Matthew 24:32

Now learn a parable of the fig tree. — As in so many other instances (comp. Notes on John 8:12; John 10:1), we may think of the words as illustrated by a living example. Both time and place make this probable. It was on the Mount of Olives, where then, as now, fig trees were found as well as olives (Matthew 21:19), and the season was that of early spring, when “the flowers appear on the earth” and the “fig tree putteth forth her green figs” (Song Song of Solomon 2:11). And what our Lord teaches is that as surely as the fresh green foliage of the fig tree is a sign of summer, so shall the signs of which He speaks portend the coming of the Son of Man.