Jeremiah 25
In as much as I have seen it and experienced it, I love village life. I am sure that if I had to do all the work that people need to do who live from their own hands, I might have a different attitude. They work hard, yet there seems to be something peaceful about their world that is hard to have in the cities of the most advanced nations. One of the challenges and blessings that people do face who live or die based on their own crops and their domestic animals is this – they know that the Ruler of nature can make their town into a wasteland in a moment according to His will.
This should have been especially well-known by the inhabitants of
God is not without weapons. He has armies to the north, and Nebuchadnezzar is His servant though the far-off king might never acknowledge Him. If He devotes nations to destruction then they will fall. He can banish from pleasant villages the normal customs of life: seedtime and harvest, the milling of flour for bread, the celebration of marriage, the making of wine, and the dancing that comes with evening festivities enjoyed by the light of torches.
There are many chapters that we can point to throughout the prophetic writings that speak of the interruption of life’s blessings because of the Lord’s judgment. This chapter is different because of a specific detail – 70 years. God reveals to Jeremiah the length of the Babylonian captivity. The prophet Daniel will later use this one fact as a certain promise from the Almighty. He will turn his face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and voicing heartfelt pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
The provision of this fact of divine timing is a most unusual condescension on the part of God. Jesus tells His disciples that no one knows the day or hour of the return of the Son of Man. God was under no obligation to tell the exiles how long they would be away from the land. Why does He do this thing? We cannot know for sure, but I imagine that it has something to do with the prayers of Daniel, that this man of faith in the land of the Chaldeans would consider the sure word of the Lord and act accordingly. God set him praying based on the word He had earlier giving to Jeremiah, and then God used His prayers as one of the means that he appointed in order to accomplish His own holy purposes. Apparently there are times when God wants us to know such things. Most often this is not the case. This detail of the length of captivity also could have functioned as an encouragement to His people that their exile was not permanent, since the actual duration of it had been determined and announced before it even began.
There is one other piece of encouragement that He gives to His people in this chapter. He announces that He will punish the one who is the agent of their chastisement. Nebuchadnezzar was his servant for a time, but this same king would be punished by god after the seventy years appointed for this discipline was completed. This kind of information is only helpful to those who will believe the word of God. For those who believe, they can know that the iniquity of the Babylonians will not be ignored by God. The day of their judgment is coming.
The Lord has a cup of wrath that no man can stand. It is measured out against His people, but it will also be given to the nations of the world. It is this cup that Jesus has consumed every last drop of on behalf of his beloved bride. The cross is the cup of God’s wrath, and for those who believe, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. This is excellent news for us. We do not know the day of the Lord’s return, but we do know that the judgment that we deserve against us from Almighty God has already been consumed by the Son of God in His atoning death. Now we wait for Him, believing His promises, and doing the works that He has appointed for us. Though we may face serious disappointment and even grievous horrors, as He warned us, there is the great joy of anticipation that comes to the one who faithfully serves at the pleasure of our great King.
He was pierced for our transgressions, and by his stripes we are healed. Through His cross we have peace – not the temporary peace of the most pleasant village life that this world can offer, but something much more secure, much fuller, and much more permanent. The pastoral joys of a simple life are a truly wonderful blessing for those who can receive them, but they can be gone in a moment. The blessings of heaven secured for us in the death and resurrection of Christ can never be taken away.
posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM
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