Chapter 736 of 1163

JEREMIAH 25

Imagine preaching for twenty-three years and seeing no visible results! Jeremiah was faithful to his calling even though the people opposed him and would not hear God’s Word. We are judged by God according to our faithfulness, not our outward success. By men’s standards, Jeremiah would be considered a failure (1 Cor. 4:1–5).

The Babylonian captivity was God’s way of punishing the rebels and purifying the godly remnant of the nation. The nation was deaf to God’s Word (vv. 4, 7, 8), but that Word would be fulfilled, not only to Israel, but to all the nations to which God sent it by His prophet.

God is long-suffering toward disobedient people and gives them many opportunities for repentance, but eventually He must act. He will be like a host who makes his guests drunk (vv. 15–29), a lion that attacks the flock (vv. 30–31, 34–38), a whirlwind that sweeps across the nation and destroys it (vv. 32–33).

Judah’s Punishment

According to 2 Chronicles 36:20–21, the Lord punished Judah for seventy years because that was the number of Sabbatical Years they had not observed (Lev. 25:1–7). The people did not rest on the weekly Sabbath (Jer. 17:19–27), and they did not give the land its rest every seven years (Lev. 26:27–35). When we keep to ourselves what belongs to God, we eventually lose it and suffer in the process.

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