In
the close of the foregoing chapter we had a general prediction of the utter
ruin of Jerusalem, that it should be forsaken and forgotten, which, whatever
effect it had upon others, we have reason to think made the prophet himself
very melancholy. Now, in this chapter, God encourages him, by showing him
that, though the desolation seemed to be universal, yet all were not equally
involved in it, but God knew how to distinguish, how to separate, between
the precious and the vile. Some had gone into captivity already with
Jeconiah; over them Jeremiah lamented, but God tells him that it should turn
to their good. Others yet remained hardened in their sins, against whom
Jeremiah had a just indignation; but those, God tells him, should go into
captivity, and it should prove to their hurt. To inform the prophet of this,
and affect him with it, here is, I. A vision of two baskets of figs, one
very good and the other very bad, ver. 1-3. II. The explication of this
vision, applying the good figs to those that were already sent into
captivity for their good (ver. 4-7), the bad figs to those that should
hereafter be sent into captivity for their hurt, ver. 8-10.
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Vision
of the Good and Bad Figs; Promises and Threatenings.
B. C. 599.
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1 The LORD
shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the
temple of the LORD,
after that 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. 2 One basket had very good figs, even
like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had
very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 3
Then said the LORD
unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very
good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
4 Again the word of the LORD came unto me,
saying, 5 Thus saith the LORD,
the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are
carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the
land of the Chaldeans for their good. 6 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. 7 And I will give them a 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. 8 And as the evil figs, which
cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD,
So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue
of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of
Egypt: 9 And 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. 10 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.
This short chapter helps us to put a very comfortable construction upon a
great many long ones, by showing us that the same providence which to some
is a savour of death unto death may by the grace and blessing of God
be made to others a savour of life unto life; and that, though God's
people share with others in the same calamity, yet it is not the same to
them that it is to others, but is designed for their good and shall issue in
their good; to them it is a correcting rod in the hand of a tender Father,
while to others it is an avenging sword in the hand of a righteous Judge.
Observe,
I. The date of this sermon. It was after, a little after, Jeconiah's
captivity, v. 1. Jeconiah was himself a despised broken vessel,
but with him were carried away some very valuable persons, Ezekiel for one
(Ezek. i. 12); many of the princes of Judah then went into captivity,
Daniel and his fellows were carried off a little before; of the people only the
carpenters and the smiths were forced away, either because the Chaldeans
needed some ingenious men of those trades (they had a great plenty of
astrologers and stargazers, but a great scarcity of smiths and carpenters)
or because the Jews would severely feel the loss of them, and would, for
want of them, be unable to fortify their cities and furnish themselves with
weapons of war. Now, it should seem, there were many good people carried
away in that captivity, which the pious prophet laid much to heart, while
there were those that triumphed in it, and insulted over those to whose lot
it fell to go into captivity. Note, We must not conclude concerning the
first and greatest sufferers that they were the worst and greatest sinners;
for perhaps it may appear quite otherwise, as it did here.
II. The vision by which this distinction of the captives was represented to
the prophet's mind. He saw two baskets of figs, set before the temple,
there ready to be offered as first-fruits to the honour of God. Perhaps the
priests, being remiss in their duty, were not ready to receive them and
dispose of them according to the law, and therefore Jeremiah sees them
standing before the temple. But that which was the significancy of
the vision was that the figs in one basket were extraordinarily good, those
in the other basket extremely bad. The children of men are all as the fruits
of the fig-tree, capable of being made serviceable to God and man (Judg. ix.
11); but some are as good figs, than which nothing is more pleasant, others
as damaged rotten figs, than which nothing is more nauseous. What creature
viler than a wicked man, and what more valuable than a godly man! The good
figs were like those that are first ripe, which are most acceptable (Mic.
vii. 1) and most prized when newly come into season. The bad figs are such
as could not be eaten, they were so evil; they could not answer the
end of their creation, were neither pleasant nor good for food; and what
then were they good for? If God has no honour from men, nor their generation
any service, they are even like the bad figs, that cannot be eaten, that
will not answer any good purpose. If the salt have lost its savour, it is
thenceforth fit for nothing but the dunghill. Of the persons that
are presented to the Lord at the door of his tabernacle, some are sincere,
and they are very good; others dissemble with God, and they are very bad.
