One basket was filled with fresh, ripe figs, while the other was filled with bad figs that were too rotten to eat. Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I replied, “Figs, some very good and some very bad, too rotten to eat.” Jeremiah 24:2-3 (NLT)
In the Book of Jeremiah, God showed Jeremiah two baskets of figs. One was filled with rotten figs, the other was filled with fresh, ripe figs. God was going to give Jeremiah a prediction about the figs. What would God do with the good figs and the bad figs?
As it turns out, the people who represented the good figs were taken into captivity and exiled to Babylon. The people who represented the bad figs were left in Jerusalem. Doesn’t make sense does it? You’d think the bad figs would be captured and taken as slaves. But it was the other way around.
Later, in Jeremiah 29, God started reaching out to the folks who were in exile. He said (paraphrased) “Live your lives. Enjoy! Raise families. Build homes. I have plans for you. They are good plans for a great future. Call out to me and I will answer you.”
It kind of feels backward doesn’t it? The people in captivity God is helping. Eventually, they went home. What happened to the people that represented the bad figs? They were destroyed. They were so set in their ways God could not save them.
There is a lesson for us in this story. When things seem like they are out of control and God is not in it, God may actually be using your circumstances to save you. You may feel like you are being held in an impossible situation but God may be keeping you there so you will not be destroyed.
God is always working on behalf of his people. You can’t always never sometimes tell what he is doing and you never know how he is going to work out your circumstances. Trust him.