WWUTT 2464 The Cup of God's Wrath (Jeremiah 24:1-25:38)

The Sign of the Good Figs and the Bad Figs

Jeremiah was told to go around to Jerusalem, to Judah, and to neighboring lands and have them drink a certain cup. And this cup was supposed to represent the wrath of God that would be poured out upon all those who rebelled against him.

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Hey once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Jeremiah, we are up to chapter 24. Last week we finished chapter 23. I said we were going to get into chapter 24 because it's a short chapter. We only have 10 verses here.

We didn't get that far. I didn't leave myself enough time, but that's fine because we actually have quite a bit of a change that happens here getting into chapter 24. This is now after Nebuchadnezzar has laid siege to Jerusalem, just as God said that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, would.

And he has carried away children from Jerusalem into captivity. Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, it was said that he would not have an heir on the throne. So you see the throne of David come to a conclusion, at least for now.

This is kind of some foreshadowing, or at least it leaves some tension for the heir that would come and assume the throne of David, and that would be Jesus Christ. And of course, the throne that he sits on wouldn't be the throne that's there in Jerusalem in Judah, but the throne that he sits on at the right hand of the father, and he is reigning now as king.

So there's a little bit of foreshadowing that goes on there at the end of Jeremiah chapter 23. So here we are in 24. I'm going to go ahead and read the whole chapter because like I said, it's only 10 verses and we'll continue from here with the vision that God is going to give to Jeremiah of good figs and bad figs.

This is Jeremiah 24, starting in verse one, hear the word of the Lord. After Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had taken into exile from Jerusalem, Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the Lord showed me this vision.

Behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the Lord. One basket had very good figs like first right figs, but the other basket had very bad figs so bad that they could not be eaten. And the Lord said to me, what do you see, Jeremiah?

I said, figs, the good figs, very good and the bad figs, very bad. So bad that they cannot be eaten. Then the word of the Lord came to me. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, like these good figs. So I will regard as good the exiles from Judah whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans.

I will set my eyes on them for 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 pluck them up. I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

But thus says the Lord, like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. So I will treat Zedekiah, the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.

I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. And I will send sword, famine and pestilence upon them until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.

Now, if you will recall, God had said to Judah, to those who were about to be under siege by the Babylonians and they were going to be exiled, God had promised that this was going to happen. This is what he was going to bring the Chaldeans into the land to do.

He said, those of you who will go out from the land, who will go with the Babylonians will be spared. But those of you who try to stay here will be destroyed. Remember that God said that? So God gives Jeremiah this vision of these figs, two baskets of figs, good figs and bad figs.

And of the good figs, God says, this is how I'm going to regard those who obeyed me when I said it, who went along with the Chaldeans and were exiled into the land of the Babylonians. I'm setting my eyes on them for 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 pluck them up. What does that sound like? That's Jeremiah 24, 6. What other verse from Jeremiah does that sound like? You know, this sounds like Jeremiah 29, 11, doesn't it?

That's coming up in five chapters. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope. So this is what God is saying to Jeremiah here with the exiles who have gone out.

And then eventually God is going to speak this word to Jeremiah to say it to the children of Judah that had gone out into the exile. I will not annihilate you in exile. I will fulfill what I had said, that I'm going to bring you back to this land.

And I have a plan and a future and a hope for you. Now we know ultimately that plan is to bring the Messiah through their line, through the Jews who had been exiled, the Messiah was going to be born. So of course he wasn't going to annihilate the Jews.

He was going to bring them back to the land because there was still prophecy that had to be fulfilled. The promise of the Messiah who would come to die on the cross for our sins and rise again from the dead.

For all those in the world who would believe in him, everyone in the world, Jews or Gentiles, whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. So here's the promise that God is going to fulfill through the Jews.

He will bring them back to this land. I will set my eyes on them for good and bring them back to the land. And notice what he says in verse seven, I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God for they shall return to me with their whole heart, not by their free will, not because they changed their minds or they willed themselves to believe in God.

So we wouldn't be destroyed in this place. God will give them a heart to know that he is the Lord even have a mention of regeneration that's going on there. But this also sounds like Jeremiah 29 because right after verse 11, then you have this verse Jeremiah 29, 12, then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you and you will seek me and find me.

When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you declares the Lord and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you declares the Lord.

And I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. So those very promises that God is going to speak to the children of Judah in Jeremiah 29, we have God saying to Jeremiah here in chapter 24.

