Throughout the Scriptures the fig tree is used as a symbol of Israel. Jesus spoke the “Parable of the Fig Tree” (Matthew 24:22-25) to the disciples as part of His response to their questions concerning when He would return to establish His Kingdom on earth. The parable states that when the fig tree blossoms again, the generation that witnesses that event will be the one that will be living when the Lord returns.

Just the day before as Jesus and His disciples were walking on the Mount of Olives, they came across a fig tree that was barren. Jesus pronounced a curse upon it, and it withered (Matthew 21: 18-19). This was a symbolic prophecy that because the Jewish people (represented by the fig tree) had rejected Jesus as their Messiah (and were therefore barren), their nation would cease to exist. Then, the next day, Jesus reminded them of the tree and said when it blossoms again (when the nation is re-established), the Lord will return. That prophecy, like the prophecy of the Millennial Days covered in a previous post “History of the World”, indicates we are living in the season of the Lord’s return.

“I (Jesus) will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me. Hosea 5:15

Come, let us (Jews) return to the Lord; for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before him.” Hosea 6:1-2

This amazing rarely considered prophecy in Hosea indicates His return is soon. The passage says the Messiah will return to Heaven and remain there until the Jewish people acknowledge their guilt in rejecting Him and earnestly seek His face — this will happen during a time of severe trouble for them (Great Tribulation). The Messiah will be gone for “two days.” He will return on “the third day” and will raise up the Jewish people, refreshing them like a spring rain. As God calculates time, it has been “two days” since Jesus ascended to Heaven, for to God, “one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a day” (2 Peter 3:8 and Psalm 90:4).