Repentance or Desolation?

Jeremiah 25:1-14 

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 3 "From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the LORD has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. 4 And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. 5 They said, 'Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. 6 Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.' 7 Yet you have not listened to Me," says the LORD, "that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

8 "Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Because you have not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,' says the LORD, 'and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

12 'Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,' says the LORD; and I will make it a perpetual desolation. 13 So I will bring on that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied concerning all the nations. 14 (For many nations and great kings shall be served by them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands.)'"

Here is wisdom which went unheeded and resulted in the desolation of the nation of Judah of God’s people for refusing repentance, and which we can all learn from.  For twenty three years Jeremiah had been giving them God’s word as he woke early each day to speak to them, just as He had done with other prophets alongside and before him.  But they rejected the words and Him and walked in their own ways of sin and idolatry instead as they turned deaf ears and blind eyes to hear and see their LORD.  The message of loving warning was always the same, repent from sin and follow Him to love forever in the promised land, a picture and type of the heavenly kingdom to come at the consummation of all things at the return of Christ.  The message was to worship the LORD alone and no other (Exodus 20:3-6, Isaiah 45:22-24, Philippians 2:10-11) or incur God’s just wrath and punishment as justice served.  The flip side of that was the promise of protection by grace for following and worshipping Him alone.  They chose badly with the works of their hands fashioning sin and idols to their own harm, bringing the curses of dishonoring the covenant upon them all (Deuteronomy 30:10-12, 14-16, 17-18) with the promise of accountability for rejection in Deuteronomy 30:19-20 for not choosing life.  Because they refused and rejected Him according to His word, they were taken captive in Babylon and their promised land leveled by the destruction they brought upon themselves.  Their joy was gone, marriages no longer joyful as seen later in the spiritual Babylon to come (Revelation 18:23), and all productive and fruitful elements of everyday life taken away such as the example of grinding grain and oil in their lamps.  The disciplinary sentence was to be seventy years of bondage in Babylon for their rejection and idolatry.  Bit the promise of grace was to call them back after that time to repentance and forgiveness for fruitfulness once more.  Then Babylon would be punished according to all their evil deeds for treating His people so, even though they were used as instruments of grace for their correction to bring hem back to Himself.  God also disciplines us for our good when we continue in unrepentant sin to restore us to Him once more, not losing our eternal standing (1 Corinthians 3:14-15) but refining us as gold (Daniel 11:35, Zechariah 13:9, 1 Peter 1:6-7) to remove the dross of sin (Isaiah 1:25, 48:10-11) from our souls in our conformity of sanctification to the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).  This is our hope of deliverance from eternal judgment in the grace of knees bowed to our Lord and King, Jesus Christ (Romans 10:8-10, 13, 1 Timothy 6:14-15, Revelation 17:14).  Amen!