Monday, April 8, 2024

Jeremiah 24: two destines.

 Jeremiah 24 was written when Zedekiah was king:

1  After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah with the craftsmen and metalworkers from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord.

We read about good figs and bad figs. The good figs are those that surrender to the Babylonians and go to Babylon. The bad figs are those that decide to stay or flee to Egypt. We read about the good figs:

 7 I will also give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me wholeheartedly.

 We read about the bad figs:

 9 I will make them an object of terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a disgrace and a proverb, a taunt and a curse in all the places where I will scatter them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the plague upon them until they are eliminated from the land which I gave to them and their forefathers.

Interestingly, king Zedekiah is seen as a bad fig:

8 ‘But like the bad figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness,’ indeed, this is what the Lord says, ‘so will I give up Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and the ones who live in the land of Egypt.

while the book of Jeremiah finishes with:
Jeremiah 52: 33 So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king's table, 34 and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, until the day of his death, as long as he lived.
showing that Jehoiachin found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

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