Biblical Audio Commentary – The Good Fig Rapture
Transcript:
The Bible is filled with typology. God wants His people to see and understand the deep mysteries of His kingdom, and He’s provided no lack of the means to do so. It’s just that we have to work a little bit to uncover what He wants us to understand. There is nothing in God’s Word that is unintentional, nor is there anything that’s coincidental. Everything we read is put there for a purpose. There are no casual accidents of fate in Scripture.
A perfect illustration of this principle appears when the prophet Jeremiah is given a vision concerning the aftermath of the invasion of Judah by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Here is the entire brief chapter of Jeremiah 24:1-10:
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-ripe 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 will I 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.”
On first reading you may not see it. For my part I’ve probably read this passage forty times over the years, and just had the revelation concerning the typology inherent in this account.
In this vision of God there are two types of figs: those that are very good and those which are so bad that they cannot be salvaged. God assures Jeremiah that the people who go into exile in Babylon, i.e. the good figs, will prosper. He sent them away because He desires good for them, in fact, He will bring them wholly to Himself during this time. Once that period is over, they will return to the land completely His.
In contrast are the bad figs, i.e. those people who remained in the land. For their sins, God will bring catastrophe upon them, such that they will be considered a curse wherever they go. They will experience the sword, famine, and pestilence and be completely destroyed. Wow. What did they do to deserve this consequence?
We learn later that they inquired of Jeremiah what the Lord would have them do, and they vowed before the Lord to obey whatever He said. We see this in Jeremiah 42:5-6:
Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends you to us. Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”
This was critical to how things ended for them. A vow to God is very serious. Anyone reneging on that vow receives dire consequences. Jeremiah came back to them with God’s instructions that they should remain in the land of Israel. If they did so, God would bless and prosper them. On the other hand, God warned that if they didn’t remain in the land because they wanted to escape being ruled by Babylon, it would not go well for them. The warning in Jeremiah 42:15-18 was quite specific:
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there, then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die. All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have no remnant or survivor from the disaster that I will bring upon them.
“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You shall become an execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see this place no more.”
Naturally, being a stiff-necked people, in direct disobedience to God they said, “We’re not doing that!” In fact, their refusal to obey was off the charts. Watch this in Jeremiah 44:15-17:
Then all the men who knew that their wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster.
Despite their vow to obey God, they turned right around and said they’d rather worship the pagan goddess, the Queen of Heaven, right along with the Egyptians. They fled to Egypt taking Jeremiah with them, and God was not pleased. To make that point God incited Nebuchadnezzar to invade Egypt and to bring the harm He promised upon all these unfaithful people, specifically the sword, famine, and pestilence. The moral of that story is not to mess with God.
Concerning the good figs, that remnant which trusted and obeyed God’s Word, going willingly to Babylon because He said so, His Word of promise in Jeremiah 29:4-7 was that that would prosper and multiply there, as He would seek their good. Amazingly, despite their being completely uprooted from the land, God promised to restore them as a people, as we see in Jeremiah 29:10-14:
“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 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.
Note that God promises they will remain secluded and blessed for 70 years. Then God would miraculously return them in such a way that they would seek Him with all their heart.
The typology that I mentioned at the outset is this: The good figs are the remnant of Israel that trusted and obeyed God. For their faithfulness, He lifted them up out of the land so as to protect and bless them. At the end of 70 years, they would return with hearts filled to the brim with His goodness.
So it is with the pre-Tribulation Rapture. Those of us who call Jesus Savior and Lord are a remnant that will be snatched up out of this land – lifted up – into a place of promise and goodness in the presence of God. After “7”, i.e. 7 years, the Lord will return us to the earth along with Him in His 2nd coming. At that time, we enter the Millennial kingdom in which we will always seek God with hearts full of gratitude for His mercy.
The contrast is with the bad figs, i.e. the unbelieving world that disobeys God and worships any god but Him. For them He has nothing but disdain, trouble, and Tribulation for 7 years. They will suffer from the sword, i.e. war, from famine and pestilence, plus many other horrific indignities.
God loves His children who have chosen to follow Him. All others He also loves, but will not tolerate their rejection of Him and their extreme disobedience. For that they will face His justice, whereas we receive His love and mercy.
Hopefully you see this typology clearly now. God has shown this to us to give us “a future and a hope.” The only hope for those who choose disobedience is that they die in this world and suffer an eternal death.
Would God submit His beloved children to His wrath during the Tribulation? I cannot imagine that. God’s glorious future for us includes shelter from the storm that is coming.
We can count on His Word for that promise.
Very insightful, Gary.
I never looked at it that way, but it is indeed consistent with—and most likely anticipatory of—a pre-Tribulation Rapture.
I like it!
I thought it was pretty cool when it came to mind!
Ok so I was trying to reflect a little on a different topic. They say to preach the gospel to every tongue tribe and nation “then the end will come”. What are your thoughts on this? Can the pre trib rapture still happen if not every “tribe tongue and nation” has heard the gospel or do we need to wait to “look up” and relax a bit until the gospel is completed in every language for every tribe like those in the https://illuminations.bible project?
Consider that during the Tribulation, the Two Witnesses will be preaching to the world, the 144,000 evangelists will be bringing many to Christ, and at the very end the angel proclaims the Gospel to the world. Then the end comes.
That is a good point. It is interesting how it seems so many even those in the pre trib camp think that “Christ’s return” whether that be the rapture or his final coming can’t possibly happen until we the church preach the gospel to every tribe and nation. Our old pastor a pre trib teacher used to believe this view. I feel God gives everyone a chance somehow some way and we should share and do our best to support those ministries who share the gospel but I like how God really takes care of it all in the end through his power before he ends the world, but he can definitely rapture us ahead of time.
Exactly right. God gives us certain tasks that we must complete to the best of our ability, but in the end, He is the One who makes it all happen.