Fig Newtons

I want to describe something wonderful. It has a light flaky outer coating. It’s sweet and delicious. So soft like a cake. And it’s about an inch and a half square. But the inside, oh man is it good. It’s soft but chewy, dark and sweet with just a little bit of grit from the natural fruit. They come packaged in rows. What a wonderful dessert to be eaten with a hot cup of coffee. How many here would like to have a FIG NEWTON right now? Shame on you, you shouldn’t be eating in church!!!

I read this passage out of Jeremiah 24 BEFORE I went on vacation and it’s been bouncing around in my head all this time. I’ve been having terrible cravings for FIG NEWTONS for two weeks now. No, but in this passage we’re going to read this morning, the Great Prophet Jeremiah was shown two baskets of figs. And God used these two baskets to ILLUSTRATE to Jeremiah what was coming. What was going to happen to the Nation of Judah. This might seem like a strange passage to preach from but I’ve been called strange before. You might be saying “How is he going to get a message out of this?” I don’t know, but let’s go ahead and read Jeremiah Chapter 24.

“The Lord shewed me, and, behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord, after that Nebuchadrezzar 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.

2 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.

3 Then said the Lord 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.

4 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

5 Thus saith the Lord, 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.

6 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.

7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the Lord, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:

9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them.

10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.”

God has a REASON for everything that He does. He has a REASON for every ILLUSTRATION that He uses. And this passage is NO DIFFERENT. God has a MESSAGE for Jeremiah and God has a MESSAGE for you and I today. Before we get into that message let’s go to the Lord in Prayer.

Brother _____, would you lead us in Prayer?

I. One of the first things we need to see here in Verse 1 was the fact that the LORD SHOWED Jeremiah something and Jeremiah RECOGNIZED that it was from the Lord.

There are too many times God SPEAKS to us, He SHOWS us something, He PRICKS our hearts and ...... we just ignore it. I’m sure that as Jeremiah looked at these two baskets of FIGS he could have said, “So what, I’ve seen plenty of figs, eaten a few, who cares!!!” But God had a message in these BASKETS of FIGS.

And the LORD speaks to us, He leads us, He guides us in different ways and we need to be open to what He has to tell us. I think a lot of people really don’t want to hear from God because if they did then they might have to actually do something about it. Let me tell you something this morning.