Chapter 24
This chapter switches to historical narrative again. MSB outline says message 10 starts at vs 1. Really seems to be some history inserted here. The message looks more like it starts at vs 4 with the words "Then the word of the Lord came to me..." Hmm. First person I think. Jeremiah is talking. Haven't seen first person Jeremiah, only first person God. This all needs a re-look now that I've read so many messages. It might be a very revealing study.
We again get a fix on when this prophecy occurred. Nebuchadnezzar has taken Jeconiah (Coniah of a previous chapter) into captivity. The impression I get is that Jeremiah was still in Jerusalem. It was not devastated and destroyed, but had certainly fallen to a Babylonian siege. MSB says this was after Babylon's second deportation of Judeans in 597 BC. I think there is yet another coming in about 587 BC...
Vs 5 says this:
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. [Jer 24:5 ESV]
Are we to take this as God calling the Chaldeans and Babylonians by a common name? (Yes. Because they were the same. My ignorance showing.) That would sort of explain the previous reference, a few chapters back, to Babylon and the Chaldeans taking Jerusalem together. MSB does not address this question. (2020 - because the Chaldeans and the Babylonians are the same people. I thought they were different, but they are not.)
Found this excerpt in Wiki. I know...but it was there.
"The Chaldeans remained quietly ruled by the native Babylonians (who were in turn subjugated by their Assyrian relations) for the next seventy-two years, only coming to historical prominence for the first time in Babylonia in 780 BCE, when a previously unknown Chaldean named Marduk-apla-usur usurped the throne from the ...
The complete article is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaldea
I think it would be well worth reading, perhaps while on vacation in DC, the seat of power. Might give some perspective.
Point is that God says he will protect those who've gone into captivity. Things won't be harsh for them. They are the good figs in the vision. The bad figs, presumably, are those left to try and survive in a devastated Judah. God had previously told them to go out and present themselves as captives to the besiegers, and so gain their lives. God has sentenced them to "prison", and all who balk at this will forfeit their lives.
As stated above, vs 4 starts as a direct revelation in God's own words. It restates the "summary" in the first few verses. While this certainly came true when the Jews returned from Babylon, it would be a stretch to say that God elevated them to "full honors" as His people. Therefore, this would seem to be pointing again to the Millennial Reign, when these verses will be 100% fulfilled:
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. [Jer 24:7 ESV]
This may also point back to God saying that "just this once" He will make sure they know that idols are a waste of time. MSB note said that after the return, Israel never worshiped idols again. I am keeping an eye out for that. The "whole heart" reference may be about this - maybe their complete abandonment of idolatry is the near fulfillment and the Millennial is the far? 2020-No, I think this is a near/far prophecy, only truly fulfilled in the Millennial. Remember where we are in time here. This is, according to MSB, the second carrying away of captives to Babylon.
2023 - Note that those in captivity, those carried away forcefully and against their will to become slaves of the Babylonians...which all seems a very cursed thing to have happen to you - are in fact to be looked after by God while they are there. The ones who seem to have come out of things the worst in that they are now slaves, are in fact the ones in God's favor. And look at what happens to them! They are GIVEN a heart to know the LORD. The lesson is that a consequence that seems unbearable when viewed from an earthly perspective may in fact result in a closer relationship with God, and with future rewards we cannot anticipate. In fact, the best place we can be is not on Google Maps, but is in submission to God and doing the things commanded in his word.
vss 8-10 tell us the bad figs are definitely not favored, not preserved. Zedekiah and all his government will become a reproach to all the earth. They will have sword, famine, and pestilence until they are entirely destroyed. Hmm...remember the previous warning where God tells all those who want their lives spared to surrender to the Chaldeans? This seems to be a direct follow on to that. Would be nice to put these verses all side by side. What lesson would be there? Surrender yourself to slavery and live, or stay home and die? Surely there is something more than that here?
2021 - Is this about what happens if you try to escape God's plan for you? God meant for Israel to go into captivity in a land they did not know. But some evaded, some ran away. They went to Egypt or the remained in Judah. Somehow, they avoided deportation. And those who didn't go into captivity God promises to wipe out completely, and not only will they die, but in such a way that others wonder what they did to offend their God so badly that this fate would come upon them.
Sword, famine, and pestilence will overtake them. Always pestilence. It is most certainly a correction, and sometimes a punishment from God. We ought to be looking at this covid thing in a much more "direct application of God's anger toward this country" sort of way.
2023 - This verse:
10 And 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." [Jer 24:10 ESV]. Only these three are listed. There are two ways that God says this. There are the places where only three means of punishment appear, and the places where "wild animals" or "beasts" are added. It might be interesting to see what other differences we can find, depending on whether there are three, or four. It might be that three are not permanent, but four are a final judgment. Maybe the Northern Kingdom had four, and the Southern only three, because Judah had to survive? Would be a good study, even just using the tags I have so far.