In Joel chapter 1 the Land of Israel is being ravaged by a giant swarm of locusts.

They are “eating” everything, too, all vegetation.

These little pests are described by Joel as “palmerworms, cankerworms, and caterpillars.” These terms are either slightly different forms of the insects, or maybe refer to different stages in their life cycle, growth.

There are so many of them that God calls them a “nation!” (In fact, they do prefigure a Nation that will some day invade Israel, Judah as well! What Joel here presented as prophecy is now partly history, too!)

But for today (the emphasis for this Lesson) is found in verse 7. “He (meaning the locusts collectively) hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree: he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.” God is here talking, Joel 1:7.

Look what God calls Israel, “my fig tree!”

And students reading here today, all the way through the Bible God’s People (the Jews) are symbolized by this special little tree, the fig tree!

It was in fact the only tree mentioned (by name) in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:7. “And the eyes of them both (Adam and Eve) were opened, and they knew that they were naked (having sinned); and they sewed FIG LEAVES together, and made themselves aprons.”

Yes, consistently throughout the Scriptures right up to the Ministry of Jesus … as in Matthew 21 and Matthew 24 and Mark 11 and Mark 13 and Luke 13 and Luke 21.

Wow!

“MY FIG TREE,” says God!

I have some advice for the Nations of the world, do not harm God’s “fig tree!”

The verb “barked” in Joel 1:7 means “splintered, snapped” with the subsidiary meaning “to be angry!”

It’s Genesis 12:1-3 all over again. Where God dramatically promises to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse that little Land and her people.

By the way, in reality I LOVE FIGS!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell