Celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles 

 7 Fruits of Israel: Figs 

Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe  

Deuteronomy 8: 7-8 "For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and date honey.”  

The fig tree is a symbol of God’s people. First, it is a symbol of Israel and because we Christians are grafted in (Romans 11), the message applies to us as well. 

The fig tree ripens three or four times a year. Therefore, it becomes a symbol of persistence.

Jesus said that He would build His church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)

In Luke 13, Jesus told a parable concerning the fig tree. Luke 13: 6. “He also spoke this parable: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. "Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, `Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?'  But he answered and said to him, `Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it.  `And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.' '' 

This parable of a barren fig tree illustrates a God’s patience, mercy and encouragement in enabling us to bear spiritual truth. He is patient and grants us time to change, to repent and bear fruit. If we are not fruit bearers, we are doing nothing to advance the Kingdom. 

Many are confused by Jesus' action in Matthew 21:18-19: “Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again.'' And immediately the fig tree withered away.” The incident illustrates what James shared in James 2:17: “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”  

 God has spoken the same truth through the prophet Jeremiah. Though the message was specifically given to Israel before the Babylonian captivity, it resonates with us today. Jeremiah 24:1-10: “The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad.''  Then the Lord said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?'' And I said, "Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.''  

“Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: `Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans.  `For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. `Then I will give them a 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 to Me with their whole heart.  `And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad' surely thus says the Lord `so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.  `I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. `And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.' “ 

This is a time for honest self-reflection. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 11:31 “1.  For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.” Each of us must ask the question, in which basket am I?”