Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Comparet Bertrand L.
Title : The good and the bad figs
Year : 19*

Link download : Comparet_Bertrand_L_-_The_good_and_the_bad_figs.zip

Tonight I want to talk to you about something found principally in the Book of Jeremiah, the matter of the good figs and the bad figs, because this is something on which a lot of churches have become sadly messed up. The first deportation in the Babylonian captivity occurred soon after the overthrow of King Jehoiachin by Nebuchadnezzar The Babylonians captured Jerusalem about 606 B.C., and the deportation probably took place nearly two years later, around 604 B.C. You have had the details set out in 2nd Kings 24, verses 9 to 17; and 2nd Chronicles 36, verses 9 to 10. Then there was a second deportation, because the puppet king, who had been placed on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar, rebelled; so Nebuchadnezzar had to come back and finish the job, deporting the rest of the people of Judah and pretty largely burning and destroying the city of Jerusalem You will see that set out in 2nd Kings 25, verses 1 to 21; that was 585 B.C. Now in between these two deportations, and in the reign of its last king, Zedekiah, the prophet Jeremiah was shown a vision of two baskets of figs, and he says this (Jeremiah 24, verses,1 to 10): "Yahweh shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of Yahweh, after that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, even like the figs. that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then Yahweh said unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. "Again the word of Yahweh came unto me, saying, Thus saith Yahweh, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am Yahweh: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart. ...