Jeremiah 24:3
"Jeremiah," the LORD asked, "what do you see?" "Figs!" I replied. "The good figs are very good, but the bad figs are very bad, so bad they cannot be eaten."
Sermons
Calamity with God and Without HimA.F. Muir Jeremiah 24:1-10
Punished for Salvation; Left Alone for DestructionA.F. Muir Jeremiah 24:1-10
The Good and Bad FigsD. Young Jeremiah 24:1-10
The Two Baskets of FigsS. Conway Jeremiah 24:1-10
The Two Baskets of Figs; Or, Predetermining InfluencesA.F. Muir Jeremiah 24:1-10
Figs Good and BadJ. Parker, D. D.Jeremiah 24:2-3
Reflections on Some of the Characteristics of the Age We Live InT. G. Horon.Jeremiah 24:2-3
Two Baskets of FigsA London MinisterJeremiah 24:2-3














These are not to be understood of the opposite development of character in two sets of persons in slightly differing circumstances, but rather of the primary influence of Divine faith as contrasted with the want of it amidst the trials of life. The people left behind were disposed to felicitate themselves over their brethren who had been carried off into Chaldea, but this impression is corrected by Jeremiah. The exiles were the true people of God, and were to be under his constant supervision and loving care; the others were to be cast off, to become a prey to inner corruption and the unchecked destructive influences of the world.

I. THE MYSTERY OF THE DIVINE ELECTION. From comparatively similar circumstances to evolve distinct types of character and destiny. Out of the same clay to mold the saint and the sinner. It is the old lesson of the potter in another form. There is nothing in a man himself to account for God's favor. He chooseth whom he will and rejecteth whom he will. Yet is it true that he willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that all should come unto him and live.

II. THE MANNER IN WHICH ELECTIVE GRACE MANIFESTS ITSELF.

1. Recalling. (Ver. 6.) How unlikely under the circumstances! Yet rendered credible by the remarkable individuality of the Jewish people from age to age. Reconstituting. (Ver. 6.) The figure is twofold - building and life-growth (cf. Ephesians 2:21, 22). Spiritually recreating. (Ver. 7.) The aim of the previous discipline; but the beginning of great national glory and blessedness. For connection of these processes, cf. Romans 8:28-30.

2. Circumstances are made to subserve a merciful purpose. The immediate condition of the Chaldean exiles might appear a harder one than that of their compatriots at home; but in the end this would turn to their salvation. Not only will God overrule all things for the good of his people, but he will use them for their spiritual education. The influence of circumstances is thus shown to depend for the most part upon the spiritual state of those who are surrounded by them.

3. Circumstances are appointed for the destruction of the obstinately impenitent. Moral reprobation and political annihilation were to come upon these. There would be no swerving or slackening in the execution of their sentence. This is agreeable with the character of him who hates sin with an eternal hatred. The climax of misery here indicated is but a faint suggestion of that which will follow upon rejection of the gospel. And yet how simple are the elements of such a punishment! God has but to withdraw his grace, and the inner depravity of nature will work unchecked its fearful consequences, accelerating and directing the external circumstances of life. And all this has another aspect, which is full of comfort to those who are spiritually inclined. The faintest dawn of repentance is the opening of the "door of hope;" and when the heart is changed the tendency of untoward circumstance at once is altered, and the positive blessings of God again return. - M.

One basket had very good figs.
A London Minister.
I. THE SAME NATION MAY CONTAIN TWO DISTINCT CHARACTERS, YET BOTH MAY BE EQUALLY INVOLVED IN A NATIONAL VISITATION. There are laws of retribution m operation in relation to nations which, so far as the outward condition is concerned-, are no respecters of persons.

II. SUBMISSION TO DIVINE CHASTISEMENT WILL LEAD, IN TIME, TO DELIVERANCE FROM IT, WHILE RESISTANCE WILL BRING RUIN. Two members of a family may be suffering from the same disease; the physician will insist upon submission to his treatment from both his patients. If one refuses, he must not complain of the physician, supposing he grows worse. God desired to heal the Jewish nation of its idolatrous tendencies; for this purpose He had decreed that it should go into captivity. Those who submitted willingly are hem promised that the discipline should be "for their good," and that they should be brought again to their own land; while those who resisted, would be "consumed from off the land that He gave unto them and their fathers."

