FRAMEWORKS:
Jeremiah 24: Two
baskets of figs
[Preliminary
Comment: This short chapter contains a simple prophetic
vision of two baskets of figs, one good and one bad. Veery simply
the good ones are people who will go into exile and will learn
while the bad ones are the people God sees who are past redemption
and so will perish in the coming invasion.]
v.1,2
Post-Jehoiachin [597BC] the Lord gives Jeremiah a picture of baskets
of figs
v.1
After
Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and
the officials, the skilled workers and the craftsmen of Judah
were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon, the Lord
showed me
two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord.
v.2
One
basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early;
the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could
not be eaten.
v.3
Like 1:11,13 The Lord asks Jeremiah what he sees
v.3
Then
the Lord
asked me, ‘What do you see, Jeremiah?'
‘Figs,'
I answered. ‘The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are
so bad that they cannot be eaten.'
v.4-7
He explains what the good figs are
v.4
Then
the word of the Lord
came to me:
v.5
‘This
is what the Lord
, the God of
Israel, says: “Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles
from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of
the Babylonians.
v.6
My
eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them
back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down;
I will plant them and not uproot them.
v.7
I
will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord
. They will
be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to
me with all their heart.
v.8-10
He explains what the bad figs are
v.8
‘“But
like the bad figs, which are so bad that they cannot be eaten,”
says the Lord
, “so will
I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials
and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this
land or live in Egypt.
v.9
I
will make them abhorrent and an offence to all the kingdoms of
the earth, a reproach and a byword, a curse and an object of ridicule,
wherever I banish them.
v.10
I
will send the sword, famine and plague against them until they
are destroyed from the land I gave to them and their ancestors
Continue
to Chapter 25