Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

JEREMIAH - CHAPTER 24

A VISION: TWO BASKETS OF FIGS

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., (Jeremiah 29:1-2; 2 Kings 24:10-16).

2. The vision was a common means of communicating a divine message to the prophets, (comp. Jeremiah 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. Micah 7:1, Hosea 9:10; Nahum 3:12).

b. The other basket contained VERY BAD figs - so bad that they were not fit to eat! (Jeremiah 27:19; comp. Isaiah 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.

Vs. 4-7: THE FIRST EXILES WERE THE GOOD FIGS

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; Zechariah 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; Jeremiah 1:10; Jeremiah 12:15; Jeremiah 29:10; Jeremiah 31:28; Jeremiah 32:41; Jeremiah 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; Jeremiah 31:33; Jeremiah 32:39-40; Deuteronomy 4:29; Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 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. 1 Samuel 7:3).

b. They will be His people, and He will acknowledge Himself as their God, (Zechariah 8:8; Jeremiah 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.

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; Jeremiah 39:5-9; Ezekiel 12:11-13; Jeremiah 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, (Jeremiah 6:26-30).

2. God will give them up to be tossed from kingdom to kingdom because of their sin, (vs 9a; Jeremiah 15:4; Jeremiah 29:18; Jeremiah 34:17).

3. Wherever God drives them, they will be a reproach and a proverb - objects of ridicule and cursing, (vs. 9b; 1 Kings 9:7; Psalms 44:13-14; comp. Isaiah 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. Jeremiah 21:9; Jeremiah 27:8; Isaiah 51:19; Ezekiel 5:12-17; Matthew 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! (Isaiah 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.