The Budding Fig Tree

"Now when these things begin to occur, look up

and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.

And he told them a parable:  "Look at the fig tree and all the trees;

When they put forth their buds and come out in leaf, you see for

yourselves and perceive and know that summer is already near.

Even so, when you see these things taking place, understand

and know that the kingdom of God is at hand."

Luke 21:28-31

It is quite generally agreed that the fig tree in Scripture 

stands for Israel. Thus when Christ speaks of the budding of the 

fig tree, He refers to the renaissance of the national life of the Jews.

Surely no one with eyes to see and ears to hear can deny that

the Jewish nation is being revived in a marvelous and miraculous

manner, not to some new location, but in the land that God gave

to Abraham and to his seed by an everlasting covenant.

The people that have been scattered to the ends of the earth

for nearly nineteen centuries, and have been without a home

and a temple and a sacrifice, and have endured untold 

persecutions precisely as predicted by Moses more

than 3,000 years ago-that same people have been given

back their ancient homeland, and are returning to it by scores

of thousands annually, and the land that has lain waste and desolate

for centuries is once more blossoming as the rose.

"And I will bring back the exile of My people Israel, and they

shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant

vineyards and drink the wine from them; they shall also make

gardens and eat the fruit of them."

Amos 9:14

In light of these things can anyone honestly say that the fig tree

of the Jewish national life is not budding and putting forth leaves?

Another interesting fact showing the budding of the fig tree lies

in the renaissance of the Hebrew language. A number of years ago

a well known Jewish leader, E. Ben Yehuda, started a movement in

*Palestine to revive the Hebrew language in the daily speech of the people.

The campaign spread rapidly and today pure Hebrew is the 

national language of the Jews throughout the length and breadth of

Palestine.  This is all the more remarkable because of the fact that

during the long centuries of their dispersion the Jews spoke the

languages of the lands where they were living. 

But now at last when they have returned to the homeland they are

once again conversing in the speech their forefathers used in

the heyday of their national life.

Many books in the classical language of the Old Testament are

being published in Palestine.  The results of the agricultural researches

are being put out in circulars, leaflets, and books, in pure Hebrew.

The language that has been for centuries estranged from the soil is

once more becoming, "redolent of the fields and vineyards."

Of the most interesting and remarkable things connected with the

growth of the Jewish national life in Palestine is their observance of

the Sabbath Day.  The entire history of the Jewish people in the pages of

the Old Testament is bound up with their observance of the Sabbath.

Next to their worship of the one true God, this was perhaps the

chief distinguishing feature that set them apart from 

the surrounding nations.

But during the long dispersion of the chosen people among the

Gentile nations, the institution has fallen more and more into decay.

Today, in America and other lands, the Jew is compelled by necessity

to keep open his place of business on Saturday.

But in Palestine at the present time the Sabbath is being observed

by the Jews with much of its old time strictness.

The Shofar or Ram's horn is blown at sunset on Friday.

It is a call to observe the Sabbath for the twenty-four hours following.

In Jerusalem some ten of these rams' horns sound out the signal

as the sun sinks below the horizon.  And the Jews with one accord

heed the call whether they are orthodox or liberal or free-thinkers.

The Sabbath in Jerusalem is certainly a day of rest.

Not even milk is delivered, by the Jewish dairies, until after

sunset on Saturday.  All Jewish bus lines stop. If we wanted to go

to the downtown district on Saturday, it was necessary to walk or hire

a carriage from one of the few Arab cabbies that were in the district.

On the Jewish Sabbath the synagogues are thronged with worshipers.

Who can witness this striking manifestation of the revival of the religious 

 life of the Jewish nation and fail to realize that the fig tree is now

putting forth an abundance of leaves?

The Jews are going back to the land of their forefathers in unbelief,

precisely as foretold.  The veil still rests upon their hearts and minds as

it did in the days of the Apostle Paul.  But the budding of the fig tree

indicates that the time of the Lord's return in glory is not far distant.

Then Zechariah's prophecy will be fulfilled with the same precision

that the predictions of Isaiah. Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are being

brought to pass in Palestine today.

Zechariah pictures the poignant grief that will come upon the

people of Israel as they realize that Jesus of Nazareth Who was

crucified on Calvary,  Whose blood cleanses all from sin, was none

other than their long-promised Messiah.

In Zechariah Chapter 12: 10 we read:

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants

of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications: and they shall look

upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him,

as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him,

as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."

As we see the Jews returning to Palestine by hundreds of thousands;

as we behold the land beginning to blossom as the rose; as we witness

the reviving of the Hebrew language as the daily speech of the people;

as we examine the money of the country and find it stamped with an

olive branch and declaring that Palestine is the "land of Israel";

as we mark the strict observing of the old Jewish Sabbath-as we

see all these things coming to pass before our eyes today-

we cannot fail to realize in the light of Luke 21:31 that

"the kingdom of God is nigh at hand."

Yeshua's Divine Presence

Yongsung Kim

Korean artist

"The Budding Fig Tree"

Excerpt from the book,

"Rebuilding Palestine According To Prophecy"

(1935)

By George T.B. Davis

(1873-1967)

*Palestine is a regional area in the Near East which encompasses the

biblical lands of Judea and Samaria.  After being away for almost

2,000 years, the Jews were given a national homeland there

by the Balfour Declaration in November, 1917.

In 1922, the League of Nations gave Great Britain the mandate over

Palestine.  Only three years after the end of WWII,  Great Britain relinquished

her mandate and on May 14, 1948 the nation of Israel was born, thus

fulfilling the words spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

"Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a

land be born in a day? Or shall a nation be brought in a moment?

For as soon as Zion was in labor, she brought forth her children."

(Isaiah 66:8)