This chapter gives us another example of how Jeremiah was given. a sign from God through a very ordinary thing. At the beginning of King Zedekiah's reign, after the Babylonians had taken their prisoners and loot from Jerusalem, Jeremiah saw two baskets of figs, a very common fruit in Palestine, outside the Temple. The word of God came to him that one basket of figs represented the exiles who had been taken to Babylon. In this basket the figs were good and sweet, fit for use. In the other basket the figs were rotten, fit only to be thrown away, and these figs represented the people still left in Jerusalem. The figs were placed in front of the Temple and this is significant as it indicated that they were intended as an offering to God. Contrary to what all the people in Jerusalem thought, the exiles would continue to be used by God for his plans. In symbolic terms, God would accept the offering ofthe good figs. But the people left behind in Jerusalem were no longer fit for God to use, and would be destroyed. In symbolic terms, God would reject the offering of the bad figs.

This is an important message of hope to the exiles at a time when they had no obvious cause for hope. In his message of hope Jeremiah reveals his understanding that the presence and blessing of God are independent of places, institutions and forms such as the Temple, the holy city and the Promised Land. He had already shown that he understood this in his Temple sermon, and in his understanding he points towards the teaching of the New Testament such as we find in John 4:21-24. 'Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the time will came when people will not worship the Father either on this mountain or in Jerusalem .... But the time is coming and is already here, when by the power of God's Spirit people will worship the Father as he really is, offering him the true worship that he wants. God is Spirit and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is." ,

In their separation from all that they associated with their God, the exiles were not actually separated from him. Some of them would begin to understand that God is Spirit and only by the power of his Spirit can he be properly worshipped.