Eventually
Jeremiah 25:1, 3,11-13
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 (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon)…
“For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day, the word of the Lᴏʀᴅ has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened…
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 Lᴏʀᴅ, 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.”
Eventually. I will wait. Later is soon enough. I have all the time I…
Have you known folks who had a ‘I will wait’ attitude toward God, that idea that I can pick the time of my choosing to get right with God, to deal with the issues of eternity, that ‘tomorrow is soon enough’ mentality? I have known too many who had a sudden death or dementia or simply didn’t see time reaching its fullness beyond which they were no longer able to make the changes they had been putting off to a more convenient time. We presume beyond our capacity to control the moments of the future.
So it was that God had persistently been speaking to Israel, the remaining people of Judah, for twenty-three years warning them of consequences for their actions but they ‘have not listened’ to Him. Now the Lᴏʀᴅ sets the limit of His patience with their procrastination:
I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened. 1
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 Lᴏʀᴅ, 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. 2
‘Eventually’ arrives with decisiveness, with determination, with purpose and ends the earlier times of repentance, of turning to God, of avoiding discipline. It will be seventy years before they again have the opportunity to worship God in Jerusalem. Two generations will be born during the time of ‘later, soon enough’. God’s process will continue until the next time of fruitfulness for Israel when God’s drawing to Himself brings them back into the Promised Land. God will fulfill His purposes no matter when our ‘eventually’ may be.
Do we recognize the times that the Lᴏʀᴅ gives us and honor Him with our timely response to Him? Are your arms and heart open to God’s move in your life even today while it is still called Today? He is waiting.
Jeremiah 25:1-13 (ESV) - https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/jer/25/1-13/s_770001
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