This is the eleventh in a series of teaching letters. The object of these teaching letters is to remind you we still have an enemy — we are in a war — that the enemy has not gone away. We have had this enemy now for over 7,000 years, and the enmity (hatred) that exists between them and us, has existed ever since Genesis 3:15, and is still with us today! Yes, it is a religion of “hate.” The enemy often uses this term while pointing us out as the hating party. It is probably the only truth they have ever told, but it is only a half-truth. If you will read Genesis 3:15 quite closely, you will discover it is a two-way hatred. The enemy neglects to tell you the other side of the story, their hatred for us. This two-way hatred has been escalating throughout all these years. It is a very natural thing for our enemy to hate us, and if we can ever shake off the brainwashing our people have been victims to, that we should love everybody, there is a very natural hatred underlying our beings also. It is a Yahweh given hatred, so don’t fight this Divine given hatred, but let it come to the surface where it belongs. The enemy makes no qualms about their hatred for us in their secret meetings. It’s not my words, but Yahweh’s Word, And I will put HATRED between thee and the woman, and between thy descendants and her descendants. So, if you are a descendant of Yahweh, He says you have His hatred for the enemy built into your very being. Don’t try to hold this Yahweh given hatred back, or it will simply make you physically ill. There are teachers in Israel Identity today who are teaching that Genesis 3:15 is not true, that there is no enemy except the flesh. I don’t have to tell you their names, you know who they are! These false teachers seem to be drawing all the crowds and collecting in all the support, while those telling the truth are being maligned (as per usual in Israel). There is coming a time when these false teachers will have to answer for what they are saying! For being a false pastor, false prophet or a false watchman, Yahweh’s Divine Law prescribes the death penalty. Once you come to an understanding of who the enemy is, it is your duty to inform your brethren. Not only should you inform your brethren, but you should take those giving false proclamations to task. You should let them know, in no uncertain terms, you don’t appreciate their false positions. If you find that you are not gifted in proclaiming the story, at least you can sustain those who are fighting on the front lines. By the way, I want to thank every one of you who are helping to keep this teaching ministry alive and going.
Now Continuing the Topic:
JUST WHO IS THIS PATRIARCH, JUDAH? (Part 11)
In lesson #10, we were teaching about the division among the Judah captives going into the Babylonian captivity, some going earlier as good figs and some going later as bad figs . It would be well to repeat Jeremiah chapter 24 where the terms “good” and “naughty” (bad) figs are found:
“1 The Lord shewed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord, after that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the carpenters and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe: and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad. 3 Then said the Lord unto me, What seest thou Jeremiah? And I said, Figs: the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten they are so evil. 4 Again the word of the Lord came unto me saying, 5 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. 6 For I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them and not pluck them up. 7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. 8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the Lord, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt: 9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I will drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.”
In order to understand this passage, it is going to be necessary to understand something of the nature of the fig tree. The fig tree is not just the ordinary type of tree. There are many peculiarities in the characteristics of the fig tree, and if we don’t understand these unusual characteristics, we are apt not to understand this passage we have before us. I am going to quote first from The Revell Bible Dictionary, page 380:
“fig A fruit tree common in the Middle East. Its fruit was one of the most important food crops of Palestine. Fig trees grow about 15 feet (5 meters) high. Dried figs, high in sugar content, were pressed into cakes and served as a staple in the Hebrew diet (1 Sam. 25:18). Poultices of figs were also applied to boils (2 Ki. 20:7; Isa. 38:21).
“Fig trees were valued for their shade as well as for their fruit. These two contributions make fig trees an appropriate biblical symbol of peace and prosperity (1 Ki. 4:25; Isa. 36:16; Hag. 2:19).
“The leaves of the fig tree appear in two important biblical stories. Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves by making aprons of fig leaves (Gen. 3:7). God replaced the leafy aprons with clothing of animal skins. Some scholars have pointed out that this constituted history’s first sacrifice, a symbolic representation of the fact that sin can be covered only by blood.
“The Gospels tell us that Jesus cursed a barren fig tree (Mk. 11:13, 14, 20, 21). Most scholars view this fig tree as a symbol of Israel (the Jewish nation), which in Jesus’ day appeared to be vital but was actually barren of righteousness (compare Mk 11:15-19; Isa. 5:1-7).”
