Good and Bad Figs
[T]he Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.
Jeremiah 24:1b-2
Figs and dates are some of my favorite fruits. Dried out, they’re like candy. A few years ago in Israel, I tasted a fresh, ripe fig for the first time, picked right from the tree. I excitedly looked for more afterward. Later we found several fig trees and picked a dozen or more figs and stored them in a bag to consume later. Unfortunately, we waited too long and had to throw some of them out.
In this chapter, the Lord gives an image to contrast two groups of exiles. We often talk about “the Babylonian exile” as a single event, but there were actually multiple parts to this exile. The destruction of Jerusalem was about 586 BC, while this chapter refers to King Jehoiachin’s exile in 597 BC. Ezekiel and Daniel along with many others were also taken to Babylon with him. The Lord considers this group the “good” figs. Those who remained in Jerusalem, who saw what happened yet still didn’t repent, are called “bad” figs.
It would be easy to think that the analogy works the other way: the exiles are bad, while those who remained are good, right? Rather, it seems like some of the best people went into exile. That was a group the Lord could work with, enabling them to prosper in a foreign land. Those who remained would go from bad to worse and see the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple firsthand. Like the figs I delayed in eating, they would be tossed out.
To Ponder…
- How well do you learn from the mistakes of others?