AFTER JEHOIACHIN son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the craftsmen and the artisans 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. 2One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very poor figs, so bad they could not be eaten.
3Then the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
“Figs,” I answered. “The good ones are very good, but the poor ones are so bad they cannot be eaten.”
4Then the word of the LORD came to me: 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. 6My 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. 7I 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.
8“‘But like the poor figs, which are so bad 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. 9I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, an object of ridicule and cursing, wherever I banish them. 10I will send the sword, famine and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave to them and their fathers.’”
Original Meaning
JEREMIAH’S OBSERVATIONS AT the temple become a vehicle for God’s address to the people. The setting is in Zedekiah’s reign, sometime between 597 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin1 and a number of the leading citizens of Judah into exile in Babylon, and 587/586, when the Babylonians besieged and destroyed Jerusalem. The date is probably close to 588, the beginning of the second Babylonian siege of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah observes two baskets of figs left as offerings at the temple, one of which contains ripe figs and the other rotten figs.2 The Lord tells the prophet that the good figs are like the Judeans taken into exile, while the rotten figs represent Zedekiah and those who remain in Jerusalem and Judah. The Lord promises to do good to the exilic community, to bring them back from exile, and to give them a heart to know him. Concerning those remaining in Judah, however, the Lord promises judgment.
One finds in this autobiographic prophetic report a shorthand version of what the larger book of Jeremiah intends to accomplish. For those on whom the judgment of the Exile has fallen, God announces that he intends to “build them up” and to “plant” them again in the Promised Land.3 Return to the land is not all that God intends, although the return is a sign of something more fundamental, a wholehearted return to the Lord. Thus, there is also the promise of a heart prepared by God to know him as well as the reinstitution of the covenant relationship (“they will be my people, and I will be their God,” 24:7).4 For those still mired in their failures, the announced judgments stand.
Bridging Contexts
REMNANT THEOLOGY. Not only does this chapter reflect in brief the larger designs of the book of Jeremiah, but its claims of judgment and restoration are also part of a larger biblical pattern of remnant theology. Judgment upon iniquity and sociopolitical changes (e.g., statehood and monarchy; exile) brought divisions among the people of God. During the period of Elijah, for example, many in Israel fell to the seductions of the Phoenician culture and religion. God assured Elijah, however, that there were still seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:1–18).
With turmoil, intrigue, and injustice rampant, Isaiah was told not to believe what many of his contemporaries called conspiracy but to seal up his testimony among his disciples (Isa. 8:11–17). With his prophetic testimony and his disciples, Isaiah formed a remnant community in eighth-century Judah. In the postexilic community, Ezra and Nehemiah formed a remnant community centered in Jerusalem. Their opponents may have considered themselves part of God’s people, but their actions disqualified them from membership.
In the New Testament, Jesus’ choice of twelve disciples likely reflects a symbolic forming of a new Israel among the Jews of his day. The church of Jew and Gentile together is a fulfillment of the prophetic hope to raise up again the booth of David and to save remnants from among humankind (Acts 15:13–21). When Paul reflects on God’s providence, he thinks of the church as a remnant saved by grace and as evidence that God’s mercy will cast an even wider net (Rom. 11). A circular letter to Christians in dispersion interprets them typologically as an exiled remnant, who have been born anew to a living hope through Christ (1 Peter 1:1–9).
Christians, therefore, are part of the remnant saved by grace. This is one of the bridges linking Jeremiah’s vision of the two baskets with the church. Another is typological and similar to the remnant link. In the return from exile God provides fulfillment of his concern for his people in Babylon. This does not exhaust the meaning of Jeremiah’s prophecy, but it illumines the concern of God wherever and whenever his people are scattered and turn to him in faith.
Contemporary Significance
JUDGMENT AND RESTORATION. God is just in judgment and yet one who justifies (accepts as righteous) those who trust him for their salvation. This is a paraphrase of Romans 3:26; it also captures the intent of Jeremiah 24. God brings judgment on those who spurn him and reject his covenant. But he also seeks to save that which is lost and to give a new heart to those whom he calls into fellowship. The divided fate of the two communities in Jeremiah’s day illustrates God’s use of the historical process for judgment and restoration.
The heart. Jeremiah depicts the matter of relating to God as a matter of the heart.5 The heart is the inner core of a person that directs the will and prompts action. This is somewhat different from the modern Western emphasis on the heart as the seat of feelings and emotions. God desires wholehearted allegiance, and by his grace he offers a new heart to his people. In its original context, the physical circumstances concern the judgment of the Exile and the future gift of return to the Promised Land. But there is more even in the original context. The reaction to God’s prophetic word is a matter of the heart as it prompts the spiritual allegiances and commitments of the people. That prophetic word concerns the possibility of spiritual change on a fundamental level, and it affirms the miraculous possibility that God will renew a covenant relationship with his people. What Jeremiah projects as God’s future grace finds ultimate fulfillment in the coming of Christ and his offer of new life.
A few years ago the popular movie Places in the Heart concerned matters of injustice and hatred and the possibility that God would work through the lives of people for reconciliation and spiritual renewal. This film was a gripping drama because it demonstrated both the power of sin to keep people mired in tragic habits of mind and the power of the gospel to bring to life what was completely missing in personal lives and community relationships.
In its conclusion, the movie provided a powerful testimony to the work of God in human hearts and the possibilities of forgiveness and renewal. The scene depicted a worship service, where community members, both Caucasian and African American, sat in proximity to one another and partook of the one communion table. It depicted that reconciliation is more than a change of mind; it is sharing of space and common commitments to one another. It is something that requires the presence of God because God is its author.
Exile and alienation are geographic and historical entities, but they are also powerful emotional forces. Only through God’s grace can either the historical realities of sin or their emotional aftermath be removed and the affections of “another” heart be set in motion.