Part VI – A Historical Interlude We Should Give a Fig About

History matters. I know that several of you have taken me up on my Jeremiah challenge and are attempting to read through this entire book as we make our way through this series. I said that Jeremiah has been called the Bible’s most “unreadable” book, and that’s why it’s such a challenge. One reason it’s proving to be so difficult is that Jeremiah is not written chronologically. It tells a story, but it makes no attempt to tell that story in a linear fashion but instead jumps around backwards and forwards through time. In that sense it’s all very hip and postmodern – like a Quentin Tarrantino movie. It’s also extremely confusing and frustrating.

For this reason I’ve suggested that a secondary reading of the corresponding passages in 2nd Kings and 2nd Chronicles might prove helpful. Believe it or not but Chronicles is chronological storytelling. But that of course isn’t part of our challenge, so I thought the preliminary chapters leading up to our text today might give us a chance to insert a brief historical interlude here. A few weeks ago we learned about Manasseh’s reign of terror and how his grandson Josiah sought to reform the nation from their worship practices out. During this time Jeremiah no doubt supported Josiah but was skeptical of how effective the reform had really been. In Jeremiah’s opinion, it was only skin deep, or to borrow one of his actual metaphors it was a band-aid applied to what was ultimately a fatal wound. We know from the first verses of this book that Jeremiah’s ministry began in Josiah’s reign and continued through the reign of Zedekiah and the fall of Jerusalem. What I want to do in this interlude is fill in the political blanks between Josiah and Zedekiah. I think knowing the whole story will not only help us understand today’s text, but also the rest of the book as well. So let’s start.

Josiah. Jehoiakim. Zedekiah. These are the three kings mentioned at the outset of Jeremiah’s book, but there are actually five that reign in Jerusalem during Jeremiah’s ministry – it’s just that two aren’t around very long and are hardly worth mentioning in chapter one. So here’s the summary: The good king Josiah dies in battle with the Egyptians. First of all, who knew the Egyptians were still around? The Exodus was, like, 900 years ago, haven’t they disappeared yet? Apparently they haven’t and they kill the best Hebrew king since David. Jeremiah writes a funeral liturgy for him in which he laments Josiah’s passing, establishing the fact that although Jeremiah was critical of the results of his reform, he loved and supported this good king throughout his reign. So then Josiah’s son becomes king. He lasts all of three months before the Egyptians defeat him in battle and carry him off to Egypt. The Egyptians install his brother Jehoiakim on the throne of Judah as sort of a puppet king and then they tax the living heck out of Jerusalem. Jehoiakim, unfortunately, is as weak as his brother and nothing like his father. Josiah’s reforms didn’t even adequately affect his own household, it seems. Josiah did right – Jehoiakim did evil in the eyes of the Lord. Among other things, he’s the one that collects the taxes and pays off Egypt. He’s pharaoh’s little toadie.

So Egypt dominates God’s people once again and we get to thinking that we’re getting taxed right back to Moses’ day and next we may be headed back to build pyramids but then the geo-political climate shifts once again, and there’s a new superpower in town. Out of the north rises a new empire that puts the Egyptians to shame. Under a young militant upstart named Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon rises to world prominence. The Babylonians take all the land they want, and Egypt politely excuses herself and slinks back to their side of the Nile. Jehoiakim is no dummy – he paid off the Egyptians, so now he pays off the Babylonians and Judah becomes its vassal. For three years Judah is subordinate and enslaved by Babylon. And then, for reasons unknown to anyone, Jehoiakim gets a little uppity. Nobody knows why. The Bible just says he changed his mind and rebelled. Bad move.

