“After King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon exiled Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, to Babylon along with the officials of Judah and all the craftsmen and artisans, the Lord gave me this vision. I saw two baskets of figs placed in front of the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem. 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.” “Then the Lord gave me this message:”
“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: The good figs represent the exiles I sent from Judah to the land of the Babylonians. I will watch over and care for them, and I will bring them back here again. I will build them up and not tear them down. I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them hearts that recognize me as the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me wholeheartedly.” Jeremiah 24:1-7 NLT
This vision of Jeremiah was about the people being captured and taken into exile. That was a horrible event. The city was burning, people were dying and they were being taken captive to live in a land of people that did not worship God.
When reading this I expected God to tell Jeremiah that the bad figs were the ones taken into captivity. It’s always better to be free right? You can live where you want to live, do what you want to do. But that was precisely the problem. The people of Israel were doing what they wanted to do and what they wanted to do was contrary to what God wanted for them.
God tells Jeremiah that the good figs are the ones being taken into captivity. He says these are the people He was going to look after. Sounds counter intuitive doesn’t it? We think and we say out loud that when bad things happen God can’t be controlling it. We express our disbelief when the events of the world don’t go the way we want them to go. We ask in our hearts, even if we don’t say it out loud, where is He?
But we are forgetting.....we are forgetting that God’s ways are different than ours. If we followed the logic that says when bad things happen God is not involved, then we would have to totally discount the birth of Jesus. Mary and Joseph went through quite a few unpleasant situations. How would you like to deliver your baby in a barn? How would you feel if the life of your child was threatened just because he was the right age? Not to mention the shame and humiliation they suffered because Mary “got pregnant” out of wedlock. They suffered to fulfill God’s promise of a Savior.
And fast forward to the cross. Before Jesus was crucified, the people welcomed him as the Messiah. There was a parade and crowds were honoring and worshipping him. How fast the tides turned. Pretty soon he was being arrested, his faithful followers fled and he was pronounced guilty. Then, he was crucified. To the human eye, this looked like a failure. Defeat.
But it wasn’t. It was our beginning. We can’t look at what is happening in the world, in our lives, and determine that God is not in control. We cannot assume He is not good and that He is not working because what we see doesn’t “look” right. The Promise is alive and well. That Promise is Jesus.
I suspect as humanity continues down this path of doing what we want, when we want, just like the Israelites did, there will be more tragedy, more sickness, more hate. Will you make decisions about God based on what’s happening all around you or will you stand firm because you know who God is? Will you hold on to the Promise and remember that God’s Plan is perfect?
God wants most of all is to be in a relationship with us. He wants to be our God and for us to be His people. Will you hold onto Him? Will you hold on to the Promise?
For I am about to do something new.
See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?
I will make a pathway through the wilderness.
I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. Isaiah 43:19
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11