Devotional Commentary on Jeremiah 24
Nebuchadnezzar had three invasions to Jerusalem and
when the first one happened in 605 BCE bringing Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim
and the princes of Judah and craftsmen to Babylon (verse 1), Jeremiah was shown
two pots with figs. One pot had good figs and one had very bad figs (verse 2).
What we are going to see with these images is that the
Lord will give him a primary school lesson about the history of Israel in the
near future within a range of about 20 years.
In verse 3 the Lord wanted to make sure Jeremiah saw
well by testing him to describe what he saw: the good figs were very good and
the bad figs were very bad so that it could not be eaten (verse 3).
The application is then given by the Lord (verse 4).
Like the good figs so will there be an exile in 597 BCE with a good group of
people whom the Lord will protect and taken care of. He will build them and not
destroy them and plant then and not pluck them (verse 6).
Since they want to follow the Lord their whole life
the Lord has a bonus for them: “I will give them a heart to know Me, for they
shall be to Me for a people, and I will be to them for a God” (verse 7).
Predestination (of Calvinistic Orthodoxy) or predetermination (of Berkhouwer)?
No. Read the next phrase: “for they shall return to Me with all their heart”.
The first step is giving your heart to God and He will do the rest. Is it “once
saved always saved” like the “I” in TULIP is teaching with “irresistible grace”?
Answer: No. To the adulterate woman confessing Christ in John 8 Jesus said: “Go
and sin no more”. That is a long time for her, her whole rest of her life. It
is attached to the activities of salvation in heaven by Christ with our own
acts on earth afterwards. A requirement that can jeopardize Christ’s grace to
us since people can fall from grace (see Paul).
On the other hand, the bad figs will be taken care of
in 586 BCE with Zedekiah, his princes and the remaining of the people of
Jerusalem and those dwelling in Egypt (verse 8). Some thought that to run to
another country is going to help them escape God’s punishments. Not so. In time
of war people ask the question: should we run or stay? Migrations are realities
because of this question. The world is heading for a main bankruptcy since
resources can only last until a ceiling-point and then unless there are major
creative economic ideas for recuperation eliminating the debts of migration,
the whole world is going to feel it.
The evil will be made for horror and evil and disgrace
(verse 9). People will have proverbs and they shall be a piece of conversation,
a curse in all places where they will be exiled. Migrants in modern times
experiencing hardship to the extreme in countries taking them in, should ask
themselves what they as migrants are doing to lessen the problem since unless
they are double as good as they were where they come from, they will suffer as
a curse in the mouths of their hosts. They also have to ask themselves what
they have done with their life before to deserve the role they are given in
history. The meaning of life question is for everyone on this globe. If
migrants past religion did not give them the tranquility that their society
needed, they need to consider to find a true religion that can give them that
inner and outer tranquility for the future. For many it will mean transition
and transformation but the future benefits will be endless.
The sword, pestilence and famine would be three major
problems among these migrants in 586 BCE because they were bad figs. The Lord
wants to consume them upon the land that He gave them and their forefathers.
Forced migration was their only future.
Dear God
Migration is a sign of the end-time as Isaiah 25 and
Psalm 2 indicate so we accept that the End Time has brought us to look up to
You as our only transformation and radical change to the good. In Jesus Name,
Amen.