THE GOOD FIGS AND THE BAD FIGS

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH

The Prophet of Judah’s Downfall and Restoration

DENUNCIATION OF JUDAH, Jeremiah 1-33

4. The Impending Judgment, Jeremiah 24-29

12. What was the lesson of the two baskets of figs?

Jeremiah 24:1-10

THE GOOD FIGS AND THE BAD FIGS

After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken Jeconiah [who was also called Coniah and Jehoiachin] the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah [along] with the craftsmen and smiths into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, the LORD showed me [in a vision] two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD.

One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are the first to ripen; but the other basket had very bad figs, so rotten that they could not be eaten.

Then the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad figs, very bad, so rotten that they cannot be eaten.”

Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the captives of Judah, whom I have sent from this place into the land of the Chaldeans.

For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land; and I will build them up and not overwhelm them, and I will plant them and not uproot them.

I will give them a heart to know Me, [understanding fully] that I am the LORD; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.

‘And as for the bad figs, which are so rotten that they cannot be eaten,’ surely thus says the LORD, ‘so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and those who live in the land of Egypt.

I will make them a focus of ridicule and disappointment [tossed back and forth] among all the kingdoms of the earth, a [notorious] disgrace, a byword, a taunt and a curse in all places where I will scatter them.

I will send the sword, famine and virulent disease among them until they are consumed from the land which I gave to them and to their fathers.'”

F.B.Meyer
on
Jeremiah 24:1-10

12. What was the lesson of the two baskets of figs?

TWO BASKETS OF FIGS

These two baskets represent the different, fates that overlook the people at the fall of Jerusalem. The good figs in the first were those who were taken to Babylon with Jeremiah. It was for their good that they were transplanted, Jer_24:5. How often we are led into captivity for the same reason. With bitter regrets we turn our backs on our early home, the scenes of our youth, and the faces we have loved. Sometimes we are carried into a strange land, where we find it impossible to sing the Lord’s song. But in the absence of all creature aid we find God drawing near to substitute restoration for destruction, building up for pulling down, and planting for uprooting.

Have we profited by our discipline? If so we are as the ripe figs of June, sweet to the taste of the owner who searches beneath the leaves of profession. Let those who congratulate themselves on their immunity from the troubles that have overtaken others, ponder Jer_24:8-10. In the light of Heb_12:9, immunity from chastisement is not to be sought after. The residue of the Jews drifted to their hurt. See Jer_41:1-18; Jer_42:1-22.

By Philippus Schutte

New Covenant Israelite! "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;  Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee."  Rom 11:17 -18