Looking For Relief From God When It's Too Late

Jeremiah 21:1-5: "The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. They said: 'Inquire now of the LORD for us because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the LORD will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us.' But Jeremiah answered them, 'Tell Zedekiah, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in you hands, which you are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonians who are outside the wall besieging you. And I will gather them inside this city. I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in anger and fury and great wrath.'"



We can only imagine the setting in which this episode occurs in the life of the people of Judah as recorded in Jeremiah. The mighty Babylonians had encircled the city of Jerusalem and had begun their 18-month siege against it. These warriors would cut off the food supply such that the people inside Jerusalem's walls would eventually resort to most horrid measures for survival (see Lamentations 4:10). When the heat of God's judgment befell Jerusalem, these once wicked people of Judah, who had mocked the warnings of the LORD and had persecuted His prophets, were now sending their religious leaders to Jeremiah in hopes that God's wrath might be averted. Whereas God had been quite longsuffering with these people, desiring that they repent, eventually a point was reached when the day of salvation was past and only the judgment of God remained. Rather than being their Protector and Defender, now the LORD had become their Enemy who would inflict the severest of penalties for their treason against His Holiness and Lordship. God had not forgotten that these people just recently had professed, "Who can come against us? Who can enter our refuge?" (21:13). These people of Judah thought themselves impervious to attack, as their city was fortified with expansive walls for its protection; their fortifications falsely reinforced their belief that their wicked ways were beyond any judgments from the LORD. And though the LORD sent them the prophets to warn them of coming disaster, they only ridiculed such perceived nonsense. Oh how wrong these people were . . . for the Babylonian invasion was a most horrific sight!


Still, God would give these people an opportunity to find remedy from their miserable condition, if only they would respond to His instruction to surrender to the Babylonians and be subject to them for a period of time. God would have His people suffer for their sins, but the severity of their suffering could be abated if they would only listen to His counsel. Sadly, these people would attempt to do just the opposite. They determined to hold out as long as they could; and all that they did was worsen the effects of the siege. Even in the midst of suffering, these Israelites would not listen to the LORD.



There is a good word for us here. Do we believe ourselves impervious to the judgments of the LORD? Do we think that we are beyond any culpability for our sinful ways? Let us renounce such foolishness while the day of God's salvation is upon us. Just as with the people of Judah during the days of Jeremiah, so too do we have a limited time to respond to God's offering of grace. When the fullness of time for His grace has past, nothing remains "but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God" (Hebrews 10:27).