Sinners are the worst of men, hypocrites the worst of sinners. Corruptio
optimi est pessima--That which is best becomes, when corrupted, the worst.
III. The exposition and application of this vision. God intended by it to
raise the dejected spirit of those that had gone into captivity, by assuring
them of a happy return, and to humble and awaken the proud and secure
spirits of those who continued yet in Jerusalem, by assuring them of a
miserable captivity.
1. Here is the moral of the good figs, that were very good, the first ripe.
These represented the pious captives, that seemed first ripe for ruin, for
they went first into captivity, but should prove first ripe for mercy, and
their captivity should help to ripen them; these are pleasing to God, as
good figs are to us, and shall be carefully preserved for use. Now observe
here,
(1.) Those that were already carried into captivity were the good figs that
God would own. This shows, [1.] That we cannot determine of God's love or
hatred by all that is before us. When God's judgments are abroad
those are not always the worst that are first seized by them. [2.] That
early suffering sometimes proves for the best to us. The sooner the child is
corrected the better effect the correction is likely to have. Those that
went first into captivity were as the son whom the father loves, and
chastens betimes, chastens while there is hope; and it did well. But
those that staid behind were like a child long left to himself, who,
when afterwards corrected, is stubborn, and made worse by it, Lam. iii. 27.
(2.) God owns their captivity to be his doing. Whoever were the instruments
of it, he ordered and directed it (v. 5): I have sent them out of
this place into the land of the Chaldeans. It is God that puts his gold
into the furnace, to be tried; his hand is, in a special manner, to be eyed
in the afflictions of good people. The judge orders the malefactor into the
hand of an executioner, but the father corrects the child with his own hand.
(3.) Even this disgraceful uncomfortable captivity God intended for their
benefit; and we are sure that his intentions are never frustrated: I have
sent them into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. It seemed to be
every way for their hurt, not only as it was the ruin of their estates,
honours, and liberties, separated them from their relations and friends, and
put them under the power of their enemies and oppressors, but as it sunk
their spirits, discouraged their faith, deprived them of the benefit of
God's oracles and ordinances, and exposed them to temptations; and yet it
was designed for their good, and proved so, in the issue, as to many of
them. Out of the eater came forth meat. By their afflictions they
were convinced of sin, humbled under the hand of God, weaned from the world,
made serious, taught to pray, and turned from their iniquity; particularly
they were cured of their inclination to idolatry; and thus it was good
for them that they were afflicted, Ps. cxix. 67, 71.
(4.) God promises them that he will own them in their captivity. Though they
seem abandoned, they shall be acknowledged; the scornful relations they left
behind will scarcely own them, or their kindred to them, but God says, I
will acknowledge them. Note, The Lord knows those that are his,
and will own them in all conditions; nakedness and sword shall not separate
them from his love.
(5.) God assures them of his protection in their trouble, and a glorious
deliverance out of it in due time, v. 6. Being sent into captivity for
their good, they shall not be lost there; but it shall be with them as
it is with gold which the refiner puts into the furnace. [1.] He has his eye
upon it while it is there, and it is a careful eye, to see that it sustain
no damage: "I will set my eyes upon them for good, to order
every thing for the best, that all the circumstances of the affliction may
concur to the answering of the great intention of it." [2.] He will be
sure to take it out of the furnace again as soon as the work designed upon
it is done: I will bring them again to this land. They were sent
abroad for improvement awhile, under a severe discipline; but they shall be
fetched back, when they have gone through their trial there, to their
Father's house. [3.] He will fashion his gold when he has refined it, will
make it a vessel of honour fit for his use; so, when God has brought them
back from their trial, he will build them and make them a habitation
for himself, will plant them and make them a vineyard for himself.
Their captivity was to square the rough stones and make them fit for his
building, to prune up the young trees and make them fit for his planting.
