Recently, after watching a video on the internet about the rapture of the Church, the great tribulation and the second coming of Jesus, I became interested in the parable of the fig tree, and in the words Jesus said straight after this parable: “Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.” (Mat.24:34) In this video the author said that the fig tree symbolises Israel, and that on the basis of Psalm 90 a generation lasts at most 80 years, so the coming of Jesus Christ must happen before the country of Israel turns 80.

As I pondered Jesus’ words “this generation will by no means pass away“, the Spirit of God said to me: “Many make mistakes in understanding the Scriptures because they look at Israel or at the time of some event, but to understand the Scriptures rightly, you need to look at Jesus.”

The Scriptures testify of Jesus

On the day of Jesus’ resurrection, two of His disciples were walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus, discussing what had happened, when suddenly Jesus Himself drew near and joined them. Jesus asked them: “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk?” They began to tell Him about what had happened to Jesus, who was a prophet mighty before God, and how the chief priests had condemned Him to death and crucified Him, and in conclusion they said: “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luk.24:21)

As you can see, they were focused on Israel and its liberation, and they saw Jesus as a mighty prophet who was supposed to deliver them from the Roman yoke. I think each of us gets into situations like these disciples. We are focused on solving some problem, and Jesus is merely a means of solving it. But the Lord loves us so much that He doesn’t want us to burden ourselves with problems and with solving them, because that would make us as gloomy and irritable as these disciples.

Let’s see how He solved their problem: “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luk.24:25-27) Jesus shifted their focus from worldly problems — in this case the liberation of Israel — to Himself. And what was the result? “And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?'” (Luk.24:32) (By the way, notice that the word “heart” is singular, so most likely the disciples were husband and wife.)

Every time the Spirit of God opens our eyes to Jesus in the Scriptures, our heart begins to burn and overflow with the love of God! So when you read any passage of Scripture, ask the Lord to reveal Jesus and His glory to you there. When Jesus spoke about the Holy Spirit, He said: “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” (Jhn.15:26)

This generation

So which generation was Jesus talking about when He said: “this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place“? By the way, this verse is often used by so-called preterists as proof of their theory that everything Jesus spoke of in chapter 24 of the Gospel of Matthew, including His coming, already happened in AD 70, when the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. But they are just as mistaken as the author of the video I mentioned at the beginning, because they look not at Jesus but at times and seasons. That is exactly why, when the disciples asked Jesus: “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”, He said to them: “It is not for you to know times or seasons…” (Act.1:6-7)

The thing is that, like the disciples walking to Emmaus, they were focused on the time and on the kingdom of Israel, not on Him. Jesus also turned their gaze to Himself: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Act.1:8)

Very often believers are pressed into witnessing, and the centre of it is not Jesus, but the witnessing itself and good works. Jesus said that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes, and then the Holy Spirit Himself will witness through you. Jesus told the disciples: “But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak. But whatever is given you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit.” (Mar.13:11)

So which generation was Jesus talking about? Straight after Jesus said that this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place, He went on: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” (Mat.24:35) So the key to understanding this generation lies in His own words.

Every time Jesus used the word generation (Greek genea), He always spoke of one and the same thing: “an evil and adulterous generation”, “an evil generation”, “O faithless and perverse generation”. In chapter 23 of the Gospel of Matthew, which comes before chapter 24, Jesus described this generation very vividly and colourfully, and at the end He summed up: “Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.” (Mat.23:36)

Indeed, everything Jesus said in Matthew 23 happened to the unbelieving religious generation in the year 70, when the temple was destroyed; and everything Jesus said in Matthew 24 will happen to the same unbelieving generation, only just before His second coming.

In the parable of the persistent widow, who symbolises the Jews during the great tribulation, Jesus asked: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luk.18:8) The answer is “No”, because Jesus Himself said that this faithless, or unbelieving, generation will not pass away, or in other words will not disappear, until all this is fulfilled, including His second coming. And the Lord will save God’s elect not because of their faithfulness, but because of His own faithfulness to the covenant with Abraham.

The parable of the fig tree

As He was returning to Jerusalem early in the morning, Jesus was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it, but found nothing on it but leaves. Then Jesus said to the tree: “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.” Immediately the fig tree withered away. (Mat.21:19) What does the fig tree symbolise, and why did Jesus curse it?

As we have already said, it is better to look at Jesus in order to understand the meaning of what is said. If we look at Jesus in this story, we will see that He was hungry. He felt the same when He sat by the well in Samaria while the disciples went into the town for food. There at the well Jesus met the Samaritan woman, and after talking with her He said to the disciples: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” (Jhn.4:34)

What work was Jesus talking about? A little further on, in John chapter 6, Jesus answered the Jews: “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (Jhn.6:29) That is God’s will — that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus was satisfied by the Samaritan woman believing in Him.

The fig tree in our case gave Jesus no food and produced no fruit of faith, so it symbolises the faithless generation. It is also written that Jesus found nothing on it but leaves. There is a biblical principle that when a word appears for the first time in Scripture, a revelation about that word is hidden there, for Jesus is the Word of God and He is also the First and the Last.

The word leaves first appears in the book of Genesis: “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.” (Gen.3:7) Adam and Eve covered their nakedness with fig leaves, but the Lord covered their nakedness with the garments of a slain lamb. Garments in Scripture symbolise righteousness (Rev.19:8 KJV). Fig leaves are one’s own righteousness, the righteousness of the law, while the garment taken from the skin of the sacrifice is God’s righteousness, the righteousness of faith. Adam and Eve made the fig leaf coverings for themselves, but the tunics of skin the Lord made for Adam and his wife, and He Himself clothed them. (Gen.3:21)

Paul wrote about unbelieving Israel: “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” (Rom.10:3) Their own righteousness comes from the law and from unbelief, while God’s righteousness comes from faith in Jesus. (Rom.10:5-6) Paul also wrote to the Galatians, who had begun keeping the works of the law, about the righteousness of the law: “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.'” (Gal.3:10) That is why Jesus cursed the fig tree, the unbelieving generation.

Now that we understand what the fig tree and its leaves symbolise, we can understand the parable about it: “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.” (Mat.24:32) In other words, Jesus is telling His disciples to recognise the approach of the kingdom of God by how the faithless generation develops. In our case, these are the religious leaders of Israel. The leaves coming out are their attempts to establish their own righteousness, rejecting the righteousness of God.

The epistle to the Hebrews says of such people: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened… if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” (Heb.6:4-6) Believers in Jesus are often frightened with this verse nowadays, but it speaks of Jewish apostates who will reject the prophecy of the two witnesses of Revelation chapter 11 during the time of Jacob’s trouble and return to sacrifices in a newly built temple. This is what Paul, in his epistle to the Thessalonians, called the falling away (Greek apostasia): “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition…” (2 Ths.2:3)

As the day of the Lord draws near, let us look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For our faith is not the result of our efforts, but the fruit of the Holy Spirit, produced by the Lord Himself in us, through us and for us. When Jesus becomes the centre of our life and the source of our blessings, our heart will burn like the disciples’ hearts, and our soul will abide in peace and rest. Jesus has already done everything for us and has Himself become our fullness. In Him we are righteous, holy, healthy, blessed and loved, because as He is, so are we in this world! (1 Jhn.4:17)