But learn the parable from the fig-tree when its branch already becomes tender and puts forth the leaves, ye know that the summer is near.
Jesus has just described the darkening sun, the shaken heavens, and the gathering of His elect. Then He points His disciples to a tree in spring — so what does the budding mean, who is the sign for, and what is the "summer" that is near?
Days earlier in Mark's account, Jesus had come hungry to a fig tree and found only leaves. That act fixed the meaning of the tree before this parable was ever spoken.
It is clear that the Lord treats this tree as symbolic of the Jews. He had done so shortly before... Seeing a fig tree and being hungry, He came and found nothing but leaves. This was decisive. It was the season of figs, though too soon for gathering. So if none were there, the tree must have borne none... The fruitless Jews were responsible under the first covenant. They have lost their religious position, and they are no longer a power. They are scattered and swallowed up among the nations.
Here the tree is not withering but softening. Commentators read the same branch as a nation given a future it forfeited under the old order.
The fig tree is no longer barren, for the Son of Man being received, and the new covenant with Him, will change everything. These are early days, and we hear no more than the branch becoming tender and putting out leaves. The time of fruit will come, but for now they only know that summer is near... Grace will not fail to produce its proper results.
Commentators differ on what the leaves picture. One reads it as revived national life. Another sees a faithful minority appearing inside a nation that has turned away from God.
So the appearance of the godly remnant within the apostate nation of Israel will signal the near approach of the time of blessing for the nation.
Jesus calls this a parable, not just a comparison. So "summer" must mean more than warm weather.
The reference to the fig tree in verse 28 is a parable, and so we must expect a meaning deeper than what belongs to a simile or an illustration. ... The "summer" represents the age of millennial blessedness for the earth. When real national revival sets in for Israel, then indeed the appearing of Christ and the millennial age is very near.
The choice of tree also sets the pace of what follows.
The fig tree is once more chosen as a figure of Israel: "as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near." The fruit is there as soon as the leaves. The development is sudden indeed. Summer in this way seems to set in at once. Israel's hopes come to sudden fruitage.
The signs in this chapter belong to people living through those events. Commentators draw a sharp line between watching for signs and waiting for a Person.
These signs do not interfere with the church's constant waiting for the Lord from heaven. They are signs for a remnant in special relation with Judea, who will be awaiting the coming of the Son of Man. No signs of any kind were ever set before the church to measure how near Christ is to take her to Himself... she was to be expecting always, because she did not know the moment of His coming... For the Bride the one heavenly sign is the presence of the Bridegroom Himself.
Many writers see present stirrings among the Jewish people as leaves beginning to show, while warning against expecting the full restoration before Christ Himself comes.
Keep in mind that Scripture shows no complete return of Israel. There is no proper restoration until the Lord Himself restores, and that comes after His coming. Their return before that is only partial, and in unbelief. That state will be the cause of their last and worst trouble. But the budding again of the fig tree is the Lord's own special sign that He is at the door... No more significant sign can we have than this.
- Tree — The fig tree stands for Israel. Jesus found it full of leaves with no fruit and cursed it. The nation lost its religious position and its power.
- Bud — Under the new covenant the same tree softens and shoots. Commentators differ on what the leaves picture: national revival, or a godly remnant inside an unbelieving nation.
- Speed — On a fig, fruit comes with the leaves, so the first tender branch means the harvest is sudden, not slow.
- Summer — The season announced is the age of blessing for the earth. It comes with the appearing of Christ.
- Sight — These signs belong to those in Judea. The church has no signs to measure how near her Lord is — only the Bridegroom Himself to expect.
Thus also *ye*, when ye see these things happening, know that it is near, at the doors.
The Lord has just spoken of the tribulation and of the Son of Man coming in the clouds — then He points to a tree. The lesson is about reading the season: what is the tree, what are "these things," and what stands "at the very gates"?
Commentators read this as a parable, not a passing illustration. They identify the tree from the Lord's earlier use of it in this same Gospel.
The reference to the fig tree in verse 28 is a parable. So we must expect a deeper meaning in it than we would find in a comparison or an illustration. The fig tree surely stands for Israel, as we saw when reading Mark 11. Its budding branches therefore show the start of national revival among that people. The "summer" stands for the age of millennial blessing for the earth.
Earlier in Mark, the Lord found that same tree fruitless and it withered from the roots. Here the picture turns around.
So here the fig tree falls under no curse. It does not wither away from the roots. Israel, who knew nothing but misery and ruin while trusting her own righteousness, now leans on the Messiah in repentance and faith. From that point on, mercy flows like a river.