For more information about the fig tree, I will next quote from The World Book Encyclopedia, volume 7, pages 98-99:
“FIG is the name of a popular fruit and the plant on which it grows. The fig plant may grow as a low, spreading bush or as a tree, depending on how it is pruned. The fig is a native of the Mediterranean region. Man has eaten figs since earliest times and they are mentioned in the Bible and other ancient records. In the United States, fig trees grow chiefly in the southern half of the country, and in central California. However figs may be grown as far north as Michigan, if the trees are protected against frost in winter.
“Growing Figs. New trees may be grown by cutting two- or three-year-old branches and planting them in early spring. The plant may produce a few fruits within the second or third year after planting.
“The fig is sometimes called a fruit without a flower. However, the inside of each fruit has several hundred tiny flowers. An opening at the top of the fruit permits a small wasp to enter and pollinate the flowers. The common fig produces two crops of fruit each year. The first crop called breba, is produced on branches made the previous season. The first crop matures late June or early July. The second crop is produced on new branches and matures in late August or early September.
“Types of figs Include caprifigs, Smyrna figs, and common figs. Caprifigs, which usually cannot be eaten, are commonly known as male figs. They contain both male and female flowers. Fig wasps, which live in caprifigs, carry pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers of the Smyrna figs. Smyrna figs have only female flowers which must be pollinated by the pollen from caprifigs before the fruit will grow. The Calimyrna fig, a variety of Smyrna fig, is grown in California. Common figs also contain only female flowers, but they do not have to be pollinated by the caprifig.”
Knowing the nature of the fig tree, and how it bears fruit, will cause this passage to start to make sense. Not only was the fig good for food, but many times the term was used as a metaphor or parable to tell a story. We are dealing with just such a metaphor or parable in this passage talking about good and bad figs. To show you how the fig can be used figuratively, I will quote from The Popular And Critical Bible Encyclopedia and Scriptural Dictionary, pages 659-660:
“Figurative. (1) The fig-tree is referred to as one of the signs of prosperity (I Kings iv:25). ‘ And Judah and Israel dwell safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree.’ (2) And its failure is noted as a sign of affliction (Ps. cv:33). ‘He smote their fig-trees and broke the trees of their coast.’ (3) The Jewish nation is likened to a barren fig-tree, spared another year at the request of the dresser. When our Savior came into the world, and for more than three years exercised his public ministry among them, how barren were they, and how ripe for destruction! But by His intercession and the prayers of His apostles, they were spared till it was seen that the preaching of the gospel had no good effect on the greater part of them; and (they) were afterward cut off with terrible destruction (Luke xiii:6-9). (4) They were also shadowed forth by the fig-tree with fair leaves, but no fruit, which Jesus cursed into barrenness and withering; they had many showy pretenses to holiness and zeal, but were destitute of good works and refused to believe in and receive the promised Messiah (Matt. xxi:19). (5) The cursing of the fig-tree by our Savior (Mark xi:13, 21) has occasioned great perplexity. This incident occurred about the beginning of April, when, as the evangelist states, the time for figs had not come. Why, then, should Christ seek figs upon the tree and as it were, blame its barrenness? The best reply seems to be: because the tree was in leaf; and when the tree was in this state, abnormal though it was, fruit might be expected. Dr. Thompson as the result of his observation, considers it not at all impossible that the early variety of this tree might have ripe fruit in the warm sheltered ravines of Olivet at Passover. If there were no fruit on this leafy tree it might justly be condemned as barren: and hence the propriety of the lesson it was made to teach — that those who put forth in profusion only the leaves of empty profession are nigh unto cursing.”
I do not wholeheartedly agree with this quotation above, but for the most part it is to the point. If the writer would have known who the “Jews” are, and the fact that they are the satanic offspring of Cain, how much better his remarks could have been. The cursed “fig tree” of Mark 11:13-14 has everything to do with the bad figs of Jeremiah 24! The passage found in Luke 13:6-9 also has a direct connection with Jeremiah chapter 24! While we are remarking about these two passages, it would be well to repeat them here for they speak of the “Jewish” nation. Before I quote these passages of Scripture, I would like to quote from The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, volume 2, page 534:
“Our Lord condemned a fig tree at Passover time on Mount Olivet (Mark 11:13; Matt 21:19). This tree should have born early ripe figs. The Lord would have known whether the tree should have been cropping. Moses had said that fruit borne on trees by the wayside could be picked by passers-by.
“Young fig trees growing in the drier regions need to be mulched with dung (Luke 13:8). Even today in Palestine fig trees grow in the corners of vineyards. Fig trees must have grown well in Bethphage, which means ‘house of figs’.”
Mark 11:13: “And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of the figs were not yet.”
