The Lᴏʀᴅ repeatedly seeks to establish anew His identity to those remaining in Judah after the captivities have begun yet there comes a time when the focus of the prophecies moves to the restoration after Babylonian mastery. After all His pleading has failed to bring national repentance, God makes clear that the nation will be removed for seventy years due to their refusal to honor the Lᴏʀᴅ as their only god. Even with the northern ten tribes gone, Judah continues to make their own gods:
The Lᴏʀᴅ goes to extreme measures submitting them to the full force of the Babylonians who will demonstrate only the Lᴏʀᴅ is the true God Almighty. He has used every other means including the prophetic ministries, grace, goodness, prosperity, famine—to all of which they do not respond. They will now reap the consequences:
In the 800 years since God brought them out of Egypt, the number of ungodly kings exceeded those faithful to God. The nation has taken upon themselves the gods of the nations they were tasked with driving out and ignored the Lᴏʀᴅ while serving gods of their own devising. Captivity in Babylon is hoped to bring them back to relationship in the Lᴏʀᴅ alone. Jeremiah’s prayer is the plea of God’s heart for the nation:
The God who called Abraham, redeemed Isaac, wrestled with Jacob and enabled him to become Israel is now willing to let the nation be convinced by a means He sought to avoid, convincing that there are no other god worthy of taking His place as Lᴏʀᴅ.
Good News: After seventy years of Babylonian Captivity, the Israelites will never again worshiped the gods of the nations. They became the people of Jehovah and have identified solely with Him for the past 2,500 years. But serving Him is another story.
What does it take for us moderns to know the Lᴏʀᴅ in the Way He sought for the Israelites to know Him? Do we relationally know Him as the Lᴏʀᴅ?