So this is even summarizing some things that are coming up next as we continue reading through Jeremiah. Now, verses eight through 10, but thus says the Lord, like the bad figs that are so bad, they cannot be eaten.

So I will treat Zedekiah, the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. Some had gone away to Egypt thinking that the Egyptians were going to protect them.

Some stayed there in the land, disobeying God when he said, no, you need to go out with the Chaldeans. Those of you who stay here will die. So God is promising. That's what he's going to do. They've remained in the land and I'm going to make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them.

And even to this day, we still talk about this. We're talking about it now as we're reading through this part of the Bible. The people of Judah worship false gods instead of God. And they did abominable practices, things that God had said previously in Jeremiah had not even come into my mind for you to do.

This is not what God had said was worship unto his name. And because of these abominations, he has driven them from the land. And so we have seen and continue to teach about to this day that those who are not obedient to the Lord, who do not obey his statutes, who do not love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, they will perish from the earth.

As God had done with the Jews, so he will do even today with those who don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, they will perish. I will send sword famine and pestilence upon them until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.

So again, here in chapter 24, we have something of a turning point because now Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has come to Jerusalem and has taken into exile Jeconiah and all the other officials, craftsmen, metal workers, and brought them to Babylon.

But the things that God is going to do through Nebuchadnezzar, not done yet. Let's get into a little bit of chapter 25 here where God promises 70 years of captivity under the exile of the Babylonians.

Seventy Years of Captivity and Judah's Rebellion

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. That was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, which Jeremiah, the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

For 23 years from the 13th year of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. So right here, Jeremiah is even summarized.

Here's what my ministry has been so far. If you have any sort of idea of, okay, how much time has transpired from when we started the book of Jeremiah to where we are now, Jeremiah says it's been 23 years from the time that God's word first came to me and I've been warning you and speaking to you, but you have not listened to me.

It's been, it's been this long. I've spoken persistently, but you don't listen. You have neither listened or inclined your ears to hear. Although the Lord persistently sent to you all his servants, the prophets, not just Jeremiah, but there have been other prophets as well saying, turn now every one of you from his evil way and evil deeds and dwell upon the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers from of old and forever.

Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them or provoke me to anger with the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm. Yet you have not listened to me declares the Lord that you might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

So the works that they did reflected their hearts that were going after these false gods and they loved the wicked deeds of the pagans around them, even burning their sons and daughters in the fire to false gods, even indulging in sexual immorality, even going as far as homosexuality.

That was part of, uh, of the evils that the Jews had committed against God as well. Verse eight, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the North declares the Lord and for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations.

I will devote them to destruction and make them a horror, a hissing and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones in the light of the lamp.

This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon 70 years. Now this is important. So God is saying here that your exile will be 70 years. Hold on to that because we're going to get to a false prophet who's going to come along in chapter 28 and say that it's, it's just going to be a little bit of time.

This is going to be like a year and we're going to be back in this land. And then that is going to provoke the Lord to anger that this prophet is speaking falsely. We've heard about these false prophets who have been assuring the people that God's judgment will not come against them.

So here it's already being said that the exile will be 70 years in verse 12. Then after 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans for their iniquity declares the Lord making the land and everlasting waste.

I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it. Everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations for many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them.

And I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands. Yeah, I kind of have some solo scriptura going on there, don't you? All the words that are in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.

Jeremiah has been writing these things down all the while as God has given them to him. He has written them down. They could have gone at any time back to those prophecies that had been made through a prophet of God and seen the warnings and heard of the things that God had said that he was going to.

Do.

And everything that God said that he was going to do happened. Now, that's the claim of this book, that all this stuff had been written down before it even took place. And there were certainly Jews in the land that bore witness to that.

So you do have a testimony about the book of Jeremiah having written things down before they occurred. If Jeremiah had written these things down after they occurred, surely this book would not have been kept.

The people would not have held on to it because they would have considered it to be false prophecy. We already know that Jeremiah was writing stuff down after all of this had happened and claiming that it was beforehand and that was a lie.

So they would have destroyed the book and discounted it. But this is this is a statement here of this being scripture. God told me to write it down. I wrote it and it was always here for you to check it.

It has authority over you, whether you acknowledge it or not. There's sola scriptura right there. So even as God is revealing these things through the prophet, it is it is this word that is the highest word above everybody else.

And so even through these scriptures that have been written down, you could have checked.

It.

You've heard it before. You didn't listen. And so God has brought this judgment against you for many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them. And I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.