Matthew 21:19-20: “19 And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. 20 And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!”
Luke 13:6-9: “6 He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. 7 Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? 8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: 9 And if it bear fruit, well; and if it not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.”
This cutting down of this fig tree is something that Yahweh promised He would never do to the good figs of Jeremiah chapter 24. Jeremiah 24:6 says of the good figs: “and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them and not pluck them up.”
You will remember that John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:10 and Luke 3:9: “And now also the ax is laid unto the root of the trees.” These trees being the family trees of the Canaanite satanic nations. We can know for sure, from this, the “Jewish” nation which was destroyed (plucked up) by Titus in 70 A.D. was not the good figs, but the bad figs of Jeremiah chapter 24 for the good figs were never to be plucked up or destroyed. There were a few good figs that returned to Jerusalem after the Babylon captivity, but for the most part, the main body of good figs never returned to Jerusalem. A second witness to this bad fig nation is Matthew 23:38 which says: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” This hardly sounds like the nation spoken of here will ever exist again as some try to proclaim. The one Scripture which I do not believe applies to this particular fig tree is Luke 21:29 for it says: “Behold the fig tree, and all the trees.” This is the passage so often quoted claiming that the modern state of Israeli is the budding of this fig tree. If their house was left unto them desolate, why would it be coming to life again? That tree is dead and will never bear fruit.
There is another feature of Jeremiah chapter 24 that identifies who the bad figs are. There is only one group of people who can be qualified as described in verse 9 which says: “And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.” There has been a lot of movement of different peoples migrating to and from various places on the earth throughout the centuries and millennia, but there has only been one group of people who have been dispersed literally into all the nations of the earth, and they are the “Jews.” Sometimes it takes a considerable amount of research and study to separate the wheat from the chaff, but in the end, it all comes out in the wash. It is quite important here, to understand the difference between the good figs and the bad figs. You may ask: “What does this have to do with Judah?” — IT HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH JUDAH!!!!!
Now let’s take into consideration Jeremiah 24, verse 8, where it says: “and the residue of Jerusalem.” Notice, here, it doesn’t say the residue of Judah, but the residue of Jerusalem. It might be quite well to compare this verse with Jeremiah 32:31-32 which says:
“31 For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face, 32 Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes and their prophets, and the men of Judah, AND THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM.”
You will notice the inhabitants of Jerusalem are mentioned separately from the men of Judah! Who are these “inhabitants of Jerusalem” who are not the children of Israel or the children of Judah? They have to be some group or groups other than Israel or Judah who were living there at that time. Let’s take a look at who they may be, Joshua 15:63
“As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out: but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day.”
Obviously, many of these inhabitants of Jerusalem who were not Israelites or Judahites which Jeremiah is speaking about, were these Jebusites which Judah never disposed of. Many of them, also, could have been the Canaanites from Tyre, with which Solomon engaged in commerce. Not only did Solomon become highly engaged in commerce with them, but he started to take many non-Israelites and non-Judahites as wives. Whatever became of some of the children of those wives? No doubt they became part of this residue of Jerusalem! Maybe even Hiram and his family became citizens of Jerusalem!
Insight On The Scriptures, volume 2, page 988-991 (under title: Solomon): “Building Projects. ... King Hiram of Tyre cooperated in supplying timbers of cedar and juniper trees in exchange for wheat and oil (I Ki. 5:10-12; 2 Ch. 2:11-16). He also furnished workmen. including an expert craftsman named Hiram, the son of a Tyrian man and a Hebrew woman (a half-breed; check it out if you don’t believe it), I Ki. 7:13, 14. Solomon conscripted for forced labor 30,000 men, sending them to Lebanon in shifts of 10,000 a month. Each group returned to their homes for two-month periods. Besides these, there were 70,000 burden bearers and 80,000 cutters. The last-named groups were non-Israelites — I Ki. 5:13-18; 2 Ch. 2:17, 18.”
“Nationwide building. After completing his government building projects, Solomon set out on a nationwide construction program. He used as forced labor the offspring of Canaanites whom Israel had not devoted to destruction in their conquest of Canaan, but he did not reduce any Israelite to this slave status. ...
“His Deviation From Righteousness. ... However, Solomon began to disregard God’s law. We read: ‘And King Solomon himself loved many foreign wives along with the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women, from the nations of whom Yahweh had said to the sons of Israel: ‘You must not go in among them, and they themselves should not come in among you; truly they will incline your heart to follow their gods’ ...”
