Jeremiah 24:4

THE PARABLE EXPLAINED

"And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good. 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. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto me with their whole heart."

The captivity in Babylon, in some ways, was like the long sojourn of the children of Jacob in Egypt which also ended in the captivity of the nation. In the days of Judah, the son of Jacob, there was grave danger of the Israelites becoming amalgamated with the citizens of Canaan; but God transferred them to Egypt where the whole nation was despised and where any amalgamation with Egypt was virtually impossible. Their sojourn in Egypt kept them segregated and enabled them to develop into a powerful people. So here, the captivity in Babylon would finally eradicate idolatry from the preference of the Hebrew people. This and many other things were meant by the Lord's word that he was sending Israel into Babylon "for good."

"Green spoke of the exiles thus: They were the hope of true religion in the future; they had endured the shock of deportation; they had been stripped of their false securities; they were undergoing the discipline of Divine love. Some of them would respond to their suffering in a right spirit and return to God with their whole heart."[5]

It is sad indeed that the subsequent history of the returnees did not exhibit such desirable results in all of the people. Ash's comment on this is accurate.

"Post-exilic sources from Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi show that the real situation was something less than the expectation mentioned here."[6]

Despite this truth, however, there were indeed those who waited for the kingdom of God; and, in the fullness of time, Mary would wrap her babe in swaddling clothes; and the Redeemer of Mankind would be cradled in a manger in Bethlehem! From people like Mary and Joseph, and Zacharias and Elizabeth, and Simeon, and Anna, and Nathaniel, and Zacchaeus, the holy Apostles, and that handful of 120 people in the upper room on Pentecost, from people like that and a few others, the New Israel of God was formed; and the kingdom of heaven on earth was launched when the Word of the Lord went forth from Jerusalem on Pentecost! Without the hard discipline of the Baylonian captivity, not even this humble beginning could ever have been achieved.