The parable of the fig tree and all the trees (Matt.  24:32; Luke 21:29).

The fig tree and its growth is used by the Lord in the great prophetic chapter,

Matthew 24:

`Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and

putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: so likewise ye, when

ye shall see all these things, know that it (margin He) is near, even at

the doors' (Matt. 24:32,33).

Luke 21, consistently with the peculiarly Gentileward trend of its

gospel, adds the reference concerning `the times of the Gentiles' (verse 24)

and adds to the fig tree `all the trees' (verse 29).  We are therefore

instructed to observe the movements that will take place in the nation of

Israel, but not only so, to observe also the movements that will take place

among the Gentiles too.  These movements are beginning to take shape before our

eyes, and while the hope of the Mystery is unrelated either to the prophecies

of Israel or the Gentiles as such, yet seeing that the dispensation of the

Mystery must take place in time, and before the hope of Israel is realized, we

can say with solemn emphasis that `Now is our salvation nearer than when we

We read in Amos 7:14 that the prophet was `a gatherer of sycomore fruit',

and an examination of this claim will yield an important lesson concerning

Israel, their sufferings, and ultimate blessing.  The R.V. reads `a dresser of

sycomore trees'.  The LXX uses the word knizo `to scrape, to make to itch, to

nettle'.  It may not seem, at first sight, a subject worthy of such importance

as to hold up our exposition, but there is more here than appears on the

surface.  Theophrastus, the successor of Aristotle, in his History of Plants,

tells us that the sycomore fruit `does not ripen till it is rubbed (knizo) with

iron combs, after which rubbing it ripens in four days'.  Hasselquist, a

Swedish naturalist, says: `It buds the latter end of March, and the fruit

ripens in the beginning of June; it is wounded and cut by the inhabitants at

the time it buds, for without this precaution, they say, it will never bear

The Fig, the Vine and the Olive are employed to set forth the peculiar

privileges of Israel (Judges 9:8 -13), the Fig probably stands for Israel's

national privilege.  The Sycomore has a leaf like the mulberry (Gk. moron) and

fruit like the fig (Gk. sykon), hence the name in the Greek New Testament  is

sykomoros.  The point that Amos seems to make here, and which has a typical

teaching, is that Israel, like the sycomore, will not bear ripe fruit apart

from great tribulation.  Already, we learn from Amos 1:3 that Damascus had

`threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron', and when we remember that

`tribulation' is derived from the Latin tribulum `a threshing sledge for

separating grain from the husk, a wooden platform studded with sharp bits of

flint and with iron teeth' (Lloyd's Encyclopaedic Dictionary), the figure

begins to take a deeper significance.

Further, the Lord says `For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the

house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall

not the least grain fall upon the earth' (Amos 9:9).  Because the word

translated `grain' is once translated `one small stone' in 2 Samuel 17:13, some

have thought that Amos 9:9 should be translated `not the smallest stone', but

this is unnecessary and untrue.  It is the very object of sifting to get rid of

`small stones' and leave the grain behind, and Amos's simile loses all point if

the language be changed.  In 2 Samuel 17:13 any word meaning `a small particle'