Jeremiah 24
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CHAPTER 24
Two Baskets of Figs (24:1–10)
1–7 Jeremiah received the vision described in this chapter shortly after King Jehoiachin and other leading citizens of Jerusalem (including the prophet Ezekiel) had been carried into exile in Babylon (2 Kings 24:1014); the year was 597 B.C., eleven years before the final destruction of Jerusalem. The purpose of this vision of the good and the bad figs was to show that those who were carried into exile (the good figs) were far better off than those who stayed in Jerusalem (the bad figs): the exiles would survive, prosper, and eventually return to Judah; those who stayed in Jerusalem would be destroyed along with their city.
Jeremiah’s vision does not teach that those carried into exile were “good” people and those who stayed were “bad.” Both groups were “bad”; both groups had violated God’s covenant and were being punished. Rather it was by grace, by God’s election, that the exiles were chosen to survive and to become the remnant of Israel from which, in due time, the Messianic kingdom would arise. Those who stayed in Jerusalem, on the other hand, were simply receiving the punishment they deserved.
The Lord tells Jeremiah that He will watch over [the exiles] for their good (verse 6). Their “good” was not only to be spared and eventually returned to their land; it was also to be finally cured of idolatry. God's purpose in sending the remnant into exile was not just to punish them but also to purify them.
But an even greater “good” was yet to come: “I will give them a heart to know me,” says the Lord (verse 7). The law would be written on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). This was something new—a new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31). No longer would people be told simply to obey the law; they would be given a new heart, a new power to obey it. This promise, of course, was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit came to dwell within believers following the death of Jesus. It’s the Holy Spirit who makes it possible to obey God’s law—and who makes it a joy to do so.
With the people cured of idolatry and having new hearts to know the Lord, they would then truly become His people (verse 7), and He would be their God (Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 31:33).
8–10 In these verses the Lord describes the fate of those who stayed in Jerusalem. Recall that Jeremiah received this vision eleven years before the city’s fall. Those who stayed thought that they were the lucky ones, and that it was the exiles who were unlucky! They soon found out differently. The destruction described in verse 10 took place in 586 B.C. And six hundred years later, in 70 A.D., Jerusalem and its people were again destroyed, this time by the Roman army.