Matthew 21:19. A single (lit., ‘one') fig tree. A solitary one.

By the way side, where it was customary to plant such trees, as the dust was thought to help the productiveness.

But leaves only. Mark adds: ‘for the time of figs was not yet.' The usual explanation is that the fruit of the fig tree precedes the leaf, hence it promised fruit. A recent traveller in Palestine (T. W. Chambers) says this is not the case, and gives the following explanation: ‘The tree bears two crops, an early ripe fig which is crude and without flavor and valueless, and a later fig which is full of sweetness and flavor, and highly esteemed. All trees bear the first, only good ones have the second. Now the tree our Lord saw had not the second, for the time of that had not yet come, but it had not even the first, for it had nothing but leaves, and the lack of the first was sure evidence that the second would also ‘be wanting.' The solitary tree was a figure of Israel set by itself; the leaves represented the hypocritical pretensions to sanctity, the barrenness the lack of real holiness. Applicable to false professors in every age.

No more shall there be fruit from thee, etc. Peter (Mark 11:21) calls this a cursing of the tree, i.e., a condemning to destruction. A miracle of punishment, both a parable and prophecy in action: a ‘parable,' teaching that false professors will be judged; a ‘prophecy' in its particular application to the Jews. There is no evidence that this affected private property. The miracle is a proof of goodness and severity. (In the Old Testament the fig tree appears as a symbol of evil.)

And immediately the fig tree withered away. On Tuesday morning it was found to be ‘dried up from the roots' (Mark 11:20). The application to the Jewish people is unmistakable. Both the actual desolation of the land and the judgment on the people are prefigured. The curse was for falsehood as well as barrenness. The true fruit of any people before the Incarnation would have been to own that they had no fruit, that without Christ they could do nothing. The Gentiles owned this; but the Jews boasted of their law, temple, worship, ceremonies, prerogatives, and good works, thus resembling the fig tree with pretensions, deceitful leaves without fruit. Their condemnation was, not that they were sick, but that, being sick, they counted themselves whole (condensed from Trench and Witsius).

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Old Testament