Fig Tree

Lesson of the Fig Tree
Jer. 24:1 The L-RD shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the L-RD, 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.
[The children of men are all as the fruits of the fig-tree, capable of being made serviceable to G-d and man (Jug. 9:11).]
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.
[Figs . . . first ripe - the "boccora," or early fig first-fruits in the Temple.
The good figs were like those that are first ripe, which are most acceptable (Mic. 7:1) and most prized when newly come into season. 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 G-d, as good figs are to us, and shall be carefully preserved for use.
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. If G-d has no honour from men, or their generation any service, they are even like the bad figs, that cannot be eaten, that will not answer any good purpose.]
3. Then said the L-RD 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.
[The good figs represent Jeconiah and the exiles in Babylon; the bad, Zedekiah and the obstinate Jews in Judea. They are called good and bad respectively, not in a total, but a relative sense, and in reference to the punishment of the latter. This prophecy was designed to encourage the despairing exiles, and to reprove the people at home, who prided themselves as superior to those in Babylon and abused the forbearance of G-d (compare Jeremiah 52:31-34).]
4. Again the word of the L-RD came unto me, saying,
5. Thus saith the L-RD, the G-d 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.
[Acknowledge - regard with favor, like as thou lookest on the good figs favorably. For their good - Their removal to Babylon saved them from the calamities which befell the rest of the nation and led them to repentance there: so G-d bettered their condition (2 Kings 25:27-30). Daniel and Ezekiel were among these captives.
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. 3:27. G-d owns their captivity to be his doing. Whoever were the instruments of it, he ordered and directed it.]
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.
[(Jeremiah 12:15). Not pull . . . down . . . not pluck . . . up - only partially fulfilled in the restoration from Babylon; antitypical and fully to be fulfilled hereafter (Jeremiah 32:41, 33:7).
G-d assures them of his protection in their trouble, and a glorious deliverance out of it in due time. 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."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 G-d 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. ]
7. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the L-RD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their G-d: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
[(Jeremiah 30:2, 31:33, 32:38). Their conversion from idolatry to the one true G-d, through the chastening effect of the Babylon’s captivity, is here expressed in language which, in its fulness, applies to the more complete conversion hereafter of the Jews, "with their whole heart" (Jeremiah 29:13), through the painful discipline of their present dispersion. The source of their conversion is here stated to be G-d's most excellent grace. For they shall return - Repentance, though not the cause of pardon, is its constant accessory: it is the effect of G-d's giving a heart to know Him.
He engages to prepare them for these temporal mercies which he designed for them by bestowing spiritual mercies upon them. 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 G-d; they should learn more of G-d 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 G-d. 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 G-d 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. 111:10. Where G-d gives a sincere desire and inclination to know him he will give that knowledge. It is G-d himself that gives a heart to know him, else we should perish forever in our ignorance.
2. That they should be entirely converted to G-d, 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. G-d himself undertakes for them that they shall; and, if he turns us, we shall be turned. This follows upon the former; for those that have a heart to know G-d aright will not only turn to him, but turn with their whole heart; for those that are either stubborn in their rebellion, or insincere in their religion, may truly be said to be ignorant of G-d.
3. That thus they should be again taken into covenant with G-d, as much to their comfort as ever: They shall be my people, and I will be their G-d. G-d 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 G-d in their prayers to him and their expectations from him.
Note, Those that have backslidden from G-d, 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.
8. And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the L-RD, 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:
[In. . . Egypt - Many Jews had fled for refuge to Egypt, which was leagued with Judea
against Babylon.
Here is the moral of the bad figs. Zedekiah and his princes and partisans yet remain in the land, proud and secure enough, Ezek. 11:3. 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 G-d 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 G-d, but set them at a greater distance from him.
3. That, whereas those should have the honour of being owned of G-d 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 G-d gave to their fathers, for they had it from G-d, 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. G-d 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]
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.
[Removed. - (Jeremiah 15:4)."I will give them up to demonstration,
Into all - This verse quotes the curse (Deuteronomy 28:25, 37). Compare Jeremiah 29:18, 22, Psalms 44:13, 14.]
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.
Now learn a parable of the fig tree; Matt. 24:32 & Mark 13:28 When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
[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 leading them to repentance.]
This prophecy was designed to encourage and to reprove people that prided themselves as superior.
This shows:
(1.) That we cannot determine of G-d’s love or hatred by all that is before us. When G-d’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.
It is G-d 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 G-d 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, honors, 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 G-d’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 G-d, 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. 119:67, 71.
(4.) G-d 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 G-d says, I will acknowledge them.
Note, The L-rd knows those that are His, and will own them in all conditions; nakedness and sword shall not separate them from His love.