Jeremiah 24:1-3 – Speaking at the Lord's Pace
The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 3 Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”
"We do not want to be beginners at prayer," confesses Thomas Merton as quoted in Nathan Foster's The Making of an Ordinary Saint, "but let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything but beginners in prayer."
The venerable, vaunted prophet goes before us in this exercise in Jeremiah 24:1-3. He is expositor extraordinaire, tested and true. He has seen the signs of the times and proclaimed them faithfully to the culture. Even when Divinely stilled active intercession for his countrymen, he has discussed the state of things with God as one does with a Friend. Nevertheless, Jeremiah hasn't grown over-familiar with his rarefied position he has no sense of scut work beneath his station.
He shares with us in retrospect the loaded times in which he saw this vision. His king and his capital had been uprooted. Yet, when God asks what Jeremiah saw in this vision, Jeremiah doesn't stray toward his own pain. He answers the question as it was asked. His yes is yes. His no is no. I see figs, Lord. Do what You will with them.
He knows well, then, this settled spirit of Psalm 119:169, "Let my cry come before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to YOUR word." Rather than performing the exposition himself because of his experience superior to other men, his proof as a tool for the Master's use, he waits on how the Lord will use the simple and direct answer to the question that was put to him.
There is humility to abase us in this, but there is also rousing boldness, and health in how often those two come together. Jeremiah's long experience with the Lord has taught him God's heart as the Great Revealer. The Christian knows it even more, in possession as he is of the Canon from Genesis to Revelation, treasuring the heart of God to walk with men in the Garden of Eden and to reign and rule with us in the New Jerusalem. Even in the middle of that stream, and in one of its worrisome eddies, Jeremiah can keep his answer simple because he KNOWS the Lord will move the conversation along and reveal more of Himself.
Receiving one question and giving one answer, Jeremiah's faith is that which Spurgeon will spark in the sermon "A View of God's Glory." Reveling in the conversational nature of an audience with God, Spurgeon invites, "This is the true nature of prayer. Rest not content with past answers, but double your request and go again." Today's question, today's answer is not the end. They are but the next phase in the dance of relationship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have preordained.
Should such an august company call us to identify fruit as an investment toward divine revelation, we do so heartily. Should they call us to speak of fruit before men, that those in our sphere may taste its sweetness, or its fustiness and begin to discern their spiritual state, far be it from us to ask for a higher office, to run apace ahead of the Almighty and to speak of more than is ready to be revealed. We learn the psalmist contentment, then, not to obsess over things too great for us until eye, and ear, and tongue, and time, have been lovingly and precisely prepared. Until then, figs are figs, and in them we await the further unfolding of the glory of God.
And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”
"We do not want to be beginners at prayer," confesses Thomas Merton as quoted in Nathan Foster's The Making of an Ordinary Saint, "but let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything but beginners in prayer."
The venerable, vaunted prophet goes before us in this exercise in Jeremiah 24:1-3. He is expositor extraordinaire, tested and true. He has seen the signs of the times and proclaimed them faithfully to the culture. Even when Divinely stilled active intercession for his countrymen, he has discussed the state of things with God as one does with a Friend. Nevertheless, Jeremiah hasn't grown over-familiar with his rarefied position he has no sense of scut work beneath his station.
He shares with us in retrospect the loaded times in which he saw this vision. His king and his capital had been uprooted. Yet, when God asks what Jeremiah saw in this vision, Jeremiah doesn't stray toward his own pain. He answers the question as it was asked. His yes is yes. His no is no. I see figs, Lord. Do what You will with them.
He knows well, then, this settled spirit of Psalm 119:169, "Let my cry come before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to YOUR word." Rather than performing the exposition himself because of his experience superior to other men, his proof as a tool for the Master's use, he waits on how the Lord will use the simple and direct answer to the question that was put to him.
There is humility to abase us in this, but there is also rousing boldness, and health in how often those two come together. Jeremiah's long experience with the Lord has taught him God's heart as the Great Revealer. The Christian knows it even more, in possession as he is of the Canon from Genesis to Revelation, treasuring the heart of God to walk with men in the Garden of Eden and to reign and rule with us in the New Jerusalem. Even in the middle of that stream, and in one of its worrisome eddies, Jeremiah can keep his answer simple because he KNOWS the Lord will move the conversation along and reveal more of Himself.
Receiving one question and giving one answer, Jeremiah's faith is that which Spurgeon will spark in the sermon "A View of God's Glory." Reveling in the conversational nature of an audience with God, Spurgeon invites, "This is the true nature of prayer. Rest not content with past answers, but double your request and go again." Today's question, today's answer is not the end. They are but the next phase in the dance of relationship the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have preordained.
Should such an august company call us to identify fruit as an investment toward divine revelation, we do so heartily. Should they call us to speak of fruit before men, that those in our sphere may taste its sweetness, or its fustiness and begin to discern their spiritual state, far be it from us to ask for a higher office, to run apace ahead of the Almighty and to speak of more than is ready to be revealed. We learn the psalmist contentment, then, not to obsess over things too great for us until eye, and ear, and tongue, and time, have been lovingly and precisely prepared. Until then, figs are figs, and in them we await the further unfolding of the glory of God.
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