THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Jeremiah: Prophet Of Judgment Followed By Blessing

Part XLVIII: God's Carefully Administered Judgments For Specific Sins

(Jeremiah 25:1-14 et al.)

I. Introduction

A. God's punishment for sin in always objective: He metes out precise punishment for precise sins in man to fulfill His objective of bringing nothing but glory to His reputation as a perfectly righteous God.

B. Such precision means that God is predictable, that we can always understand His work in our lives, and we view that divine objectivity in punishing man's sin for insight and edification in our lives (as follows):

II. God's Carefully Administered Judgments For Specific Sins, Jeremiah 25:1-14 et al.

A. Jeremiah's message in Jeremiah 25:1-38 was given the same year Daniel and his three Hebrew friends along with other Jews under Jehoiakim were taken captive to Babylon, adding significance to Jeremiah's message:

1. The message God had Jeremiah give in Jeremiah 25:1-38 occurred in the fourth year of Jehoiakim according to Palestine reckoning where the accession year was counted as the first year while in Babylon the next year was considered the first year, Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Jeremiah 25:1.

2. Thus, when Daniel 1:1 reports Daniel and his fellow Hebrew captives Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were taken captive by Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar in the third year of the reign of Judah's king Jehoiakim, it was actually the same years as the message of Jeremiah 25:1-38 since Daniel was using the Babylonian time for reckoning where Jeremiah used the Palestine reckoning; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 1160-1161.

B. Thus, Jeremiah's message powerfully asserts that from Josiah's thirteenth year, or five years before Josiah's people discovered the copy of the Law in the temple and had it read to him for the first time so that he repented (2 Kings 22:3-11) until the day of Jeremiah's current message, for 23 years, Jeremiah had persistently spoken God's messages to the people of Judah, but they had not hearkened so as to repent, Jeremiah 25:2-3.

C. Indeed, Jeremiah added that God had sent other unnamed prophets who like Jeremiah had persistently given God's warning of judgment unless the people repented, but neither had these prophets been heeded, Jer. 25:4.

D. These other unnamed prophets from the Lord had urged Judah's people to turn from their evil ways that they might continue to dwell in the land of Judah that God had given to them and their fathers, Jer. 25:5. God had urged them not to follow after other gods nor to provoke Him with sinful actions that He not harm them in punishment (Jer. 25:6), but they had not hearkened, provoking the Lord with their rebellion and sins, Jer. 25:7.

E. Since the people had not hearkened to God's Words by Jeremiah and other prophets of the Lord to repent to avoid God's painful punishment (Jer. 25:8), the Lord of Hosts would send and take all the tribes from the north under Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to invade Judah and all the nations around Judah utterly to destroy them and leave them devastated and shamed, Jeremiah 25:9 ESV.

F. God would take from them the voice of celebration, that of weddings and of the bride, and even the activities of commerce in the sound of the millstone and the light of the candle, to leave the whole territory a desolation, with the captives of Judah serving Babylon for seventy years in the Babylonian Captivity, Jeremiah 25:11.

G. This length of captivity fulfilled a precise prophecy of the Lord in Leviticus 26:33-35 (as follows):

1. The men of Judah had not kept the Sabbath Year rests required in the Law to let the land lie fallow every seventh year since they had entered the land under Joshua, a period of 490 years, so God would cause them to remain in captivity for 70 years to catch up on these violations of that law, 2 Chronicles 36:20-21.

2. This punishment had actually been prophesied by Moses in Leviticus 26:27, 33-35 where he said that were the people to violate their Sabbath Year rests, the land would catch up on its missed rests in their captivity!

H. However, since Babylon was certainly not sinless as a nation itself, the Lord announced after He had used it to punish all the other nations around Judah along with Judah herself, God would punish Babylon by sending another Gentile nation to invade it and make even Babylon herself a perpetual desolation, Jeremiah 25:12-14!

Lesson: (1) All the sins of all the nations, both those of Judah, the Gentile nations around her and those of Babylon whom God would initially use to punish Judah and the other Gentile nations, were all known to God and would be precisely punished by Him, for God had amply, persistently warned them for long periods of time to repent and they had not repented. (2) In contrast, Daniel and his three friends who were captured by Babylon learned from the event to heed God, so they aligned with His will for great blessing in captivity! (Dan. 1:1-8, 9-21)

Application: God sees and in time deals with all sin and repentance, so may we revere Him and repent from all sin!