III. LESSONS,

1. In this life retribution to nations is more certain than to individuals. God can deal with individual characters in any world, therefore we sometimes find the greatest villains apparently unmarked by Him now.

2. Outward circumstance is no standard by which to judge God's estimate of character. Job's friends were not afflicted as he was, but God esteemed him far more highly than He did them.

3. Moral crime is commercial ruin to a nation. Israel lost God first, and then her national prosperity and greatness. A body soon decays when the life has departed, and a putrid carcase will soon be visited by the birds of prey.

(A London Minister.)

What seest thou, Jeremiah?
It is not difficult to see the force and application of this homely but sententious little allegory. Jeremiah lived in those days of declension and disaster in which the invasion of Judea by the King of Babylon was not only threatened, but actually took place. He saw the departure of "the King of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem," and these were all "carried away captive" to Babylon. Nevertheless, many of every class were left behind, and these were placed under the government of that weak and wicked king, Zedekiah. Those who were "carried away" comprised the best of the population with regard to intelligence, religious feeling, and patriotism. Their sorrows and afflictions humbled them, so that they repented of their idolatries and obtained mercy of the Lord. In due time the way was prepared for the return of the exiles to their own land; and there, under the leader. ship of such men as Ezra, Nehemiah, and Zerubbabel, they founded afresh a pious commonwealth, in which the worship of the true God was ever afterwards main-rained down to the time of the coming of Christ. In them was fulfilled the promise contained in verses 4-7. On the other hand, the Jews who remained at home with Zedekiah "and his princes" revolted against God more and more. They abandoned themselves openly to licentiousness and idolatry. Their temper fiery and mutinous, their language blasphemous, their whole conduct infamous. (See vers. 8-13.) These were the evil figs, so evil that they could not be eaten. The point suggested to us by Jeremiah's vision is, that there occur periods, or special circumstances, in the religious life of nations, which tend to develop and force the maturation of character with unusual energy and astonishing rapidity. In such times, you do not find people merely good or bad; but the good are very good, and the evil very evil. Now, it is evident that no parallel whatever can be drawn between our position and circumstances in England at the present time and those of Judea in the days of Jeremiah. We are not, as a nation, suffering either from internal anarchy or from external assault. But still it may be, that other influences and conditions of society are at work, producing an exactly analogous result to that at the time referred to in the text.

I. CERTAIN PECULIARITIES OF OUR TIMES AND POSITION MY BE NOTED.

1. This is an age of extraordinary intellectual and social activity. The most absolute liberty of speech exists, and men shrink from the utterance of no opinion, the broaching of no speculation. This unusual activity and daring of thought produces rapid and extraordinary changes in both political and ecclesiastical affairs. Amid the astonishment and whirl of such events, it requires a great effort to keep the mind calm, and hold fast in our judgments, utterances, and actions to the sober requirements of sound principle and acknowledged truth (Proverbs 17:27, margin).

2. The very full and clear religious light which we enjoy.

3. The corresponding increase of activity in the Church. All manner of special devices are being tried and carried out vigorously whereby to reach all classes, to instruct the most ignorant and reform the most vicious, whilst ancient and ordinary means of grace are sustained with unprecedented interest and efficiency.

