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Jeremiah 24:6-8 NIV
My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; 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, for they will return to me with all their heart.
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| Lost Baby Boot on Rustlings Road, Sheffield. |
God uses a couple baskets of figs to make a point. And for me today, I've chosen to focus on the hopeful message pictured in the tasty figs.
This basket is a variable cornucopia of promises. Anybody reading this would be a bit confused but would want the good fig deal offered in basket number 1.
The confusion comes in having to leave the land and go into exile to be blessed. But there it is, the exiles are the ones God is going to do the good to. We'll not explore the bad fig basket's scenario today but suffice it to say, it stinks!
The confusion comes in having to leave the land and go into exile to be blessed. But there it is, the exiles are the ones God is going to do the good to. We'll not explore the bad fig basket's scenario today but suffice it to say, it stinks!
So let's look at the promises for the exiles.
God's eyes will watch over them for their good--not just a negative big brother but a benevolent Father.
God will bring them back. Sometimes it seems you've got to leave a good thing to get it. Grasping does but result in anything positive. Don't try and force God's hand in promise fulfilment.
There is a promise to build them up!
There is a promise to plant them!
There is a promise to plant them!
And maybe the biggest promise of all: God will give them new hearts!
And the new heart is expressly so they can know God!
These promises might seem remote and unrelated to us, but they are not. From Genesis to Revelation some form of these promises is repeated and expanded upon. And so we are definitely inheritors of the promise of a new heart that knows God.
Read how Paul says it to the believers in Rome, "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God's condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. (NLTse)
Now that is a fulfilment of a new heart that can know God!
_______________________Jeremiah 24:1-10 NIV
After Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the skilled workers and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord . One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten. Then the Lord asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “Figs,” I answered. “The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad they cannot be eaten.” Then the word of the Lord came to me: “This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; 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, for they will return to me with all their heart. “ ‘But like the bad figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the Lord , ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt. I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a curse and an object of ridicule, wherever I banish them. I will send the sword, famine and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave to them and their ancestors.’ ”
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