Symbolism of Figs in Bible
God gives good gifts. When he gave Israel to the Jewish people, it was not just any old piece of land. God says in Deuteronomy 8, ‘The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land… a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey’. There are seven species of food mentioned here, which would be abundant in the land promised to his people.
The fig is a fruit that crops up again and again in the scriptures, because God does nothing without purpose. The plant becomes a symbol of prosperity, wellbeing, and security. Along with the vine, to sit under the plentiful shade of your own fig tree is the epitome of safety, peace and wellbeing in many Biblical passages.
The fig tree is also symbolic of Israel itself. It often symbolized the health of the nation both spiritually and physically. Hosea 9:10 says, ‘When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.’
In the New Testament, Yeshua uses the symbolic fig tree, firstly in the calling of Nathanael who was ‘sitting under a fig tree’ like a ‘true Israelite’ in John 1:48-50. Later he curses the fruitless fig tree, representing unfruitfulness (Mark 11:12-21), and then uses the fig as a metaphor of how we should recognise the signs of the times (Matthew 24:32).
Today, Israel is full of fig trees, huge, well developed, shady and mature. They produce two harvests of fruit a year. It is possible to consider that the flourishing of figs today in Israel is a Messianic sign in itself. The people are back in the land, the fig trees are abundant and plentiful, and the nation is now waiting for restoration to come.