Gleanings from The Parousia

Impending Fate of the Jewish Nation

The Parable of the Barren Fig-tree

by J. Stuart Russell

Luke 13: 6-9: He also spoke this parable: “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit on it, and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, ‘Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?’ But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it, and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.’”

The same prophetic significance is manifest in this parable, which is almost the counterpart of that in Isaiah 5, both in form and meaning. The true interpretation is so obvious as to render explanation scarcely necessary. Its bearing on the people of Israel is most distinct and direct, more especially when viewed in connection with the preceding warnings. Israel is the fruitless tree, long cultivated, but yielding no return to the owner. It was now on its last trial: the axe, as John the Baptist had declared, was laid to the root of the tree; but the fatal blow was delayed at the intercession of mercy. The Saviour was even then at His gracious work of nurture and culture; a little longer, and the decree would go forth—“Cut it down; why does it use up the ground ?”

No doubt there are general principles in this, as in other parables, applicable to all nations and all ages; but we must not lose sight of its original and primary reference to the Jewish people. Stier and Alford seem to lose themselves in searching for obscure and mystical meanings in the minor details of the imagery; but Neander gives a luminous explanation of its true import: “As the fruitless tree, failing to realize the aim of its being, was destroyed, so the theocratic nation, for the same reason, was to be overtaken, after long forbearance, by the judgments of God, and shut out from His kingdom.”