(6.) He engages to prepare them for these temporal mercies which he designed
for them by bestowing spiritual mercies upon them, v.7. It is this
that will make their captivity be for their good; this shall be both the
improvement of their affliction and their qualification for deliverance.
When our troubles are sanctified to us, then we may be sure that they will
end well. Now that which is promised is, [1.] That they should be better
acquainted with God; they should learn more of God by his providences in
Babylon than they had learned by all his oracles and ordinances in
Jerusalem, thanks to divine grace, for, if that had not wrought mightily
upon them in Babylon, they would for ever have forgotten God. It is here
promised, I will give them, not so much a head to know me, but a
heart to know me, for the right knowledge of God consists not in notion
and speculation, but in the convictions of the practical judgment directing
and governing the will and affections. A good understanding have all
those that do his commandments, Ps. cxi. 10. Where God gives a sincere
desire and inclination to know him he will give that knowledge. It is God
himself that gives a heart to know him, else we should perish for ever in
our ignorance. [2.] That they should be entirely converted to God, to his
will as their rule, his service as their business, and his glory as their
end: They shall return to me with their whole heart. God himself
undertakes for them that they shall; and, if he turn us, we shall be turned.
This follows upon the former; for those that have a heart to know God aright
will not only turn to him, but turn with their whole heart; for those that
are either obstinate in their rebellion, or hypocritical in their religion,
may truly be said to be ignorant of God. [3.] That thus they should be again
taken into covenant with God, as much to their comfort as ever: They
shall be my people, and I will be their God. God will own them, as
formerly, for his people, in the discoveries of himself to them, in his
acceptance of their services, and in his gracious appearances on their
behalf; and they shall have liberty to own him for their God in their
prayers to him and their expectations from him. Note, Those that have
backslidden from God, if they do in sincerity return to him, are admitted as
freely as any to all the privileges and comforts of the everlasting
covenant, which is herein well-ordered, that every transgression in the
covenant does not throw us out of covenant, and that afflictions are not
only consistent with, but flowing from, covenant-love.
2. Here is the moral of the bad figs. Zedekiah and his princes and
partizans yet remain in the land, proud and secure enough, Ezek. xi.
3. Many had fled into Egypt for shelter, and they thought they had shifted
well for themselves and their own safety, and boasted that though therein
they had gone contrary to the command of God yet they had acted prudently
for themselves. Now as to both these, that looked so scornfully upon those
that had gone into captivity, it is here threatened, (1.) That, whereas
those who were already carried away were settled in one country, where they
had the comfort of one another's society, though in captivity, these should
be dispersed and removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, where
they should have no joy one of another. (2.) That, whereas those were
carried captives for their good, these should be removed into all countries for
their hurt. Their afflictions should be so far from humbling them that
they should harden them, not bring them nearer to God, but set them at a
greater distance from him. (3.) That, whereas those should have the honour
of being owned of God in their troubles, these should have the shame of
being abandoned by all mankind: In all places whither I shall drive them
they shall be a reproach and a proverb. "Such a one is as false and
proud as a Jew"--"Such a one is as poor and miserable as a
Jew." All their neighbours shall make a jest of them, and of the
calamities brought upon them. (4.) That, whereas those should return to
their own land, never to see it more, and it shall be of no avail to
them to plead that it was the land God gave to their fathers, for they had
it from God, and he gave it to them upon condition of their obedience. (5.)
That, whereas those were reserved for better times, these were reserved for
worse; wherever they are removed the sword, and famine, and pestilence,
shall be sent after them, shall soon overtake them, and, coming with
commission so to do, shall overcome them. God has variety of judgments
wherewith to prosecute those that fly from justice; and those that have
escaped one may expect another, till they are brought to repent and reform.
Doubtless this prophecy had its accomplishment in the men of that generation
yet, because we read not of any such remarkable difference between those of
Jeconiah's captivity and those of Zedekiah's, it is probable that this has a
typical reference to the last destruction of the Jews by the Romans, in
which those of them that believed were taken care of, but those that
continued obstinate in unbelief were driven into all countries for a
taunt and a curse, and so they remain to this day.
