Note 13 at Mt 24:32: Many have interpreted this fig tree as being the nation of Israel and, therefore, the rebirth of the nation of Israel as being this sign of the end that Jesus spoke of. While Israel was spoken of in parabolic form as a fig tree (see note 1 at Lu 13:6), in Luke's account of this illustration, he reported Jesus as using the fig tree and all the trees to make His point in this parable (Lu 21:29). Therefore, Jesus was simply stating that just as we can tell when summer is near by the budding of trees, so we will be able to tell when His return is near by the occurrence of the events He had just described.