The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, volume 1, page 705, says this: “In Palestine the surviving Canaanites were absorbed by the Israelites.”
I am sure this is true to a degree. I am also sure there were many who were very careful to keep their racial purity and did not mix with the other peoples of Canaan. This Babylonian captivity is one of the best things that ever happened to Judah, as it separated the racially pure from the racially impure. There is another Scripture often quoted to prove this mixing of Judah and it is usually taken out of context. I have heard and read leading teachers in Identity use this passage to try to prove a point. On the surface, it does sound like the people of Jerusalem and Judah were mixing with the Amorites and the Hittites, and, no doubt, there was some mixing to a degree. This is not what Ezekiel is proclaiming to Jerusalem, in this case, when he says (Ezekiel 16:3, 45):
“3 And say, Thus saith the Lord God (Sovereign Yahweh) unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite …
“45 Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.”
THE TRUE MEANING OF EZEKIEL CHAPTER 16
This chapter is written in allegory, and is not saying at all what it appears to be saying. I think you will be amazed once you understand this passage. To start getting an understanding, I am going to quote from The International Bible Commentary, by F.F. Bruce, page 822:
V. ALLEGORY AND EVENT (16:1-19)
“i. The unfaithful bride (16:1-63)
“The delinquency of Jerusalem is now portrayed in a powerful and indeed revolting allegory. The city is compared to a baby-girl exposed at birth without the normal minimum of attention. Yahweh took pity on her, adopted her and brought her up and, when she became nubile (of marriageable age), made her His bride, decking her with garments and ornaments fit for a queen. But instead of showing gratitude and fidelity, she turned to prostitution and committed fornication with strangers — Egyptians, Assyrians and Chaldaeans — enticing them and even bribing them to become her lovers. In real life such a woman could not escape the penalty reserved for an adulteress: public exposure and stoning. Jerusalem’s sisters, Samaria and Sodom (metaphorically), had behaved disgracefully and been punished for it; yet by comparison with her outrageous conduct theirs appeared positively innocent. So much the more certain and overwhelming would her punishment be ...
“The portrayal of Yahweh’s covenant with His people in terms of the marriage bond appears in Hos. 2:4 and Jer. 2:2 (cf. also Isa. 50:1; 54:6; 62:4). The Hosea precedent in particular seems to have influenced Ezekiel: there, as here, apostasy and idolatry on the part of Yahweh’s people are stigmatized as fornication and adultery (cf. Jer. 2:20-3:5). ...
“3. ... your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite: yet the Jews (Judeans) charged the Samaritans with being half-breeds! Jerusalem was a Canaanite city until David’s reign, and as its inhabitants were not expelled or destroyed it retained much of its non-Israelite character. The Amorites (cf. Jos. 10:5) and Hittites (cf. 2 Sam. 23:39) may represent the Semitic and non-Semitic elements in its indigenous Jebusite population.”
From this reference, you can see that this Scripture is about something entirely different because it is told in a metaphoric sense. It does confirm that Jerusalem had an Amorite and Hittite population though. You have to visualize Jerusalem, like some of our larger cities today, with a “Jewish” district within it. To even get a better idea of this allegoric story in Ezekiel chapter 16, I am going to quote from Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible, Abridged by Ralph Earle, page 669-670:
“2. Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. This chapter contains God’s manifesto against the most abominable people; and although there are many metaphors here, yet all is not metaphorical. ... 3. Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. It would dishonor Abraham to say that you sprang from him; you are rather Canaanites than Israelites. The Canaanites were accused; so are you. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. These tribes were the most famous, and probably the most corrupt of all the Canaanites. So Ezekiel calls the princes of Judah ‘rulers of Sodom’, chap. i. 10; and John the Baptist calls the Pharisees a ‘Generation [or brood] of vipers’, Matt. iii. 7. 4. As for thy nativity. This verse refers to what is ordinarily done for every infant on its birth. The umbilical cord, by which it received all its nourishment while in the womb, being no longer necessary, is cut at a certain distance from the abdomen; on this part a knot is tied, which firmly uniting the sides of the tubes, they coalesce. and incarnate together. The extra part of the cord on the outside of the ligature, being cut off from the circulation by which it was originally fed, soon drops off, and the part where the ligature was is called the navel. In many places, when this was done, the infant was plunged into cold water; in all cases washed, and sometimes with a mixture of salt and water, in order to give a greater firmness to the skin, and constringe the pores. The last process was swathing the body, to support mechanically the tender muscles till they should acquire sufficient strength to support the body. 5. Thou wast cast out in the open field. This is an allusion to the custom of some heathen and barbarous nations, who exposed those children in the open fields to be devoured by wild beast who had any kind of deformity, or whom they could not support. 6. I said ... Live. I received the exposed child from the death that awaited it, while in such a state as rendered it at once an object of honor and also of compassion.”
