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 Lk. 13:6, p. 276), in Luke's parallel passage (Lk. 21:29), he reported Jesus as using the fig tree and all the trees to make His point in this parable. Therefore, Jesus is simply stating that just as you 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 has just described.