The first shoots are not yet fruit. They mark a small, God-fearing group emerging inside a nation that has turned away from God.
When the fig tree puts out its tender leaves, we know that summer is near. In the same way, the appearance of the godly remnant inside the nation of Israel that has turned from God will signal that the time of blessing for the nation is close.
The ESV reads "he is near"; older translations read "it is near, at the doors." Commentators tie that nearness to the kingdom of God. They argue that the fall of Jerusalem cannot be the answer, since the kingdom in its present hidden form had already come long before that.
"These things" were to be the signs not only that "redemption" was near, but that "the kingdom of God" was at hand. … Now in what sense could the kingdom of God be near when Jerusalem was destroyed? The kingdom of God, in the hidden form it has at present, had already come long before Jerusalem fell. In that sense no one could call it near then. But in the sense of its open display in millennial glory, it will be near when these first signs of Christ's second coming begin to happen.
It is striking that the Lord gives visible signs at all. Commentators contrast this with the way Christians live.
Here the Lord graciously gives them signs in a way He never did for us of the church, who are called to walk by faith, not by sight. … Right after the tribulation, upheavals follow above and below. Then the sign of the Son of Man appears in heaven. All the tribes mourn, and they see Him coming to the earth. And His angels gather His chosen ones… for He will reign over them in the promised land. The heavenly saints have their own place. Here our Lord is speaking about saints of Israel.
Writers see two applications here. The main one looks ahead; the second touches our own time.
When all these things happen in these last seven years, and above all in the last 1,260 days, they will know that everything promised to Israel is at hand. There is another application: that we now see Israel like a budding fig tree, with signs of new national life, and in this a sign of the times. That reading is surely not wrong. It tells us the end is near.
That second reading leads to simple arithmetic for believers today.
For Israel has once again become a nation holding her own land. Other nations around her, for years almost unheard of and of little weight, have become aggressive and are pushing to the front for recognition. This great surge of national ambition tells us that the kingdom of God is near. If the millennial kingdom is near, the coming of the Lord for the Church (the Rapture) is at least seven years nearer.
- The tree. The fig tree stands for Israel. Its budding branches mark the start of national revival among that people.
- The turn. The tree once cursed and withered falls under no curse here. Israel, ruined by trusting her own righteousness, leans on the Messiah, and mercy flows like a river.
- The leaves. The first sign is a godly few appearing inside a nation that has left God. Not fruit yet, but proof the season has changed.
- The door. What stands so close is not the fall of Jerusalem but the kingdom of God in open, visible glory at the coming of the King.
- The watch. The Lord gave these signs to disciples who would need them. Christians walk by faith, not by sight. Yet if the kingdom is near, His coming for His own is nearer still.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall in no wise pass away, till all these things take place.
Jesus has just compared the signs of the end to a fig tree in spring. Now He sets a limit, and two phrases decide what it means: "this generation" and "all these things."
The word can mark a stretch of years. It can also describe a kind of person. One writer shows what happens when readers allow only the first meaning:
Strauss and De Wette took "generation" in the sense of a period of time, and so presented the Lord as fallible. Others, such as Meyer, A. Wright and Swete, keep their "orthodoxy" while still explaining the word as a period of some thirty to thirty-three years. They ignore a real difficulty: when would such a generation begin? The Lord's contemporaries belonged to different generations according to their age. These writers also have to assume that such a generation began with His ministry, without anything in the Gospels to support it. Origen and Chrysostom long ago took "generation" in its moral meaning, and later commentators have followed them. That is how it must be taken. Scripture uses it that way in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 32:5, Psalm 24:6, Psalm 73:14, Jeremiah 8:3), in the Gospels (Mark 9:19, Matthew 17:17, Luke 16:8), and elsewhere in Acts 2:40 and Galatians 1:4.
So the verse describes a type of people, not a countdown. And two such lines run on together:
The word "generation" in verse 30 has a moral sense, not a literal one. It means people of a certain type and character, just as the Lord used the word in Mark 9:19 and in Luke 11:29. The unbelieving generation will not pass until the second coming, nor indeed will the generation of those who seek the Lord. The coming of the Lord will mean the passing away of the evil generation.
The limit covers the whole list Jesus has just given. That list ends with His return in glory.
Notice the phrase "all these things." It runs from the first troubles down to the last, and on to the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. So "this generation" here cannot mean a mere period of thirty years, or a man's lifetime. The phrase means what it often means in Scripture: a line of people marked by certain moral features, quite independent of any short limit of time. So the same generation that crucified the Lord of glory is going on still, and will go on until He comes again in the clouds of heaven.
