His teaching at Bethany was heavy with accents of doom and judgment. The blasting of the fig tree is a difficult incident, since it involved Jesus’ dealing destructively with an inanimate object. It seems out of character. Perhaps the incident is more like an acted parable or dynamic sign, such as the OT prophets performed to illustrate and enforce their message (see, for example, Jer 19 and Ezek 4; 5). The fig tree is a well-known metaphor for the nation of