Jeremiah 24 FSI - HEAR, O EARTH

> [!title|noicon] **Jeremiah 24 Notes** > [[Jeremiah 23 FSI|<Prev]]   [[Jeremiah 25 FSI|Next>]] > [[Jeremiah 24|Verse list view]] > [Jeremiah 24:1](Jeremiah%2024.md#^1), [2](Jeremiah%2024.md#^2), [3](Jeremiah%2024.md#^3) note > > "THE LORD showed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs *were* set before the temple of the LORD," -- Here in verses 1-3 of Jeremiah 24, God gives an illustration that Jesus picks up in [Matthew 7:18](Matthew%207.md#^18), [19](Matthew%207.md#^19), [20](Matthew%207.md#^20), speaking about how we'll know people by their fruits. Now, when we look at a typical, fine member of a congregation, we find that they read their Bible, they've made a confession of faith and have been baptized properly, and they're a decent, moral individual and so on. And in light of Matthew 7 we would say that they are a fine, Christian individual -- we can see it by the fruits of their life. But the puzzle is that the churches have been infiltrated by tares -- those who look so close to the true believers that we can't separate the true believers from those who are false, so they must grow together until the harvest ([Matthew 13:24-30](Matthew%2013.md)). Satan comes in, sowing the tares, as an angel of light and his ministers as ministers of righteousness. So that makes Matthew 7 seem to be of none-effect. If they look so much alike that we can't distinguish between the wheat and the tares, how do we deal with this passage? All through the church age we have to say that we couldn't really tell them apart given what we read in Matthew 13:24-30. > > But here in Jeremiah 24 God tells us what He has had in mind all the time. And we find that in our day there is a place where this passage particularly applies. God is setting up a teaching of what He means when He says, "by their fruits you shall know them." > > First of all we must look at the timing of this passage: "...after Nebuchadrezzar 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." -- So the skilled craftsmen and those who were proficient in making weapons of war and things for agriculture were carried away captive into Babylon by King Nebuchadrezzar, along with Jeconiah (Jehoiachin), the king of Judah and the princes of Judah. We can read about the historical setting of this in [2 Kings 24:11](2%20Kings%2024.md#^11), [12](2%20Kings%2024.md#^12), [13](2%20Kings%2024.md#^13), **[14](2%20Kings%2024.md#^14)**, [15](2%20Kings%2024.md#^15), [16](2%20Kings%2024.md#^16), which occurred in 597 BC, ten years before Judah was ultimately conquered and destroyed by Babylon. > > Now, those who fell out to the king of Babylon at this time, as we've seen earlier in [Jeremiah 21:8](Jeremiah%2021.md#^8), [9](Jeremiah%2021.md#^9), were doing so in obedience to God's command as He warned them that Nebuchadnezzar was going to destroy Jerusalem. And we're going to see this again in [Jeremiah 24:5](Jeremiah%2024.md#^5), [6](Jeremiah%2024.md#^6) and [7](Jeremiah%2024.md#^7) how God will deal well with them. Whereas those who did not fall out to the king of Babylon but remained in Judah and Jerusalem will come under judgment (see [Jer 21:9](Jeremiah%2021.md#^9), [10](Jeremiah%2021.md#^10) and [24:8](Jeremiah%2024.md#^8), [9](Jeremiah%2024.md#^9), [10](Jeremiah%2024.md#^10)). So that is the setting and the context of Jeremiah 24. > > Spiritually, when God speaks about the craftsmen (carpenters), smiths, the king and princes who obeyed God's command to come out of Judah and fall to the king of Babylon, they represent the true believers. When we become saved, we become fellow-laborers with God in the building of the spiritual temple of God as craftsmen, smiths, kings and princes under Christ, in the kingdom of God. The true believers are also in spiritual warfare and operate as husbandmen along with Christ, so the smiths would come into view here also. They are the workers in the kingdom of God, in other words -- represented by Judah and Jerusalem. > > So God uses this as a dynamic illustration of what He expects for the end of the church age through this basket of very good figs over against the basket of very rotten figs -- that the true believers, represented by the good figs, will come out from the churches and congregations that have fallen astray from the Word of God. God is saying that these who have fallen out to the king of Babylon are like these good figs, they are the good fruit who are demonstrating that they come from a good tree, they're identified spiritually with the Lord Jesus Christ. On the other hand, those who did not fall out to Nebuchadnezzar, those who remained in the land of Judah, are like the evil figs. And the remainder of Jeremiah 24 through verse 10 certainly illustrates this more fully. > > Now, amongst the craftsmen (carpenters), smiths and princes mentioned in verse 1, we have to look more closely at King Jeconiah (aka Coniah and Jehoiachin) who was carried away captive with them, because God is illustrating a different picture through him. Those who fell out voluntarily, as we've seen (and will see in the rest of this chapter), are represented by the good figs, those who obeyed God to come out of Judah. But in [2 Kings 25:27](2%20Kings%2025.md#^27), [28](2%20Kings%2025.md#^28), [29](2%20Kings%2025.md#^29), [30](2%20Kings%2025.md#^30) we read where Jeconiah was lifted up out of prison by the new king of Babylon, Evil-merodach, who changed his garments and fed him an