Nebuchadnezzar crushes the rebellion, slaps some bronze shackles on Jehoiakim and carries him and some of the best articles from the temple in Jerusalem back to Babylon. Jehoiakim’s son is installed in his place. During all this, Jeremiah keeps on preaching only now some of the chips are staring to fall. The temple that he threatened and that the people believed was untouchable has already been violated. Nebuchadnezzar took what he wanted and no doubt the people are shocked that he wasn’t struck dead. Some of the bloom is off the rose when it comes to the temple. The next chip to fall is Jehoiakim’s son. He’s another one of those “three month guys” – actually three months and ten days to be precise. 2nd Chronicles tells us that in the spring, just like his father, he gets dragged off to Babylon too. I like that it’s in the spring. Like Nebuchadnezzar was in a festive mood because the swallows had returned and thought he’d celebrate by dragging off another king and plundering their precious temple one more time. Only this time, he doesn’t just drag off the king. He also takes the whole Hebrew army and all the skilled laborers – about ten thousand people. He just grabs them and marches them to Babylon. When we use a term like exile, this is what we mean. Of course, the reality is that things like exiles happen in stages. This stage involved ten thousand people. That’s not everybody though. There are still plenty of people in Judah. And Jerusalem itself is still standing. And so, that brings us to Zedekiah, the final king of Judah who happens to be the uncle of the last guy they dragged away. Zedekiah is the king who is in power when the final exile hits and the death blow is dealt to Jerusalem and the temple along with it and that’s the end of the story.

Everything that happens in the rest of this book happens within that framework. Sometimes we know exactly when events are taking place, and sometimes we’re left to guess just who the king is or what’s going on politically. And so we find ourselves in chapter 21 dealing with Zedekiah. Remember that we are only in chapter 21 of a book with 52 chapters so there is still lots to come. Zedekiah is the last king before the complete destruction of Jerusalem, but the previous kings will still figure into the rest of the book because, again, the book is not chronological.

So here’s Zedekiah in chapter 21. It must be spring because the Babylonians are about ready to attack Jerusalem again. His nephew and about ten thousand others have been dragged away and so he gets to thinking, “Hey, maybe this Jeremiah guy is onto something. Maybe exactly what he said would happen did happen. Maybe we ought to pay a little attention to him.” You think? So Zedekiah gets our old buddy Pashur, the head of the temple – yes, the guy who once laid a beating on Jeremiah – to go find him and ask him if maybe he might maybe, sorta, kinda put in a good word with God for them. This is the great irony: When all conventional solutions have failed, then and only then do they go crawling back to the word of God and the man who claims to speak it. The political solution has failed. Military strategy has failed. The religious solution has failed. The temple was no guarantee of safety. The chief politicians and the chief religious figures have to admit that they are failures. What would you give to see the look on their faces as they go crawling over to Jeremiah and ask if he might now inquire of the Lord for a miracle or two?

Anyone who has been in ministry for any length of time has been in Jeremiah’s shoes. “Pastor, pray for us. My teenage daughter is pregnant.” You mean after all those years where you demonstrated that church and religion were there just to supplement your lives and that they ought to fit into your schedule in order that your daughter could experience all the joys of being a normal teenager in America instead of disciplining your family to place Christ first in all things – after all those years you’re shocked that she chose to live out the next chapter of the world’s story instead of God’s? What are you hoping a pastor’s prayer will accomplish? You don’t get to ignore repeated prophetic teaching and then count on a miraculous intervention that saves from all consequences. “But I’m a Christian!” they may protest. No, you’re a product of the culture who has added faith as one piece of the puzzle. Faith is the completed picture, and much of the culture doesn’t fit. Zedekiah and Pashur say, But we’re God’s chosen people!

Jeremiah tells them, no such luck. In fact he tells them that God says that God himself will fight with the Babylonians against his own people and his own city. In verse 5, he uses the same language of the Exodus – the outstretched hand and mighty arm that 900 years ago delivered the people from Egypt – and he says that same outstretched arm and mighty hand will now be employed against the people who assumed God’s hand existed only to help them. This is an earth shattering reversal. It’s like going to Red Sox games your whole life with your best friend and then one day seeing him in a Yankee jersey. God tells Zedekiah that in this battle God’s wearing the Babylonian pinstripes. But not only is God fighting on the Babylonian side, look what he says in verse 8: Furthermore, tell the people, “This is what the Lord says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine, or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; he will escape with his life.”

God encourages his people to surrender. He advises them to be quitters. In previous times God has told his people to stand firm. In previous battles He has intentionally thinned the ranks so that the impossible minority defeats the overwhelming majority. No battle was so unwinnable that God counseled surrender. But here, God advocates giving up. I want us to notice just one thing: God is judging the city, not the individual people. That is to say that God is judging systems of power and religion that are represented in the city. He’s judging monarchy and temple. But the people, he hopes to save. He provides a means of salvation. And do you know what word He uses when He tells the people to “go out” of the city? He uses the Hebrew word yatsa. It means Exodus.