This should show us that we were not wanted, as a people, except by Yahweh. As far as the other peoples of the earth are concerned, we could have been cast into an open field to bleed to death. Only Yahweh cared for we, His people, and swaddled, nurtured, protected, provided for and raised us. Then we consented with Him in a marriage contract and became His wife. Yahweh never married another people except us. We then sold ourselves as harlots to strangers for pay (no, we paid the strangers). Yahweh could only then give u span style= style=Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan.s a bill of divorce. Once the divorce was in force, a remarriage could not take place except one of the parties die. Yahweh then decided to die as a ransom for us (to purchase us back by the kinsman redemption Law), so by dying, He could be in position to remarry us. Yahweh never nursed another people to life. Yahweh never trained up another people to adulthood. Yahweh never married another people. Yahweh never died as a ransom for another people. Yahweh will never remarry another people except Israel. Redemption is for Adam-Israel only! If you are not a kinsman (1350 in the Hebrew) , you don’t get redeemed; I don’t care what the universalists say! On occasion, Yahweh has given physical salvation to other people like Nineveh, only because He needed Assyria as His rod to punish Israel. And, after He was finished with Assyria, He destroyed them as a nation.
Next, I would like to quote from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary concerning chapter 16 of Ezekiel, pages 727-728. Wycliffe goes into more detail concerning the history of this era and mentions various publications. He mentions in particular, Archaeology and the Bible, by G. A. Barton. I wish I had that reference, but I don’t. I do have, however, The New International Dictionary of Biblical Archaeology by E. M. Blaiklock and R. K. Harrison which covers the Hittites also whom Wycliffe alludes to:
“a) Jerusalem as the Foundling Child. 16:1-7.
“2. Her abominations. Especially the worship of Baal and Moloch (vv. 15-22) and alliances with heathen nations (vv 23-34). 3 The Canaanites. Referred to in the stele of Amenhotep II (1447-1421 B.C.), in the El Amarna Letters of about 1370 B.C., and in an ancient Hittite incantation (see Ancient Near Eastern Text, ed. by Pritchard, pp. 246, 352, 483, 484). Amorite (Westerner). Or the Amurru, a powerful Semitic people who invaded the Fertile Crescent about 2000 B.C. CF. Gen. 14:7; 15:16; Num. 21:21-30; Josh. 24:15. Hammurabi (1728-1686 B.C.), of the first dynasty of Babylon, was an Amorite. (See G. E. Mendenhall. ‘Mari’, Biblical Archaeology XI (1948), 1-19.) Hittite. A non-Semitic people, resident in Asia Minor in the second millennium B.C., with contacts in Canaan from patriarchal to Solomonic times (Gen. 23:10-20; 26:34; Josh. 4:1; I Sam. 26:6; I Kgs. 11:1). On Hittite bestiality, consult G. A. Barton, Archaeology and the Bible. pp. 423-426. Ezekiel was stressing the heathenism in Israel’s background. 4. Salting made the skin dryer and firmer, and aided in cleansing. To cleanse, (AV, supple) you (lemish’î) is an unknown expression, but it is suggested by the Akkadian and the Targum. 5. This baby-girl, however, was cast out in the open field. Child exposure was practiced at the time of Christ’s birth (W. H. Davis, Greek Papyri of the First Century, pp. 1-7) 6. Polluted; i.e. ‘kicking about.’ Five manuscripts, the LXX, the Old Latin, and the Syriac omit the second, ‘And I said ..., Live’, as dittography (unintentional repetition of written letters or words). 7. To multiply. The LXX and the Syriac read grow up in place of Masoretic Text and a myriad ... I made thee. Art come to excellent ornaments. Arrived at full maidenhood. The Syriac in the menses, or verse 8, in the time of love, suggest the meaning, full maidenhood. Thou wast naked and bare; i.e., ‘unmarried’.”
It is apparent, there are many hidden details behind this portion of Scripture. By this time we should have a better idea of the difference between the good figs and the bad figs. At this point, Jeremiah 24:8-10 will be repeated as it is the destiny of the bad figs or what we call “Jews” today; although Zedekiah was not in the sense of what we call a “Jew” today with the idea of having some Cain satanic blood. History has proven the following verses to be very true.
