Lesson of the fig tree

[Rose2020]

In Matthew Ch 21 v.18 to 22 it seems Jesus cursed the fig tree rather unfairly.

If what he says in verse 21-22 is the case, can a Christian pray for destruction and be granted it? I do not ever pray for anyone's demise.

I would appreciate some clarification.

[Purple Knight]

• figs are fertilized by wasps that lay their eggs inside the fruit

Eeeeeewwww.

I just looked it up and this is absolutely true. I knew about the sex differences of fig trees, about the parasitic nature of fig trees, but I actually did not know this.

https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/202 ... ouve-eaten

Yes, a wasp has most likely died in every fig you've eaten
See, figs aren't technically a fruit, but rather an inverted flower. So they bloom on the inside of what's called the syconium. This means that all of the reproductive parts of the plant are located inside the pod.

Now, the flower needs to be pollinated in order to reproduce, but how to get the pollen inside the fig?

Enter, the accommodating fig wasp. The tiny female wasp enters the edible fig and lays her eggs. She then dies, hence the wasp-inside-fig story. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement that has evolved over thousands of years. There are over 900 species of fig wasps, responsible for pollinating the world's 900 species of figs. The fig gets pollinated and the fig wasp has a safe place for its larva to feed and grow.

Now I really hope the Bible is fiction simply because of the numerous times they mention figs.

On-topic, it's a metaphor, so I would say the person who wants perfect parity with reality is equally picking at straws as the apologist who insists it does have perfect parity with reality. Maybe you can find that parity but... It's a tree. It got withered as a metaphor - to serve a particular purpose, that purpose happening to be a metaphor. A tree can also be cut down to serve any other purpose. You can't be unfair to a tree or a bug; they are not sentient, and even if you're religious, they don't have souls.

[We_Are_VENOM]

In Matthew Ch 21 v.18 to 22 it seems Jesus cursed the fig tree rather unfairly.

If what he says in verse 21-22 is the case, can a Christian pray for destruction and be granted it? I do not ever pray for anyone's demise.

I would appreciate some clarification.

I think that, from what I read, Jehovah Witnesses nailed it correctly (for a change).

From my understanding of the scripture in question...

Israel is symbolically referred to as figs throughout scripture.

Now, figs can be eaten.

Jesus was expecting to eat some figs, but the figs had no withered (or was not ripen) yet.

So, in other words, the figs were not ready yet.

So, this is symbolic to Jesus expecting Israel to be ready for him (as they were expecting a Messiah anyway), and now that he is here, they are not ready yet.

So, Jesus is disappointed, and curses the tree (cursing Israel).

This is also symbolic, in general, to Jesus' second return, where he warns us in the Gospel that we won't know the time or day when he returns, but that we should be ready for him when he gets here.