Two Baskets of Figs – The Presidential Prayer Team

I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord. – Jeremiah 24:7

When the people of Israel were taken captive to Babylon, it did not happen all at once. There were waves, with the first occurring in 597 BC, when Jehoiachin and some of the leading officials of Judah were taken. Others remained behind until a later exile in 587 BC. The events around today’s passage occur at the beginning. God gave Jeremiah the prophet a vision—two baskets of figs. One basket held fruit of a high quality while the figs in the second basket were “so bad that they cannot be eaten.” Then, God explained the vision to Jeremiah. He equated the fate of the nation to the figs. Some of the people believed God, worshipping Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. They were the good fruit. The rotten figs were people with no desire for commitment to the Lord or His ways, to the degree that severe divine discipline would come upon them.

Sadly, among those who claim to be Christians in America, there is also both good and rotten “fruit,“ and God knows the difference. It is generally easy to spot the ripe fruit, the sincere worshippers, the ones with an earnest desire to know more of the Lord and have an intimate relationship with Him. It is not always easy to spot the posturing fraud who claims to believe, even engaging in good works, but whose heart is far from the Lord. Jesus warned, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).

The Babylonian captivity officially ended in 538 BC after Cyrus the Great issued an edict allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem. Some who returned were faithful to the Lord, but others returned to the sins of the prior generations. The death of Jesus on the cross resolved the sin problem. Do you have faith or do you simply assent to the claims of Christ without appropriating them? Take the life God has given you seriously and do not play games with it. You need to have an eternal relationship with God. Pray for an awakening and repentance of people across the United States.

Today’s Verse: Jeremiah 24:7

I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: Jeremiah 24:1-10

24 After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. ²One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. ³And the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”

⁴Then the word of the Lord came to me: ⁵“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. ⁷I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

⁸“But thus says the Lord: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. ⁹I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. ¹⁰And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”