch. In restoring Israel once again in their homeland, God is raising up an ensign, or banner, which the nations of the world cannot ignore.
God says, “Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it. I am doing it to protect my holy name, on which you brought shame while you were scattered among the nations. I will show how holy my great name is—the name on which you brought shame among the nations. And when I reveal my holiness through you before their very eyes, says the Sovereign Lord, then the nations will know that I am the Lord. For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land. “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.” Ezekiel 36:22-25
God is about to undertake a great shaking in the land of Israel. The second crop of good figs is already budding on the Branch. The Satanic hosts which are staged to pursue Israel will lead the nations to their fates when God shakes the Fig Tree. “And the stars of Heaven fell unto the earth, even as a “fig tree” casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Revelation 6:13
The parable of the fig tree carries with it a promise just like the one made to Simeon. As Simeon was promised to not see death until he had seen the Messiah, so will this current generation, the rebudded generation of Israel, see all things fulfilled before it passes. “I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things take place.” Matt 24:34
Healing Nature of Figs
Figs occupy a high position among citrus fruits. Soft, sweet and pulpy, these delicious fruits promote health. Figs are pear-shaped hollow fruits, with sugary pulp and a large number of small seeds of golden color. Figs are variable in size and color. The ripe fresh fruits are juicy, wholesome and delicious. However, being highly perishable, figs are sold in the market in dry form. An analysis of fresh figs shows they contain a good amount of moisture and a little protein, fat and carbohydrate. Dry figs have a high nutritive value. Its most important food element is sugar which forms up to 74 percent of the whole fruit. Figs are excellent source of potassium, dietary fiber and manganese.
Potassium is very helpful to control high blood pressure; dietary fiber supports bowel regularity and helps to maintain sugar and cholesterol levels normal. Manganese helps to control infertility, weakness, heart disorders, memory loss, and muscle contraction.
Constipation: Taken either fresh or dried, the fig is regarded as a dependable laxative on account of its large cellulose content and its tough skin. The tiny seeds in the fruit possess the property of stimulating peristaltic or wave like movements of intestines which facilitates easy evacuation of feces and keeps the alimentary canal clean.
Asthma: Figs are considered beneficial in the treatment of asthma. Phlegmatic cases of cough and asthma are treated with success by their use. It gives comfort to the patient by draining of the phlegm.
Sexual Weakness: Figs can be beneficially used in the treatment of sexual debility. They can be supplemented by other dry fruits like almonds and dry dates along with butter. Their use has proved effective in such cases.
Weight Loss: Fiber and fiber-rich foods are helpful to lose weight. Figs are excellent source of dietary fiber and a great food for weight management.
Hypertension: Deficiency of potassium or low intake of potassium-rich foods can lead to high blood pressure. Figs are very good source of potassium which helps to control high blood pressure.
Figs are considered a restorative food which helps in quick recovery after prolonged illness, removes physical and mental exertion and endows the body with renewed vigor and strength.