By Eugene Garner

JEREMIAH - CHAPTER 24

A VISION: TWO BASKETS OF FIGS

    The LORD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the LORD, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 3 Then said the LORD unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.

    1. This vision occurred after Nebuchadnezzar's deportation of Jehoiachin and the choice young men of Judah (princes, carpenters, smith, etc.) to Babylon in 597 B.C., (29:1-2; 2 Kings 24:10-16).
    2. The vision was a common means of communicating a divine message to the prophets, (comp. 1:11-14; Amos 8:1-3).
    3. IN this vision two baskets of figs were seen setting before the temple of Jehovah.
      a. One basket was filled with very GOOD figs, like those that ripen first, (vs. 2a; comp. Mic. 7:1, Hos. 9:10; Nah. 3:12).
      b. The other basket contained VERY BAD figs - so bad that they were not fit to eat! (27:19; comp. Isa. 5:4-7).
    4. When the Lord asked Jeremiah what he saw, he mentioned the extreme contrast between the VERY good and the VERY bad figs.

    4 Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 5 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. 6 For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

    1. Like the good figs, God can regard those first captives departed from Judah with approval; He has sent them to the land of the Chaldeans FOR THEIR OWN GOOD, (vs. 5; comp. Nahum 1:7; Zech. 13:9).
    2. He has a gracious, far-reaching plan for their future, (vs. 6).
      a. His eyes will rest upon them for good, and He will bring them back to their own land; - establishing and prospering them there - planting them and not pulling them up, (vs. 6b; 1:10; 12:15; 29:10; 31:28; 32:41; 33:7).
      b. Through the furnace of affliction He will refine for Himself a pure people!
    3. He will give them a heart to know, honor and serve Him, (vs. 7; 31:33; 32:39-40; Deut. 4:29; 30:6; Ezek. 11:19; 36:26-27).
      a. Shocked into repentance, they will acknowledge Jehovah as their Lord - committing themselves, in single-minded worship, to His holy name, and abandoning every false god, (comp. I Sam. 7:3).
      b. They will be His people, and He will acknowledge Himself as their God, (Zech. 8:8; Jer. 29:12-14).
      c. This prophecy awaits the Second Coming of Christ for its ultimate fulfillment; this is more than a promise of national restoration; it involves such spiritual regeneration as will result in their loyal commitment to Jehovah and to His covenant.

    8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt: 9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.

    1. Zedekiah and his regime, with those who remain in the land, and those who have fled to Egypt, will experience the full weight of God's anger because of their hopeless degradation, (vs. 8; 39:5-9; Ezek. 12:11-13; Jer. 44:26-30).
      a. They can be NO KINGDOM PEOPLE, because they are rotten to the core!
      b. For them Jeremiah has the most bitter scorn; there is no need to imagine that pure metal can be refined from such slag as they are, (6:26-30).
    2. God will give them up to be tossed from kingdom to kingdom because of their sin, (vs 9a; 15:4; 29:18; 34:17).
    3. Wherever God drives them, they will be a reproach and a proverb - objects of ridicule and cursing, (vs. 9b; I Kings 9:7; Psa. 44:13-14; comp. Isa 65:15).
    4. They will be consumed by sword, famine and pestilence until the land of promise is liberated from their corrupting ways, (vs. 10; comp. 21:9; 27:8; Isa 51:19; Ezek. 5:12-17; Matt. 23:38).
    5. Those who remained in Jerusalem, following the deportation of 597 B.C., would have regarded THEMSELVES as the "good figs."
      a. Surely they were superior to those who had been led away; after all, had not God SPARED them from exile?
      b. But God's ways and thoughts are SO DIFFERENT from those of sinful, self-centered men! (Isa 55:9).
      c. Those taken to Babylon would escape the terrible hardships awaiting the sinners that remained in Jerusalem and Judea.
      d. And, they would form a remnant that God, in His own time, would bring back to the covenant-land to rebuild the nation.