“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.” (Matt. 24:32-33)
Students of prophecy often identify the Lesson of the Fig Tree in Matthew 24 as a reference to Israel. While the fig tree is sometimes used to symbolize Israel, this is not one of those times.
The fig tree is one of the last trees to bud in the spring, so when it begins to get leaves people know that summer is right around the corner. There’ll be no more false starts, no more cold snaps. Summer is now certain and soon. Jesus used this analogy to tell people who’ll be on Earth at the time that when they see the things he described beginning in Matt. 24:15, they’ll know that His coming is really near.
Earlier in Matt. 24 He had told them that wars and rumors of war will be characteristic of the age (Matt. 24:6), and that the earthquakes and famines they’ll notice will be like the beginning of birth pangs, mild and infrequent at first but more intense and more frequent as the end approaches (Matt. 24:7-8). Then there’ll be increased antisemitism, apostasy, false prophets and deception, in the midst of which the Gospel will be preached in all nations (Matt. 24:9-14). But when they see the Abomination of Desolation, a man standing in the Temple telling people he’s God, things will begin to get serious fast and the countdown will begin on the most terrifying period of time in the history of man. This is what He compared to the fig tree getting leaves. When they see that, they know that His return is certain and soon. That’s the lesson of the Fig Tree.
First of all, you don’t need the Lesson of the Fig Tree to place Israel in Matt. 24. If you read the passage carefully, you’ll see that Jesus gave three crystal clear signs that there would be a generation of Old Covenant following Jews in Israel at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, and that’s the generation He’s speaking to.
The first clue is the Abomination of Desolation, something that hasn’t happened since Jesus gave the warning. It will be seen standing in the Holy Place. (Matt. 24:15) That’s the Jewish Temple, and it means that there’ll be a Temple standing in Israel again before the Great Tribulation begins.
The second clue is that the people he’s telling to flee are in Judea, the name by which the Biblical land of Israel was known during the time of the Lord’s visitation. (Matt. 24:16)
And the third clue is to pray it won’t happen on a Sabbath. (Matt. 24:20) Only observant Jews would be worried about this because they can only walk 1000 paces on the Sabbath, not nearly far enough to even get out of town, let alone into the mountains.
There are lots of other places where the Bible promises that the nation Israel will exist in its Biblical lands at the End of the Age as well, but the primary one is in Ezekiel 36-37.
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