The Parable of the Fig Tree: Matthew 24:32-36

By George E. Meisinger

Chafer Theological Seminary

George E. Meisinger is dean of Chafer Theological Seminary and teaches in the Old and New Testament departments. He received a Th.M. in Old Testament Literature and Exegesis from Dallas Theological Seminary, and a D.Min. in Biblical Studies from Western Seminary. He also pastors Grace Church in Huntington Beach, California.

Jesus used a parable, that speaks of what a fig tree does in springtime, to illustrate what happens before His Second Coming. In Matthew 24:32 Christ says that when the fig tree’s branch becomes tender, putting forth leaves, “You know that summer is near.”

Some have said that the budding of the fig tree speaks of the re-establishment of Israel as a nation (1948), seeing it as a precursor of Christ’s return. Several things work strongly against that interpretation:

• Nowhere does Matthew 24–25 speak of Israel’s return to Palestine. In fact we do not find Israel’s return anywhere in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus’ Olivet Discourse, in its flow of future historical events, has moved beyond Israel’s return portraying the Jews already in the land.
• Furthermore, Luke says in his parallel account “look at the fig tree, and all the trees” (21:29). Not just one tree is in view, but many. Thus Christ refers to trees in general and what they do in the spring, not to a particular fig tree that pictures Israel.
• In Matthew 24, the budding fig tree, rather than picturing Israel, depicts eleven signs that Jesus reveals in 24:4–24. Nine begin to occur in the first half of the Tribulation and two more appear in the second half.

Thus what we see unfolding is that as new leaves each spring signal the return of summer, so the signs Christ reveals will signal His return.

In Matthew 24:33 Jesus applies the fig tree to his disciples saying “so you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, at the very doors.” His immediate audience did not live to see the fulfillment of all He reveals. That remains for those alive during the Tribulation.

What will this future group of Jewish believers “see”? To what does “all these things” refer? They denote “all” the signs of the first and second half of the Tribulation, including the “Abomination of Desolation” (24:15–22) and the wonder-working false prophets and christs (24:23–26).

Thus, the budding of the fig tree illustrates signs in the Tribulation and we may not say it buds until all the signs are taking place. This not only rules out 1948 as a sign of the Tribulation and Second Coming, but all else before the Tribulation as being the budding of the fig tree. The fig tree has not yet started to bud because “all these things” have not yet started to happen.

Yet when the tree does begin to bud, that is, when all the signs do appear, “Know that it is near, at the very doors.” The third gospel puts it this way, “know that the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 21:31).

So what does the fig tree teach us about the end of the age? When all the things Christ revealed in 24:1–23 begin to happen, it is like new leaves putting forth shoots on a fig tree in spring. As the new leaves indicate summer is around the corner, so the signs mean that Christ’s Second Coming is indeed near. Matthew 24 neither says nor implies that Israel’s re-establishment in the land in 1948, or at any other time, indicates the end of the age. What Matthew does say is that the indicators of His return are eleven signs.

Christ then identifies the generation who will experience the signs of Matthew 24:34. One of the important clauses to interpret in the verse is “this generation.” What is a “generation”? The term may denote:

• A family or clan of people descended from a common ancestor, that is, a race of people. Yet we do not have a clear use of this notion in the New Testament.
• A generation of people in the sense contemporaries born and living about the same time (Matthew 11:16; Acts 2:40).
• Since we naturally associate the idea of an age with a generation of people, we find the term sometimes used of a period of time, the people falling into the background (Ephesians 3:21; Colossians 1:26).

Because Jesus speaks of Jews who see all the signs of the end times, it is best to understand “generation” as those contemporaries living during the Tribulation. “This” generation, then, is the Jewish contemporaries coexisting during Daniel’s 70th Week; they see all eleven signs of Matthew 24:4–24. In other words, only those who see all the buds of the fig tree, or the signs, are the antecedent of “this generation.”

The tribulational generation “will by no means pass away,” emphasizing its existence throughout the seven year period; events do not annihilate them. Jesus does not mean that each and every Jew survives. Over half of them do not, yet that generation as a whole goes through the entire seven years “till all these things are fulfilled.”

Christ next guarantees His teaching saying that “heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away” (24:34). And, finally, He makes a concluding announcement regarding “that day and hour” for the benefit of his disciples (24:36). The Lord’s point is that no one knows when the fig tree will bud, thus no one knows (before the budding) when Christ’s coming is “at the very doors.”

In Matthew’s context the word “days” occurs four times (24:19, 22 [2x], 29), each time in the plural to denote the days of the Tribulation. Now for the first time “day” is singular denoting the Second Coming (24:36). It is a day when God turns out the celestial lights on planet earth (24:29), the Shekinah glory brilliantly appears flashing like lightning to announce Christ’s Second Coming (24:30, cp. vs. 27), and the angels harvest earth (24:31).

When does this “day” happen? “No one knows, no, not even the angels!” is Christ’s teaching. We need to remind ourselves, however, that once the tribulational generation is in Daniel’s 70th Week, we cannot say “no one knows.” This is because those people will know the exact number of years (Daniel 12:7; Revelation 11:9, 11; 12:14), months (Revelation 11:2; 13:5) and even days (Revelation 11:3; 12:6).

They will know because of divine revelation. Daniel 12:5–13 indicates that though the angels do not know now, they will then; they can count. The countdown begins when antichrist signs a treaty with Israel (Daniel 9:27).

Thus when Jesus says “no one knows,” He refers to people living before the countdown begins. People before the Tribulation cannot know. Accordingly, before the Tribulation it is impossible to set dates for the Tribulation, or Second Coming. Such attempts are mere conjectures.

To sum up: Jesus teaches that as spring buds on fig trees are signs announcing summer, so the eleven signs experienced by a future, presently unknown, generation of contemporary Jews are to them indicators of Christ’s near-by (within seven years) Second Coming. All signs occur in not before the Tribulation.