THE FIG

The first time that the fig appears is the Garden of Eden story, when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit-that according to some Jewish sages was the fig-and they opened their eyes literally and metaphorically and discovered that they were naked, as written:

"And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves girdles. (Genesis 3:7)
The fig leaves helped them to dress themselves, before they were exiled from the Garden.
The next time that we meet the fig is in the desert, while the people of Israel wanted to eat and in the wilderness they didn’t find any fruits, one of them was the fig, as we can read:

And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? It is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.'"(Numbers 20:5)
This fruit with another six can be found in Israel, the Promised Land, as you can see in the next passage from Deuteronomy:

"Land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey ;"( Deuteronomy 8:8).
One of the famous prophecies of Jeremiah is dealing with two baskets of fig tree. The first basket with the good figs is a sign for those who will return from the exile to the Promised Land, while the second is a symbol for those who are not found in Babylon. They are the bad figs as written in Jeremiah 24-

" After Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the skilled workers and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the LORD. One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten. Then the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “Figs,” I answered. “The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad they cannot be eaten.” Then the word of the LORD came to me: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. “‘But like the bad figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the LORD, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt. I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a curse and an object of ridicule, wherever I banish them. I will send the sword, famine and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave to them and theirancestors.’” (Jeremiah 24:1-10).

With those verses above we can learn the fig tree could be a sign for a sin or a sign of hope. For me I hope that all of us would eat from the good figs. They are a medicine from the enemy as we can see in 2 Kings 20:7. They are also a sign of the ideal peace of the Israelites and I do wish also for the rest of the world as written in 1 Kings 5:5-

"And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beer-Sheba, all the days of Solomon. "(1Kings 5:5)
Have a blessed week and may peace will be in your heart and in your actions as well, Eli

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