The Knowledge of the Heart | Doug Dortch

“The Knowledge of the Heart” Series: “Plans for God’s Good Future”
February 23, 2020

As a preacher who faces the daunting task of communicating with people multiple times a week, either by means of speaking or writing, I am very much aware of the power of words, and in particular, finding the right word for the right occasion to drive home the right point.

Fortunately, the English language is dynamic, fluid, and always evolving.  For example, did you know that according to the latest findings a new word is added to our English language every 98 minutes, which comes out to around 800 to 1,000 words added over the course of each year? Like you, I can’t possibly keep up with all of them.  But occasionally, I come across one that for whatever reason intrigues me and provokes me and stays with me because it more times than not reveals a blind spot in my soul that I might otherwise have never seen.

I’m thinking in particular about the word “woke,” which as I understand was introduced into the dictionary just a year or so ago, back in 2017.  You might be saying to yourself, “That’s not a new word.  That word has been around for a while.  ‘I woke up this morning’ is a familiar line in a host of songs from B.B. King to Nickelback to “the Sopranos” theme song.  But in recent months the term has taken on a new twist.  With its roots in “the hood,” the term “woke” now refers to one’s awareness of issues concerning social justice in general and racial justice in particular.  Especially popular among the socially media savvy crowd, when someone posts or tweets that “I am woke,” that person is assuring us that he or she is not oblivious at all to all the matters and topics that the powers that be doesn’t want us to know or tries to keep us from knowing.  

I hear that phrase and am taken back to an inscription etched in stone along the façade of the College of Education building at my alma mater, the University of Montevallo, as a reminder to us students who might during the course of our studies be tempted to slough off, “Knowledge Is Power,” which is just an ancient way of saying, “It’s much better to stay woke.”

In reality, the idea of “being woke” and thus having immense power at your disposal goes back thousands of years to the time of the prophet Jeremiah.  As you know, our church has been in a worship series on Jeremiah and will continue to be so through the season of Lent.  Jeremiah, “the weeping prophet,” as we call him, was broken over the ignorance of his people over the good plans that God had in store for them and answered the call of God to wake them up to either the pitfalls or the possibilities that were before them, depending on how they chose to respond to God’s leading.

This section of Jeremiah’s prophecy comes at the beginning of the Babylonian exile for God’s people, a displacement from their homes and businesses and place of worship that took place in stages, and not in one fell swoop.  At first, the Babylonians who captured Jerusalem took only the best and the brightest back with them to Babylon so that no one might be left behind to start an insurrection.  They took the skilled workers and the artisans and the court officials, and even the king!  You can imagine the distress that descended upon the nation as they saw their leaders and their loved ones taken away as if they were the Monday morning trash.  People were left wondering what in the world would their future hold.

Into that disillusionment and despair stepped Jeremiah with a word from the Lord.  God had sent Jeremiah down to the temple to pray over the matter and what God might have to show him.  When he arrived, the first thing Jeremiah noticed were two baskets of figs, placed there as a special offering to God.  One basket contained ripe figs, figs that were picked at the beginning of the season, choice figs you might even say.  The other basket contained spoiled ones, figs that were so bad they stunk to high heaven and could never be eaten.

Suddenly, God spoke to Jeremiah: “What do you see?”  And Jeremiah, who likely thought that he was “woke,” had no idea what God was about to do to show His steadfast love to His Chosen People.  “This is what the LORD said: ‘These good figs are the exiles, whom I have sent away to the land of the Babylonians.  But my eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land.  I will build them up and not tear them down…. I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD.  They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.   

And the second basket of figs, you ask?  They represent “Zedekiah, king of Judah, (and successor to the throne), his officials, and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt.  I will make them…an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a curse and an object of ridicule, wherever I banish them.”

God’s word through Jeremiah is for the people of Jerusalem not to view their circumstances, whether privileged or marginalized, whether displaced or spared, as an indication of their value to God or of the future He had for them to know.  How easy it would have been for the exiles to have assumed that they had nothing to live for and nothing to look forward to, and how even easier it would have been for those left behind to have assumed that God had spared them in order to bless them.

The point of the parable of the two baskets of figs is that while there are many reasons for us to make assumptions about how we are on the right side of God’s favor, the receiving side of God’s favor, we cannot ever allow ourselves to take His grace for granted.  We may assume that we are blessed when things are going well and cursed when they are not.  But trouble can be a blessing when it wakes us up to our need for God and inspires us to lean more strongly upon him.  And likewise, prosperity can be a curse any time it puts us to sleep and causes us to be unaware of our dependence upon God so that we unwittingly and arrogantly turn our lives away from Him.

This morning, I invite you to hear this story in a way that causes you to “be woke” and to “stay woke.”  If things are going not so well for you, I invite you to consider using this time to ask God to help you grow stronger in Him.  And if things are actually going very well, I invite you to ask God to help you not to presume upon His grace but instead to use it even more faithfully to advance His Kingdom purposes.  

When we look in the Bible for the most “woke” person there ever was, our attention of course gets turned quickly to Jesus.  In spite of the fact that no one around him seemed to appreciate who he was or what God had sent him to do, Jesus was ever mindful of how God’s hand was upon him and how the Spirit of the Lord had anointed him to usher in the time of God’s salvation.  There were many things that Jesus said and did to advance the good news of the Kingdom – many signs, many wonders, many sayings, many teachings.  But the most important work that Jesus did was the work we are getting ready to remember – his work upon the cross and the manner in which though despised and rejected by men with no beauty that we should desire him, on the cross he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows so that by his wounds we may be healed (Isa. 53:4).  

When I read the crucifixion story, there are many parts that fascinate me, many parts that stagger me, and many parts I find hard to understand.  The one part that touches me the most is in Luke’s account when while hanging from the cross, Jesus looks down at the soldiers who had already begun divvying up his garments and prays to the Father, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34).  “Father, forgive them and wake them up.”

I pray that this morning God’s Spirit has used something in this service –some song, some prayer, perhaps even this sermon – to prepare you for an experience that you might take to heart, one that might awaken you to the good future God has for you to know.  While Jeremiah’s experience of the two baskets reminds us that appearances can be deceiving and no one should take God’s grace for granted, the story of the cross reveals who among us is truly on the Lord’s side.  For while the cross is folly to all who are perishing, to us who are being saved and “staying woke,” our knowledge of who Jesus is and what God sent him to do is nothing less than the power of God.  Knowledge really is power, and today God wants you to know Him with all of your heart.

1After Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the skilled workers and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the LORD. 2One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten. 3Then the LORD asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” “Figs,” I answered. “The good ones are very good, but the bad ones are so bad they cannot be eaten.” 4Then the word of the LORD came to me: 5“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Like these good figs, I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. 6My eyes will watch over them for their 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 uproot them. 7I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD. They will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with all their heart. 8‘But like the bad figs, which are so bad they cannot be eaten,’ says the LORD, ‘so will I deal with Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the survivors from Jerusalem, whether they remain in this land or live in Egypt. 9I will make them abhorrent and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach and a byword, a curse and an object of ridicule, wherever I banish them. 10I will send the sword, famine and plague against them until they are destroyed from the land I gave to them and their ancestors.’”
Jeremiah 24:1-10 (NIV)