II. WHAT DO ALL THESE THINGS IMPORT? and what do they necessitate on our part individually? Truly we find here divers potent and stimulating agencies in operation, calculated to arouse us up to repentance and godly solicitude, and then to prompt us on to vigorous Christian life and action. If we yield to them, how fast and far may we soon be carried in the path of faith, in a career of usefulness! What bold, what firm, what fruitful Christians we must become if we enter fully into "the spirit of the times," considered as engaged on the side of Christ and His Gospel! But if we refuse to do so, if we set ourselves to resist these powerful influences, how strenuous must that resistance be! how determined and how self-conscious that action of the will which still fights against God and clings to worldliness and sin! Facts are in harmony with these reasonings. Illustrations abound on every side. In this earnest age you find earnest men both for good and evil. Was ever war conducted on so fearful a scale as we have lately witnessed? In our day, we have also seen such specimens of commercial roguery and robbery, conceived on so magnificent a scale, and executed under so clever and admirable a cloak of hypocrisy, as no previous age has ever presented to the world. On the other hand, look at the men who stand foremost in the van of religion and philanthropy. These are God's heroes; men are still living amongst us worthy of comparison with the spiritual heroes of ancient times, in regard to all that is noble in faith, self-denying in zeal, munificent in giving, or abundant in labours. These, indeed, are among the good figs, which by God's grace are very good: and to the production of such instances of exalted and matured piety, the present times are not in the least unfavourable. One might speak of books, as well as men. And if, on the other hand, it be true that infidelity and immorality were never so speciously or so boldly advocated as now, in sensational novels, in shallow critiques, or in vulgar serials; so, again, we defy any age to show such noble and masterly treatises as are now written by men of sanctified learning and genius, either in exposition of the Scriptures, or in vindication of their contents. Then there are public institutions and societies to be looked at. If chapels are multiplied, so are theatres. Look at the state of our large towns and cities. Were ever such facilities for evil doing? such criminal attractions for the young? so many places where vice is seductive and sin made easy? The kingdom of Satan is as active and roused up to new exertions as is the kingdom of Christ. It is said that, in the early colonisation of Van Diemen's Land, one man took a hive of bees, and soon the island was filled with swarms, and both the trees and rocks dropped with honey; another took a handful of thistle-down, and ere long the country was overrun with prickly and gigantic weeds. Like such actions, are the deeds of all men now. Shall we, then, multiply honey-hives, or scatter thistles in the earth? Let us seek to be good, and do good: and then, behold what glorious possibilities belong to us, of being pre-eminently holy, blest and useful!

(T. G. Horon.)

Events are divided. "What seest thou?" I see two kinds of events, one good, and the other vile: and there they are in life. It is so in families: how do you account for it that one son prays, and the other never saw the need of prayer? The one is filial; the other has a heart of stone. Look at life broadly. What seest thou, O prophet, O man of the piercing eyes, what seest thou? Two events, or series of events, one excellent, the other vile; one leading upward, the other downward. What seest thou? Heaven — -hell. The vision is still before us; we need to have our attention called to it. He who deals in singularities, in isolations, never enters into the philosophy of Providence, the method of the sublime organisation which is denominated the universe.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

People
Babylonians, Jeconiah, Jehoiakim, Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar, Zedekiah
Places
Babylon, Egypt, Jerusalem
Topics
Bad, Badness, Can't, Due, Eaten, Evil, Figs, Jeremiah, Ones, Poor, Rottenness, Seeing, Seest
Outline
1. Under the type of good and bad figs,
4. he foreshows the restoration of those who were in captivity;
8. and the desolation of Zedekiah and the rest.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 24:1-10

     4440   fig-tree

Library
The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly
DO not mistake me, I do not say that of their own nature the worst things are good, for they are a fruit of the curse; but though they are naturally evil, yet the wise overruling hand of God disposing and sanctifying them, they are morally good. As the elements, though of contrary qualities, yet God has so tempered them, that they all work in a harmonious manner for the good of the universe. Or as in a watch, the wheels seem to move contrary one to another, but all carry on the motions of the watch:
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

The New Covenant
"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."--JER. xxxi. 33, 34. ISAIAH has often been called
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

Entering the Covenant: with all the Heart
"And they entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart, and all their soul."--2 CHRON. xv. 12 (see xxxiv. 31, and 2 Kings xxiii. 3). "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul."--DEUT. xxx. 6. "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 turn to Me with their whole heart."--JER. xxiv. 7 (see xxix. 13).
Andrew Murray—The Two Covenants

Seasonable Counsel: Or, Advice to Sufferers.
BY JOHN BUNYAN. London: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, 1684. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. THIS valuable treatise was first published in a pocket volume in 1684, and has only been reprinted in Whitfield's edition of Bunyan's works, 2 vols. folio, 1767. No man could have been better qualified to give advice to sufferers for righteousness' sake, than John Bunyan: and this work is exclusively devoted to that object. Shut up in a noisome jail, under the iron hand of
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Manner of Covenanting.
Previous to an examination of the manner of engaging in the exercise of Covenanting, the consideration of God's procedure towards his people while performing the service seems to claim regard. Of the manner in which the great Supreme as God acts, as well as of Himself, our knowledge is limited. Yet though even of the effects on creatures of His doings we know little, we have reason to rejoice that, in His word He has informed us, and in His providence illustrated by that word, he has given us to
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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