The word marks a people, not a period. So the survival of that people is the proof:
The perverse and unbelieving generation of the Jews will not pass away until all these things are done. They may indeed live scattered among the nations, with no land of their own, but as we know no nation has ever absorbed them.
The verse names an end point. When the last of "these things" arrives, that line ends. Something else takes its place.
The force of the word is moral. It marks out not the nation of Israel as such, but that Christ-rejecting race which refused their Messiah then, as they do still. This will go on until all these solemn threats of judgment come true. The Lord does not say that this generation will last only until the temple falls or the city is taken. He says it will not pass away until all is fulfilled. He had already spoken of the later trampling of Jerusalem, right down to the end of Israel's trials at His appearing. He says this generation will not pass away until then. Only then will grace form a new generation, the generation to come.
- Character — "This generation" describes a kind of people, not a block of years. Scripture uses the word that way in Deuteronomy 32:5 and Mark 9:19.
- Scope — "All these things" runs from the first troubles to the Son of Man coming with power and glory. Thirty years cannot hold that.
- Proof — The unbelieving people of Israel are scattered and landless, yet no nation has absorbed them. They are living evidence that the Lord's word still stands.
- End point — The limit is not the fall of the temple or the capture of the city. That generation ends only when Christ appears and all is fulfilled.
- Replacement — What follows is not extinction. Grace will form a new generation. And the line of those who seek the Lord runs on too, until He comes.
The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my words shall in no wise pass away.
The Lord has just given His disciples a long prophecy, ending with His own coming again. Now He stamps it with a guarantee. He measures His words against the most solid things a person knows — the sky above and the ground below. His words, He says, will outlast them both.
This sentence is the Lord's signature at the bottom of the prophecy He has just given.
The seal Christ has attached to this prophecy is unusually solemn: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." No doubt this is true of all His words. But He spoke it about this prophecy in particular. So let us study it with full regard for the warning sentence by which the Lord has guarded this special scripture. The globe we walk on will pass away. The heavens will roll up like a scroll. But not one syllable of what the Lord Jesus said here will fall to the ground unfulfilled.
Why say it here at all, when it is true of everything He ever said? One writer answers by pointing at us.
The Lord's words will not pass away till all these things are fulfilled. We know this must be true of all the Lord's words. But He states it here about His second coming, because our hearts do not believe that God will ever step into the course of this world.
Another writer, on the same saying in Luke's Gospel, weighs the Lord's words against creation.
Luke's short account of the Lord's prophecy ends with solemn words. In them He asserted the truth and reliability of His words. Every word of His lips has something in it, something that must be fulfilled. It is more stable than the heavens and the earth. So we get the striking thought that the words of His lips last longer than the works of His fingers.
One writer points to what stands next to this sentence in the chapter.
Here too we find Him saying that He does not know the day and hour of His second coming. Yet in the previous verse we hear Him say what would be blasphemy from the highest created being: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."
One writer notes how far this phrase reaches in Mark's Gospel.
"My words." In this Gospel it is not only a question of His words, but of His deeds as well.
That reach extends to the page in front of us. What He spoke aloud we now hold in writing.
This much the Lord Jesus surely meant when He said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." Such words are fitted to bring great comfort to our hearts, since they are the word of the Son of God Himself. And the written word is surely equal in authority to His spoken word.
If nothing He said can fall, then His severest sayings are as permanent as His kindest ones.
I am not giving you my opinions on so solemn a subject; I would not do that, for my opinions would be worth no more than yours. I am giving you the words of the Son of God, and His words are truth. He said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." Have you believed them? His words are spirit and life — those that warn of judgment to come just as much as those that tell of the love that saves.
The result for the believer is confidence.
How sweet this is for us to think about! The child of God knows he has a foundation for his faith more stable than heaven or earth. The Lord speaks of His own words; the word of the Lord endures for ever. However much men may try to detract from the word of God, by His grace may we hold fast all God has given to us.
- Seal — the saying is the Lord's guarantee on the prophecy He has just given. Not one syllable of it can fail.
- Speaker — from the highest creature such a claim would be blasphemy. Only One with divine authority can set His own words above heaven and earth.
- Scope — in Mark it takes in His deeds as well as His sayings. The written word carries the same authority as the spoken.
- Sting — nothing He said can fail. So His warnings of judgment last as long as His promises of love.
- Standing — He said it because our hearts doubt that God will ever step into this world. Faith answers by resting on ground firmer than the earth itself.