I’m convinced this is no accident of the language. He has just used the language of the Exodus – outstretched arm and mighty hand – to describe which side He is on. And now He calls for an actual Exodus. As if to say that hundreds of years ago you were enslaved to a compassionless system of monarchy and a false set of gods in Egypt. I led you out through the Red Sea. Today, in your human construction of a compassionless system of monarchy and a religious system that uses the name Yahweh but is really a man-made shallow and false god you need to be led out again. You see, I led you out of Egypt, and gave you a way to live that was fueled by compassion and the love of neighbor, and the love of a true and living God who alone was your ruler and instead, in less than 900 years, you rebuilt Egypt and called it Jerusalem.

You were warned. The first time you ever thought to ask for a king, my prophet Samuel warned you. He warned you by reminding you of Egypt and telling you that this is where trust in kings and false gods leads. But you insisted. So you received a king and suddenly you served him. The monarchy needed to be sustained. Your young men were drafted into military service and construction projects. Sustain the monarchy. That required expansion and kingdom building and so, to get ‘er done, you started working on the Sabbath. Here’s why all my prophets stress Sabbath keeping: At Mt. Sinai I gave you the Sabbath as a law specifically so you would remember that Egypt’s monarchy was relentless in its economy of scarcity and that it dehumanized people to sustain itself. But you forgot and you built your own monarchy and you forgot your humanity. You taxed and you borrowed and lent and you produced a division of management and labor, rich and poor, resulting in a permanent underclass. That led to haves and have nots – and I’ve named the have nots as the alien, and the fatherless and the widow. That disparity is fundamental to your culture, and your religion was manipulated to fit into and bless the whole system. You built a temple and a religion that under girded the whole operation. And now I’m tearing down the whole system. You rebuilt your lives based upon Egypt and not upon Sinai and since you’re so fond of Egypt I’m bringing about another Exodus. I’m taking my people out of a place that has no room for the true and living God.

And then in chapter 22 God goes through every recent king since Josiah and condemns them all. He condemns the blind faith in a politics without obedience. He condemns the kings for not remembering the alien, the fatherless, and the widow. He condemns them for not remembering the Sabbath. But it’s not just the political system. It’s also the religious system that has become nothing more than a replica of Egypt’s superstition, dressed up to look like Sinai. And so then in chapter 23 God goes through the prophets and the priests of the false religious system and condemns them as well. He mocks their dreams and their visions as “delusions of their own minds.” In verse 30 he says: I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. Yes… I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, “The Lord declares.”

So God indicts the whole way of life represented by Jerusalem. Jerusalem – where the rich get richer on the backs of the poor. Where the elite few sit in comfort and the sons and daughters of the people are sent out to fight for the very way of life that keeps them in the underclass. Where the churches are in cahoots with the system to drug the people with a convenient faith and a religious language to keep them smiling and happy and focused on private escape. Where religion becomes supplemental, and something to help you through every now and then. Where half the people come to temple to worship but realize at some level that its all a sham anyways so they seek other superstitions and satisfactions elsewhere. Jerusalem. Thank goodness those kinds of things don’t happen here in America. Thank goodness that there is no division of rich and poor here. Thank goodness our churches are all frantically sounding the alarm instead of trying to keep everybody happy so they can grow into the thousands and focused on personal salvation so nobody has to be inconvenienced enough to change anything about the present world. The people in Jerusalem didn’t realize that the names were changed but they were right back in Egypt. They didn’t know their own story and so they relived it. Thank goodness that couldn’t happen today. Imagine if our culture was just like the one in Jerusalem and nobody realized it because the church had forgotten how to tell it’s own story. We’d be in real trouble then.

