Chapter 24

I have to admit that the temptation to make today some kind of April Fools joke is strong. However, I intend to resist.

One of the curious little oddities of the English language is how words change. Words which once held one meaning somehow meander until they hold another.

Case in point: Tonight’s passage. In his vision, Jeremiah sees “A basket of naughty figs,” in the King James Version! Of course, in modern English, it’s usually translated as “rotten figs,” or even more precisely, in The Message, “Rotten figs, so rotten they cannot be eaten.”

Here once again we see God’s promise for redemption of His people. Even here, at Israel and Judah’s lowest Ebb, God still cares about them. He wants to rescue them.

Yet the country is not what He had in mind. God desires to show mercy, but He also wants to show that Justice is to be done.

“Catch 22” perhaps?

Thankfully no, because there is a way for God to do both.

What He can do is to set before His people a choice, just as He did back in the days of Joshua – “I have set before you blessings and curses.”

Then, as now, God granted the people free choice.

It’s really up to the people whether they’re going to be “Good figs” or “Naughty figs.” And the way they choose is how they respond to God’s instructions!

Just in case you’ve forgotten along the way, God said that if anyone wishes to survive what is coming – the invasion of Jerusalem – they will need to surrender to the invading armies. They will be taken away (as were Daniel and his friends – they were exiles to Babylon from this period!) and their talents used, but they will survive; and one day God will bring them back to here. Not them personally, of course; their children, or maybe their childrens’ children. Meanwhile, the exiles have God’s promise of protection.

We face a choice like that in Jeremiah’s vision today. God has granted us too the opportunity to choose blessings or curses.

Needless to say, we must choose carefully.