God disposes of His rebellious people (Jer. 24:1–10)

In 597 B.C., the Babylonians deported King Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah or Coniah) along with many of the nobles and key citizens, leaving only the poorer people to work the land (2 Kings 24:14–16). It was the beginning of the end for Judah, and no doubt Jeremiah was greatly distressed.Knowing that His servant needed encouragement, the Lord gave him a vision of two baskets of figs sitting before the temple of the Lord. One basket held very good figs, the kind that ripened early in the season, and the other basket contained rotten figs, which nobody could eat.

I. Description of the Figs (24:1–3)

1 The LORD showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 3 Then the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”

A. One day the Lord showed Jeremiah two baskets of figs that had been placed in front of the temple.

The vision is one means by which the Lord communicates to his prophets (cf. 1:11, 13; Am. 7:1). The good and bad figs have overtones of good and bad harvests, and therefore covenantal blessing or the lack of it. This vision is of crucial importance for Jeremiah’s message.

As in ch. 21, the exile is now a certainty; the issue is only how people will respond to God’s decision to punish. The good figs are those who accept the need to go through the Babylonian devastation of the land and the exile itself (5).

B. What do you do with rotten figs?

You reject them and throw them away! What do you do with tasty good figs? You preserve them and enjoy them! God promised to care for the exiles, work in their hearts, and one day bring them back to their land.

There was no future for King Zedekiah, who had succeeded Jehoiachin, or for the nobles that gave him such foolish counsel, but there was a future for a godly remnant that would seek the Lord with all their hearts.

II. Meaning of the Good Figs (24:4–7)

4 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 5 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. 6 For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7 Then I will give them a 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 to Me with their whole heart.

A. If inhabitants of Jerusalem were asked to say which basket represented the favored people, they would have answered that they were the good figs.

To their surprise, God identified the good figs as those in exile. Their deportation was not an accident but a part of God’s redemptive purposes. The future of the nation was going to be with them, not with those in Jerusalem.

By means of the baskets of figs the Lord was announcing a remarkable theological concept. His evaluations are not based on people’s goodness but on his sovereign grace. It was a dramatic reminder that God chooses differently from the way we choose (see 1 Cor 1:26–29; cf. Joseph’s statement in Gen 50:20).

B. God promised his protection to those in exile.

One day he would also bring them back to their own land. The verbs in v. 6—build, tear down, plant, uproot—are the same verbs found in 1:10, though in a different order. In words that come close to the “new creation” language of 2 Cor 5:17, God said he would give them “a heart to know me.” There is no exact parallel to this expression in the OT although Deut 30:6; Jer 31:33; 32:38–39; Ezek 11:19; 36:26 point toward the same idea.

The statement further implies that the only way a person can know God is for God to give that person a heart to do so.

III. Meaning of the Bad Figs (24:8–10)

8 ‘And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the LORD—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9 I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”

A. The curse the Lord pronounced on the people should have frightened them.

He declared that he would make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms on the earth. He would also make them a reproach and “byword”.

They would also become an object of ridicule and cursing wherever he banished them . There was no place they could flee where they would be able to escape God’s wrath.

B. It should have been clear from these words why the exiles were the “good figs.” They were not included in the indictment.

When Jeremiah proclaimed the message he learned from the baskets of figs, his audiences must have been disbelieving. They had written off the exiles as objects of God’s wrath and considered themselves to be the fortunate recipients of his blessings. They were not going to allow their theology to be upset by words from a prophet of God.

The Lord did have a future in store for his people, but not the future anticipated by the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The NT continues the same thrust that the most unlikely ones—the poor, lame, downtrodden, sinners, exploited—are the objects of God’s grace rather than those we might expect—the priests, scribes, and Pharisees.