And so what you have next, I think I can get through the rest of this and we'll finish.

Up with this.

What you have next is God giving Jeremiah a cup that he's supposed to take to all these people and they're supposed to drink it. And this is the cup of God's wrath. So verse 15, thus the Lord, the God of Israel said to me, take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.

They shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword that I am sending among.

Them.

So I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it. Jerusalem in the cities of Judah, its Kings and officials to make them a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse.

As at this day, Pharaoh, King of Egypt, his servants, his officials, all the people and all the mixed tribes among them, all the Kings of the land of us, all the Kings of the land of the Philistines, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ikron, and the remnant of Ashdod, Edom, Moab, and the sons of Ammon, all the Kings of Tyre, all the Kings of Sidon and the Kings of the coast land across the sea, D-Dan, Timah, Buzz, and all who cut the corners of their hair, all the Kings of Arabia and all the Kings of the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert, all the Kings of Zimri, all the Kings of Elam and all the Kings of Medea, all the Kings of the North, far and near one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth.

And after them, the King of Babylon shall drink. So here's the succession of those Kings who are going to drink. And then it'll eventually even come to the King of Babylon. What does this cup represent?

I'll get it. I'll get that.

I'll get to that here in a moment. Verse 27, then you shall say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, drink, be drunk and vomit, fall and rise no more because of the sword that I am sending among you.

And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, thus says the Lord of hosts, you must drink. For behold, I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name.

And shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the Lord of hosts. You therefore shall prophesy against them all these words and say to them, the Lord will roar from on high and from his holy habitation, utter his voice.

He will roar mightily against his fold and shout like those who tread grapes against all the inhabitants of the earth. The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth. For the Lord has an indictment against the nations.

He is entering into judgment with all flesh and the wicked. He will put to the sword declares the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, disaster is going forth from nation to nation. And a great tempest is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.

And those who pierced, sorry, those pierced by the Lord on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented or gathered or buried. They shall be dung on the surface of the ground.

Whale you shepherds and cry out and roll in ashes. You Lords of the flock for the days of your slaughter and dispersion have come and you shall fall like a choice vessel. No refuge will remain for the shepherds nor escape from the Lords of the flock.

A voice, the cry of the shepherds and the whale of the Lords of the flock for the Lord is laying waste their pasture and the peaceful folds are devastated because of the fierce anger of the Lord, like a lion.

He has left his lair for their land has become a waste because of the sword of the oppressor and because of his fierce anger. Now, this cup and the judgment that God brings upon all of these nations, this is a picture.

It is a taste. It is a foreshadowing of the wrath of God that will pour out on the whole earth on that final day of judgment. So we have a picture of it going on here and there will be an even more widespread, more total judgment that will happen later when Christ returns with his angels and flaming fire is talked about in second Thessalonians chapter one.

We also read this in Psalm 75 verse eight, for in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.

And my friend, this was the same cup that Jesus drank from when he died on the cross for our sins. He drank the cup of God's wrath when he says, when he prays in Matthew 26 verse 39, he fell on his face and prayed in the garden of Gethsemane saying, my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And verse 42, again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, my father, if this cannot pass, unless I drink it, your will be done. Now, previously in Matthew, some of Jesus' disciples had asked him if they could drink the cup that Jesus is going to drink.

Can you drink the cup that I will drink? He asked them and they said, we will. And Jesus said, you will drink from that cup. But what he was talking about there were persecutions. You will share in the persecutions that Jesus even went through.

But there was still a cup that Jesus drank from that the rest of the disciples did not drink, and that was the cup of God's wrath, which Jesus took upon himself when he died on the cross for our sins so that all who believe in him will not perish.

When that judgment comes on the earth, Jesus took the wrath of God for us so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. We're getting a picture of that wrath being poured out right here in Jeremiah 25.

But all of this foreshadowing to who will save us from that wrath, and that is Jesus Christ who saves us from the wrath that is to come. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and let us walk in holiness today before him as he has instructed us to do.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we have read. And I pray that even from here, as we read this in the book of Jeremiah, we see pictures of the Savior who died for us, that we could be reconciled to God and have the promise of eternal life.

And so Lord, knowing that what you have done for us has brought us to you, let us in thankfulness, in thanksgiving, as a reflection of the new heart that we have been given to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we would walk in newness of life after our Savior who saves us.

Be near to me, Lord Jesus. I ask thee and pray. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

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