So God calls for an exodus. At the beginning of chapter 23 verse 3 He says: I myself with gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. God will lead them out in exodus and bring them back in joy. Then he hints at a future king from the branch of David who will be both king and messiah and do what it right, by which he means care for the marginalized – the alien, the fatherless and the widow. I wonder who that could be? A Messiah. And then in verses 7 and 8 he goes on to say that the day will come when this present Exodus will be seen as equal or greater to the original Exodus. And so we have one final parable in chapter 24 that completes the reversal. Read with me 24:1-10. (Read 24:1-10)

God shows Jeremiah two baskets of figs and asks Jeremiah what he sees. Jeremiah knows how to state the obvious and so he says, “Figs.” He says, “One basket is good, and one basket is bad.” And then God explains something amazing. You see, at this point in history there are two separate Jewish communities. There are the ones who have been carried off into exile and there are the ones who are still in Jerusalem. Now all logic dictates that the ones who are still sleeping in their own homes, in their own beds and who are still nominally free are the lucky ones. They’re the ones receiving God’s blessing. Groups that are distinct from one another always play the comparison game and it’s obvious that the exiles are the ones who are the losers here and the ones whose lives continue basically as normal in Jerusalem are the winners.

But God has one more stunning and unexpected reversal. God explains that the good figs are the exiles. Look at what he says, “I regard as good the exiles from Judah whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians.” It doesn’t matter who seem to us like the winners and losers – it only matters what God sees. And God regards the exiles as good. He will bring them back to the land and “plant them and build them up.” That, of course, is the dominant formula throughout Jeremiah. He 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.” God regards them as good and will reconstruct them as his people. They are the remnant mentioned in chapter 23 who will be called home. They’re the ones who will produce the Messiah.

Now get this: God regards them as good, not because of anything they have done, but because it is His right to do so. There’s a word for that, it’s just that we’re not used to employing it in the Old Testament. The word is grace. By grace God takes the group considered to be under punishment and declares them good.

And God says of the others – the ones dusting themselves off and exchanging high fives at their good fortune – God say of them that they are the bad figs. Nothing good will come of them. They’re the ones left to rebuild and perpetuate the same old system of oppression and falsehood. Public life resumes as normal for them. They’ve still got the monarchy and the temple and they’re too blind to see that the humiliation of being led away from those things is the seed of something new. Their political, economic, and religious system is enslaving them.

It takes God’s grace to begin again. His grace is always a reversal of the status quo. Grace even trumps the need for repentance. It’s not as though the exiles repented. God just chose to fulfill his purposes through them. 600 years later, it’s not as though people repented in order for Jesus to come either. God just chose to bless the world in spite of itself. God’s always at play bringing about reversal and inversion. When Mary is pregnant with Jesus, this is her theme: He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. There’s an inversion. The dominant version of reality is turned on its head.

When Jesus preached he said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven… Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” There’s an inversion. Jesus also said, “Many who are first will be last.” There’s an inversion. Jesus also said, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” That’s an inversion. Jesus said the rich folks can do their thing and the poor folks, yes the alien, the fatherless and the widow, can come to the banquet. That’s an inversion. Ultimately, sinless Jesus dies as a guilty man in our place. Man deserves death but God lets man kill God instead. That’s the greatest inversion in history. That’s grace.

I believe the church needs to start seeing the world as upside down and must begin listening to how God instructs us to go about setting it right side up. I believe that we need to accept that maybe we’re better off in Babylon than in the cozy Jerusalem we’ve constructed. Maybe we’re better off being rejected by this world and living as aliens than we are accommodating ourselves and making ourselves comfortable in a culture than claims to be Christian but is in blatant opposition to the rule of God in nearly everything it values and therefore worships. I believe that the Western church, both conservative and liberal branches, have bought into and promote the systems of Egypt and therefore I believe in a smaller remnant church within the rapidly corroding larger church. And they may not be obviously successful and have huge buildings and budgets, may not have any of the outward signs of blessing, but I believe they may just be the ones God regards as good. I believe we need to see God’s inversionary grace in practice and let it shape our mission. I believe we need to reach out to the marginalized instead of to the established. I believe the marginalized are the alien, the fatherless and the widow and we need to figure out who that formula represents in our culture. Lastly, I believe we should give a fig as to which bucket the Lord regards us as being in. One bucket is rotten and never realizes it until they end up in Egypt, the very place God called us away from. One bucket is good and ends up suffering for a time but is the kind of thing God can use to inaugurate a real kingdom. God makes the future with those the world believes have no future. What the world rejects, God uses as His cornerstones. We need to decide which bucket to be in. Let’s pray.