“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.”
Jeremiah saw in a vision two baskets of figs, really good figs and really bad figs. In this passage, God comments on the basket of very good figs. The first thing that stands out to me is that God says he sent the exiles to the land of the Chaldeans, or Babylonians. This stands out because it demonstrates God’s sovereignty. Somehow, he has the capacity to use man’s evil actions to accomplish his purposes on the earth.
In Genesis, we see that Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers because they had had enough of him. He went through unimaginable suffering, yet at the end of Genesis. He could tell his brothers what they meant for evil, God meant for good.
These two stories, that of Joseph and that of the Babylonian exile, help me in days like these when it is easy to wonder where God is. Why would God allow (or cause) Charlie Kirk to be assassinated? If we can take a step back, though, we can already see that this event has allowed the ghouls to show themselves. The demons are on full display, rejoicing over the death of Charlie Kirk. Perhaps one of the important reasons God allowed this to happen was so that his children could see more clearly that we do not battle against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12).
The important point, even when we don’t know exactly why God allowed or caused something big and negative to happen, we can trust that He is at work accomplishing his purposes.
Father, thank you for this reminder that you are not asleep at the wheel. Even when things seem out of control and unexplainable, we can rest easily knowing that you are at work. Amen.
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