1-2 After King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had deported Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, the officials of Judah, and the craftsmen and metalsmiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the  Lord. One basket contained very good figs, like early figs, but the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they were inedible.  3 The Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs! The good figs are very good, but the bad figs are extremely bad, so bad they are inedible.”

4-7 The word of the Lord came to me: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah I sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will keep my eyes on them for their good and will return them to this land. I will build them up and not demolish them; I will plant them and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart.

8-10 “But as for the bad figs, so bad they are inedible, this is what the Lord says: In this way I will deal with King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem - those remaining in this land or living in the land of Egypt. I will make them an object of horror and a disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, an example for disgrace, scorn, ridicule, and cursing, wherever I have banished them. I will send the sword, famine, and plague against them until they have perished from the land I gave to them and their ancestors.” Jeremiah 24:1-10 Christian Standard Bible

If you chose one of the baskets of figs Jeremiah saw to describe how things are in your life today, which one would you choose? Keeping to the picture of fruit, sometimes our life goes pear shaped. It may even look as if God Himself is against us. But, strange as it may seem, the sad twists and turns of our journey and the deep problems we meet up with may actually be God's way of dealing with the problem of our wandering heart. How do you think the large number of Jews in vs 1-2, including many who would’ve been teenagers, must have felt when they were deported from home to a foreign country?

They must’ve been devastated. And the Jews who were left behind in Jerusalem by the King of Babylon at that time must have thought they were the lucky ones! They may have concluded that God was on their side. But what do vs 8-10 say was going to be the destiny of those represented by the basket of bad figs?

They were going to face the horror of when the Babylonians came back a second time and utterly destroyed the city and sent those who survived into exile as well. The first exile, represented by the good figs, took place almost 600 years before Jesus came into the world. One person in that batch was a young man named Daniel, and also some of his friends. We read about them in the book called Daniel. The next batch, when Jerusalem was destroyed, took place about 11 years later. So what was going on here?

The people who went into that first exile were being set apart by God in order to bring about a change in their hearts and be part of His plan to bring the Messiah into the world. Not all of them were as faithful as Daniel turned out to be, so their rescue was because of God's mercy rather than their merit. But look at what God was going to do in their lives over the next 60 to 70 years when they were in Babylon. (vs 4-7)

I just turned 70 recently and have been a Christian since a youth. Yet I know I still need the work of God's Spirit in my heart to enable me to love Him as I ought. I believe He has used the many 'pear shaped' times of my life to bring about changes He desires. Don't lose heart when you face hard times. It may seem God has allowed something dreadful to loom on the horizon. But if you long to be His child then you can take courage from what God did in Jeremiah's day. He can use whatever lies ahead to draw you much nearer to Christ, and more faithful in your love.