“8 And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the Lord, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt: 9 And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I will drive them. 10 And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their (half) fathers.”
BUT, WHERE DID THE GOOD FIGS GO?
For an answer to this we must go to the Scriptural passage, Jeremiah 50:4: “In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together , going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God.”
Bertrand L. Comparet, a stalwart and accomplished Bible teacher of Identity with profound ability, did an outstanding presentation on this very thing in his booklet, The Good Figs and The Bad Figs and I will start quoting him on page 9:
“Jeremiah himself predicted what was going to happen to the rest, the good figs. Jeremiah 50, verses 1 to 4: The word of Yahweh spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish and conceal not: say Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.’ And note this final verse: ‘In those days, and in that time, saith Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek Yahweh their God.’
“Now you hear some people who profess to know something of the Israel message, quoting this verse as though it were something future. But you remember, he has been talking specifically about the fall of Babylon, and says, ‘in those days, and in that time, saith Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come ...’ You know, of course, the ten-tribed northern kingdom of Israel, together with a considerable fraction of the people of Judah and Benjamin, were deported by the Assyrians, and settled in an arc around the southern end of the Caspian Sea, where they became known as the Scythians.
“In 612 B.C., the nation of the Assyrians was broken up; their capital, Nineveh, was captured and destroyed; and the people that captured and destroyed it were an alliance of three: there were Scythians, in other words, the people of Israel destroying their Assyrian conquerors; and the Medes; and the Babylonians. They had formed that alliance against the Assyrians. So the Scythians were a very formidable military people, we have been a very formidable military people all our history.
“Then when you had later, the Medo-Persian army coming down and taking Babylon, some of the ancient historians record that the Scythians swooped down into Babylonia, at that time, and gathered up most of the deported Judahites and Benjamites. They took them back with them; in other words, they were about ready to start their march northward into Europe, and they would not leave the people of Judah and Benjamin behind — they took them with them. So, as Jeremiah had said, ‘... in those days, and in that time, saith Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek Yahweh their God’.”
The answer to the question, “Where did the good figs go”?, is very easy when understood. They went into Europe with the northern Ten Tribes of Israel!
ONE OTHER SIN OF JUDAH, A REASON FOR CAPTIVITY
We have covered much of the background and reasons for Judah being punished with the Babylonian captivity. There is one more very important reason that the Babylonian captivity would be beneficial for Judah. This is found in Jeremiah 25:1-11. I will quote from the Believer’s Bible Commentary, by William MacDonald on this passage, page 1013:
“B. The Seventy-year Captivity in Babylon Predicted (Jeremiah 25:1-11)
“Jeremiah had warned all the people of Judah for twenty-three years; other men of God had not ceased to call them to repentance. Because they would not listen, they would be taken captive by God’s servant, Nebuchadnezzar, and remain in exile for seventy years.
“The reason the captivity lasted seventy years and God told the Jews (Judeans) in advance how long it would last is indicated in 2 Chronicles 36:20, 21:
“’And those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, where they became the servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate, she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.’
“Leviticus 25:3-5 teaches that the land was to lie fallow every seventh year. The people had disobeyed this law.”
The reason that the land is to lie fallow every seventh year, is because it is necessary for the minerals to be broken down so they can be absorbed by the plants. By letting the land lie fallow for a year, chemical reactions take place to break down the minerals. You can be sure that when that small remnant of Judah returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity, the land was rejuvenated and ready to be farmed again. The Babylonian captivity became a very important health lesson for Judah! As for the good figs of Judah that joined up with the Ten Tribes on their way into Europe, they were breaking new ground all the way so this didn’t become a problem immediately. No doubt, later in Europe, this misuse of the land might have contributed to some of the plagues experienced by the Israelites there. When the Tribes, consisting of both Israel and Judah, came to America, they continued the process of not giving the land rest. After farming a piece of ground for about 16 to 20 years, in the process wearing it out, they simply moved westward to new ground and started the process all over again. As a result, in about the last 100 years, there is no more new land to farm and the land has become very mineral deficient, and it is beginning to show in our general health. I live in Ohio, and some places in this area the farmers have planted corn every year for over fifty years. They simply add more commercial fertilizer along with weed killer each year. They get unbelievable yields, but where are the minerals? It appears that the Judah (German) farmers haven’t learned their lesson yet! Maybe, if we can ever get the controls of the enemy out of the farming business, our farmers can get back to the right use of the land, according to Yahweh’s Law, and our people can become healthy again!
(Revised 2-14-2001)
