These aren't the only references, for those wishing to nit pick.
I found this article and wanted to share it, just so those who think that this idea of "Israel is the fig tree" is some brand new concept by off the wall Christians. I assure you, I am not off the wall in any way. I really didn't put this for argument, as we all seem to know what the non-fig tree believers believe...and you have so stated adamantly in many threads. Please don't highjack this thread likewise? Please? This is just background so you see where we who do believe the Bible speaks of Israel as the fig tree.
Nevertheless, if you only work from the fig tree itself, then you do know the time of year that Christ will return.
I found this article and wanted to share it, just so those who think that this idea of "Israel is the fig tree" is some brand new concept by off the wall Christians. I assure you, I am not off the wall in any way. I really didn't put this for argument, as we all seem to know what the non-fig tree believers believe...and you have so stated adamantly in many threads. Please don't highjack this thread likewise? Please? This is just background so you see where we who do believe the Bible speaks of Israel as the fig tree.
Nevertheless, if you only work from the fig tree itself, then you do know the time of year that Christ will return.
http://focusonjerusalem.com/israelandthefigtree.htmlIn Matthew 24 : 32; Jesus used the descriptive analogy of a "fig tree", to instruct his disciples about how we could discern the timeliness of his return to Israel.
"Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:"
The fig trees of the middle east region are a fruit- producing tree or shrub. The size of the tree, and the 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.
In Mark 11:13 Jesus, after leaving Bethany, which is just to the east of Jerusalem; saw a fig tree off in the distance, and noticed the leaves that were thereon; and eagerly
looked forward to partaking of the fruit of it as he neared it; yet when finally arriving at the tree, he found there was no fruit upon it; for the time for figs was not yet in season.
Upon seeing that the fig tree produced no fruit, Jesus cursed the tree, with the disciples standing by observing.
He then proceeded on down to the city of Jerusalem, and into the Temple, whereupon he flew into a rage, chasing out the moneychangers, and calling the holy place nothing more than a den of thieves.
The disciples must have thought these actions were the actions of a madman. Afterall, what sane person talks to a tree and pronounces a curse upon it for heaven's sake?
I believe that everything in the Bible, and in the entire life of Jesus has an divinely intended purpose or message. I don't think God wastes his words, nor would Jesus have behaved in such a manner without it having some meritorious meaning.
But, try to imagine the disciples astonishment, when out on the same road back to Bethany, they pass right by that very same fig tree, and lo and behold, it has already withered up and dried. Why would Jesus curse a fig tree?
During the first dispersion of Israel, God sent a vision to the old prophet Jeremiah, of two baskets full of figs. One of the baskets had good figs while the other basket contained bad figs.
Jeremiah 24:5-7: Thus saith 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 an 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.
Here, in these verses, God likens the captive exiles of Israel to the those good figs in the basket. The Jewish remnant which was still left in Jerusalem, God likens to the bad, or evil figs retained in the second basket.
I should point out that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon rose up against Israel and took captive all the children of Israel except those princes who were left as mere puppet rulers in the holy city. The year of Israel's defeat by Babylon was 606 B.C. Then nineteen years later in 587 B.C. Nebuchadnezzar returned back to Jerusalem and destroyed the city and executed King Zedekiah.
Remember those dates and the differential of the years as you read further in this newsletter. I have a point that I want to make clear later concerning that time interval.
Anyway, God promised through Jeremiah that he would return Israel once again into the land, and afterwards that Israel shall no more be uprooted from the promised land; and that He would write his law in their hearts.
This promised of course dream has never been fulfilled during the long history of Israel. It is still a future eventuality. But the fact has been historically established that Israel has forever become prophetically typecast, in a figurative sense, as a fig tree.