allowance of bread. And the king of Babylon represents Satan who, after 37 years (a number representing the complete judgment of God -- Noah was 370 days in the ark; 185,000 (37x5000) of Sennacherib's army were destroyed; 666 = 37x18), is now clothing and feeding Jeconiah. So this illustrates that just because you've come out of Judah it does not *guarantee* that you have become saved -- we are not saved by any action that we can take of ourselves, we cannot just presume upon God that we're saved at any time. But the coming out of Judah voluntarily by the others represents that those who *are* saved will nevertheless obey God's command to come out. ^jer24-1-3 > [Jeremiah 24:4-10](Jeremiah%2024.md) note > > [Read the [note to verses 1-3](Jeremiah%2024%20FSI.md#^jer24-1-3) to get the context. Verses 4-10 reiterate more fully what has been explained there.] > > Here in verses 4-10, God is dividing the wheat from the tares. Notice there is no middle ground -- there are good figs representing those who are saved or that He plans to save, and then there are evil figs that are so evil they cannot be eaten -- representing the unsaved within Judah and Jerusalem (representing the churches and congregations in our day as we approach the end). > > Again, remember we saw this already in [Jeremiah 21:8](Jeremiah%2021.md#^8), [9](Jeremiah%2021.md#^9), [10](Jeremiah%2021.md#^10). So what we are reading here in Jeremiah 24 is a reiteration of what God said there. In our day, Christ has said when we see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place ([Mt 24:15](Matthew%2024.md#^15), [16](Matthew%2024.md#^16)), also likened to Jerusalem being compassed with armies ([Lk 21:20](Luke%2021.md#^20), [21](Luke%2021.md#^21)), we are to depart out and flee into the mountains. This is a spiritual parable that is foreshadowed by those of Judah and Jerusalem who fled for Babylon in Jeremiah's day when God was determined to bring destruction upon Judah. > > So during the church age, when God instructed the churches to allow the tares to grow with the wheat, it was because they really could not determine which was which until the harvest. They were not to root up the wheat in an attempt to purge out the tares ([Mt 13:28](Matthew%2013.md#^28), [29](Matthew%2013.md#^29), [30](Matthew%2013.md#^30)). So this separation could not come until the time of the final harvest, which is where we are right now in time. So here in Jeremiah 24 God has set up the mechanism whereby "by their fruits we shall know them." It is not by how faithful someone appears to be as a church member any more than it had been during the church age because we can't really know anyone's heart. Rather, God is now equating the basket of good fruit as those who were ready to obey God to get out of Jerusalem. And that happened prior to when God actually destroyed Judah and Jerusalem by about 10 years, so it may have outwardly appeared like maybe not all was lost yet. And to fall away to Babylon was normally something that would have been completely abhorrent to them. But God had said to get out, so they got out. And *this* is where God is commanding us to examine the fruit as we see here in Jeremiah 24. Those who remain are a basket of rotten fruit that are so bad that you wouldn't even *think* of eating them. And God is using 2 very extremes -- it's not like the good basket of fruit looked fine but the bad basket was questionable where maybe 1 or 2 good ones could still be found. > > Now there is tremendous blessing in verses 5-7. "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 I will plant them, and not pluck *them* up. 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." -- God brings His people again into this land, that is, into the kingdom of God. He builds and plants them and gives them a heart to know Him and to be His people, to return unto Him with their whole heart. And this is a pure harvest that He is speaking about here. When we think of the nation of Israel during the Old Testament, there was mostly just a tiny remnant of people who were saved. Then when we think of the church age, the expectation of God concerning the number of true believers within the congregation was again just a remnant. And that's why we see so many who insist on remaining in Jerusalem just like in Jeremiah's day. But in the final harvest it is a pure harvest. God will give His people a heart to know Him because He is their God. There will be no more visible organization that serves as the kingdom of God on earth, it is only THE kingdom of God made up of all who are saved all throughout the world. > > But then in verses 8-10 there is the very sorrowful language: "I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for *their* hurt, *to be* a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them." They are a picture of all those who are under the wrath of God. They are a demonstration of all those who have decided they know more than God, that He isn't really commanding us to come out from among the churches and congregations. So they are a proverb, they are a parable of what happens when someone rebels against God: they are under the wrath of God. No matter holy they think they are, no matter how someone carries or quotes or reads the Bible, if they are going their own way they are still under the wrath of God: "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." ^jer24-4-10 Tags: #Old_Testament #Jeremiah #Gods_judgment_on_His_people #FSI