JEREMIAH
24
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2003 James Melough
24:1. “The Lord
shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the
Lord, after that Nebuchadnezzar 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.”
After the death of the good
king Josiah, the people had made his son Jehoahaz king, but Pharaoh took him
prisoner to Egypt where he died, and made his brother Eliakim king, and
changed his name to Jehoiakim. Shortly thereafter
Babylon gained supreme power, and Jehoiakim became subservient
to Nebuchadnezzar, but after three years he rebelled and was carried prisoner
to Babylon, but seems
to have been released, for it is recorded that he died in
Jerusalem. His son Jehoiachin (also called Jeconiah) then
became king, but after reigning only three months, he and his family
surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, and with others were carried to Babylon, where
after a 37 year imprisonment, he was released and promoted to the highest
place of honor among the other captive kings, see 2 Ki 24:8-16; 25:27-30. It
was apparently shortly after the carrying of Jehoiachin and the princes and
chief tradesmen to
Babylon that Jeremiah was given the vision of the two fig baskets, the year
being 597 BC when Zedekiah began to reign.
24:2. “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.”
“... naughty” means very
bad: most foul: spoiled: rotten: moldy: completely inedible. There were
three crops of figs, one in June, another in August, and another in November,
the best being that which ripened in June and being the ones referred to here,
and from which the offering of firstfruits was to be presented to God.
24:3. “Then said
the Lord unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, figs; the good figs,
very good; and the evil (bad), very evil (bad), that cannot be eaten they are
so evil (bad).”
24:4. “Again the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying,”
24:5. “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.”
The two baskets of figs, of
course, represent the two divisions of Judah at that time: the good figs
representing the godly remnant; and the bad figs, the apostate mass of the
people.
In chapter 38:2 just prior
to the fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah warned Zedekiah that all who surrendered to
the Babylonians would live, but those who refused to surrender would die, and
this present verse indicates that among those taken away prisoner in the
earlier sieges of 605 and 597 BC were some of the godly remnant, including
Ezekiel, and Daniel and his three friends, whom God was actually saving from
death by having them carried as prisoners into Babylon, a remnant of them in
fact returning to Palestine at the end of the seventy years captivity.
This is an example of the
truth that, “... all things,” even the seeming adverse, “work together for
good to them that love God,” Ro 8:28.
24:6. “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 will plant them, and
not pluck them up.”
Another translation of this
verse reads, “I will see that they are well-treated and I will bring them here
again. I will help them and not hurt them: I will plant them and not pull
them up,” - Taylor.
This was partially fulfilled
in the return of the remnant at the end of the foretold seventy years, but the
ultimate fulfillment will be in the deliverance and return of the believing
remnant at the end of the Great Tribulation.
24:7. “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.”
Again, this had a partial
fulfillment in the return of the remnant at the end of the seventy years, but
complete fulfillment awaits the end of the Great Tribulation.
24:8. “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:”
Relative to eating, it is to
be remembered that the purpose of eating is to get satisfaction, so that the
inedibility of the bad figs represents the truth that the apostate mass of
Judah afforded God no satisfaction. And as rotten figs are fit only to be
thrown away, so had apostate Judah fitted herself for the same end: God must
cast them away, His implement of destruction being Babylon.
Keeping in mind that Babylon
represents the world of false religion living in rebellion against God while
preserving the sham of serving Him; and Egypt, the world of business and
pleasure also living in rebellion against Him, the spiritual picture woven
into the fabric of the literal is that those apostates who had fled to Egypt,
and those who would be carried into Babylon, represent those who defy God even
in the midst of all their money-making and pleasure-seeking, and the
preservation of an outward travesty which they call worship. All such will
perish just as surely as did the apostates of Jeremiah’s day.
“... them that dwell in the
land of Egypt” were those who had been carried there as captives by Pharaoh
Necho, or who may have gone there voluntarily in order to escape the
Babylonians.
24:9. “And I
will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their
hurt, to be a reproach (a shame) and a proverb (a by-word), a taunt (a
mockery) and a curse in all places whither I shall drive them.”
While this applied in a
measure to the apostate generation of Jeremiah’s day, the ultimate application
is very clearly to the Diaspora that finds them still scattered among
virtually every country on earth, and from which only a believing remnant will
be regathered at the end of the Great Tribulation to inherit millennial and
eternal blessing.
That scattering has been for
their “hurt.” Where ever they have fled, the sword has followed them,
shedding their blood like water, the survivors being the objects of hatred,
contempt, and cursing of those amongst whom they dwell, all of this to be
experienced by them in yet fuller measure in the impending Great Tribulation.
24:10. “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.”
Relative to the generation
addressed by the prophet, all of these things occurred when Babylon ravished
the land, and led the survivors away captive; but it had a further and equally
terrible fulfillment in AD 70 during the Roman siege and capture of Jerusalem;
and the impending Great Tribulation will bring a yet more terrible execution
of judgment that will involve the whole world.
[Jeremiah
25]