A Parable of the Fig Tree

2023-06-03

Our Savior Jesus Christ, after speaking to four of His disciples regarding His return, enumerated certain events to happen before His coming kingdom. There would be false Christs, wars, famines, diseases, earthquakes, persecution, and defiling of the Temple in Jerusalem. These events would signal His coming.

He then tells of “a parable of the fig tree.” Consider Matthew 24:32-35. This parable is not a special story He told, but rather something in nature that demonstrates a truth. When you see the leaves appear on the tree, it is evident that summer has come. Like clockwork, year after year, the leaves come, therefore summer weather is right around the corner. It is the same with these events He spoke about on the Mount of Olives.

The Lord said, “So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors” (Matthew 24:33). What is the “it” that “is near”? Well, we know that in a parallel passage, He explicitly said what: “So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Luke 21:31). Also, recall that the Lord was answering the disciples’ questions: “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3).

Herein lies a difficulty: “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” (Matthew 24:34). Which generation? All that generation has died, and many generations have come and gone since then. Perhaps this passage is speaking about things that all happened in the past, one could argue. This really spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. However, compare the following parallel passages:

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. (Luke 21:20)

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) (Matthew 24:15)

When you put the accounts together, you see that the Lord Jesus was speaking of both near-term events and distant events. This is why the Gospel authors Matthew and Mark included something like this to differentiate: “whoso readeth, let him understand.” The people reading the words on the page would have a different understanding than those who had yet to see the destruction of Jerusalem. The abomination of desolation was yet future in John’s day after the fall of Jerusalem (Revelation 13). Also, were there any gathering of the saints in the first century? Was this witnessed by any in the first century: “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:27)? Clearly, this does speak of the Lord’s return which is yet future.

So what does it all mean? When you see the events enumerated by our Lord, His coming is near. Who is “this generation” in “This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled”? It is whatever generation that witnesses all those events. The first century generation did not witness all those things. “This generation” is a generation that has yet to come, or possibly even this one. It remains to be seen.

While there was a preliminary fulfillment of prophecy in the first century, the ultimate fulfillment has yet to come.