Figs and God's People Israel
The fig fruit develops as a hollow, fleshy structure called the syconium that is lined internally with numerous unisexual flowers. The tiny flowers bloom inside this cup-like structure. Although commonly called a fruit, the syconium is botanically an infructescence, a type of multiple fruit. The small fig flowers and later small single-seeded (true) fruits line its interior surface. A small opening or ostiole, visible on the middle of the fruit, is a narrow passage that allows the specialized fig wasp, Blastophaga psenes to enter the inflorescence and pollinate the flowers, after which each fertilized ovule (one per flower, in its ovary) develops into a seed. At maturity, these 'seeds' (actually single-seeded fruits) line the inside of each fig. See Ficus: Fig fruit and reproduction system.
The edible mature syconium stem develops into a fleshy false fruit bearing the numerous one-seeded fruits, which are technically druplets.[9] The whole fig fruit is 3–5 centimetres (1.2–2.0 in) long, with a green skin that sometimes ripens toward purple or brown. Ficus carica has milky sap, produced by laticifer cells. The sap of the green parts is an irritant to human skin.[10]
Habitat[edit]
The common fig tree has been cultivated since ancient times and grows wild in dry and sunny locations with deep and fresh soil, and in rocky locations that are at sea level to 1,700 metres in elevation. It prefers relatively porous and freely draining soil, and can grow in nutritionally poor soil. Unlike other fig species, Ficus carica does not always require pollination by a wasp or from another tree,[11][12] but can be pollinated by the fig wasp, Blastophaga psenes to produce seeds. Fig wasps are not present to pollinate in colder nations, e. g. the United Kingdom.[13]
The plant tolerates seasonal drought, and the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean climates are especially suitable to it. Situated in a favorable habitat, mature specimens can grow to considerable size as large, dense, shade trees. Its aggressive root system precludes its cultivation in many urban locations, yet in nature this characteristic helps the plant to root in the most inhospitable locations. Having a great need of water, it is mostly a phreatophyte that extracts the needed water from sources in or on the ground. Consequently, it frequently grows in locations with standing or running water, e. g. in valleys of rivers and in ravines that collect water. The deeply rooted plant searches for groundwater in aquifers, ravines, or cracks in rocks. With access to this water, the tree cools the hot environments in which it grows, thus producing fresh and pleasant habitat for many animals that shelter in its shade during periods of intense heat.
JESUS cursed the fig tree because it had produced no fruit. In the same way that the people, rulers, and teachers of the law had not been able to produce fruit for the kingdom of GOD that reflected GOD and his goodness and ways, the tree that Jesus cursed was a good example of the people and the people's fruitlessness.
Because one fig is essentially a bunch of flowering fruit that grows within a hollow space when fertilized, GOD'S people were really to be considered much the same, a people set apart and uncorrupted by the outside world yet sustained by GOD to produced good fruit from within.
Sanctified people are set apart and declared holy by GOD. If we are to be a people held together by the hollow fleshy structure of GOD'S Ways and GOD'S Will, we must first confess that we are intended to be HIS, held and shaped by HIM and sustained and upheld by HIM.
Thank you Jesus for making a way for us to retain our place as GOD'S set apart people. Amen!
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