©Michael Player
Chapter 29:15-23 (ESV) - “Because you have said, ‘The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,’ thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, and concerning all the people who dwell in this city, your kinsmen who did not go out with you into exile: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, behold, I am sending on them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs that are so rotten they cannot be eaten. I will pursue them with sword, famine, and pestilence, and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, a terror, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them, because they did not pay attention to my words, declares the LORD, that I persistently sent to you by my servants the prophets, but you would not listen, declares the LORD.’ Hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying a lie to you in my name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall strike them down before your eyes. Because of them this curse shall be used by all the exiles from Judah in Babylon: “The LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire,” because they have done an outrageous thing in Israel, they have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and they have spoken in my name lying words that I did not command them. I am the one who knows, and I am witness, declares the LORD.’”
Question to consider: Who were those the LORD considered to be bad figs?
After Adam and Eve ate of the prohibition tree, the LORD cursed the serpent, and the world was divided into two kinds of people. It is written in Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Those who had faith in the word of the LORD were counted as an offspring of the woman, and those who rejected the word of the LORD were counted as an offspring of the serpent. This dichotomy is found throughout scripture and is notably manifested in Jeremiah through the metaphor of good and bad figs. Those who were good figs listened to the LORD’s command to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar and go into Babylonian exile. The LORD had plans for them to prosper and multiply in the land so that in seventy years, there would be a remnant who could return to the land and rebuild the temple and city. While the temple would not be as majestic as the one built by Solomon, its greatness would be measured by the glory of the LORD dwelling in it. The LORD gave this reassurance through the prophet Haggai, “Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How do you see it now? Is it not as nothing in your eyes? Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.” (Haggai 2:3-5)
Today’s passage addressed the bad figs who ignored the command of the LORD to go into exile and instead tried to take refuge in the city walls. They had their own “prophets” who told lies in the name of the LORD, broke the covenant with Nebuchadnezzar to align with Egypt, and persecuted the LORD’s prophets who were calling people to repent. They were adulterers and idolaters— the offspring of the serpent.
The LORD had plans for them as well— plans for their destruction by the sword, famine, and pestilence. Those who escaped to other nations would become a terror and curse to them. Nebuchadnezzar would pursue them with the sword, invading all the nations to which they had fled and be judged by the LORD because of them.
Because Zedekiah and Ahab would be executed by Nebuchadnezzar in a fiery furnace, their demise would become a curse spoken among the exiles. I believe this fate, and the threat of its repeat was what terrified those exiles who bowed down to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol in the book of Daniel. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego— friends of Daniel— received this sentence in their refusal to bow. True to His word, the LORD kept them from harm.
Dear heavenly Father, may we be like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who trusted in You despite being faced with the fiery furnace. Your word is truth. May we be sanctified by it. Amen.