Nation of Naughty Figs — E.A. Johnston

Jeremiah’s Vision of the Two Baskets of Figs

In the book of Jeremiah, in chapter 24, God uses vivid imagery to describe the unregenerate wicked. Jeremiah says in verse 1 and following, The Lord showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord.

One basket had very good figs, even like the figs at our first ripe, and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. I will stop there, friends. That word naughty in the Hebrew language is the word rah, and it means bad in a moral and ethical sense.

It depicts evil in an absolute negative sense, and that is the thought God is implying here as he speaks of this basket of naughty figs, so bad they are good for nothing. God declares what he will do to this rebellious people represented by the naughty figs.

Divine Judgment Against the Rebellious

And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them till they be consumed from off the land. The title of my message this evening, friends, is A Nation of Naughty Figs. We as a nation have gone from being a God-fearing nation that once honored God to one that hates God and who has legislated God right out of this country.

Corruption in Government, Business, and Entertainment

We have naughty figs who sit in government places, running our legislature and making laws in the land. We have highly paid naughty figs running our corporations. We have highly paid naughty figs on all our plates of our sports and entertainments.

Moral Decay in American Communities

Your typical community is comprised of sin-loving people who are naughty figs. The state that I live in is comprised of beach communities up and down it, and they drink enough booze here every night they would drown the entire nation.

Apostasy in Religious Denominations

Everywhere you turn is a massage parlor or a strip club. Our entire cities have become full of naughty figs doing evil. Not only is America a nation of naughty figs, but we have entire religious denominations that have become naughty figs by falling into such gross apostasy.

False Teachers and Hypocritical Churchgoers

They ordain perverts and the unconverted who teach the most damnable heresies that will send you straight to hell. And we have churches all over this land whose sanctuaries are filled each week with naughty figs who, although they polish themselves to look like a ripe fig in their pew on Sunday, their hearts are set on evil throughout the week.

The Sword of Judgment Over America

Almighty God tells the prophet Jeremiah what he intends to do with the basket of naughty figs, and that is to thrust a sword of judgment right through the entire basket of good-for-nothing fruit. You don't have to be a prophet of God, friends, to see the sword of judgment that hangs over naughty America, ready to fall at any moment.

The Call to Return to the Living God

You'd have to have your head in the sand not to see it if this naughty nation does not turn back to the living God of the Bible, then the living God of the Bible will and must destroy it. Like the naughty figs in the book of Jeremiah, it has become good-for-nothing, and Almighty God will soon toss it out till they be consumed from the land.