“Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not obeyed my words, behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will banish from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the grinding of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, declares the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste. I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall make slaves even of them, and I will recompense them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”
This is a long paragraph but it carries, in essence, the entire message of the book of Jeremiah. The people of God had disobeyed God’s word. Therefore God is going to bring upon them an evil nation (Babylon) to punish them. But in the end God will restore them after a time. At that point God will punish the evil nation He brought to punish them.
Here are some key thoughts about this passage:
1. It starts out giving the reason for the discipline of Israel: They disobeyed God’s Word. If you want to avoid discipline in any arena of life, obey the rules and the laws and the words of those above you. They disobeyed their God and that is the reason for the upcoming discipline. It is that simple.
2. God calls Nebuchadnezzar my servant. It would be doubtful that Nebuchadnezzar would consider himself a servant of God. But God uses the leaders of this world to accomplish His will.
3. God is not limited in the type of discipline He will and can give to His children. In the above text He speaks of utter destruction and making them a horror, a hissing to the nations around them. God is going to shame them.
4. God discipline is not just the bad but He also removes the good. He tells them that He will remove the voice of gladness, the voice of the weeding feast, the voice of the pleasure of working, and remove the simple provision of light. When we disobey Him, God not only allows the bad He also hinders the good.
5. Even the land will suffer for their disobedience. When we fail to carry out God’s Word there is ancillary fallout that impacts the world around us.
6. God’s discipline is not forever. In this case, God puts a limit on His own discipline.
7. Eventually God punishes all evil even though He might use evil men to punish those He loves and has chosen.
God did a great work through the prophet Jeremiah and the words He gave him to speak. So too today through the Word of God. We disobey are our own peril.
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