You Will Go to Babylon

Jeremiah recognizes the exile is coming. There is no escaping and there is a prayer of intercession in Jeremiah 10:24 “Chastise me, O Yahweh, but in moderation, not in your anger, lest you eradicate me”. The Lord is driving out the “house of Judah”, but the Lord will not leave, in Jeremiah 12:14 “the evil neighbors who touch the inheritance that I gave as an inheritance to my people Israel” and the Lord says “Look, I am about to drive them out”. With the Lord there is always a promise of restoration and the Lord says in Jeremiah 12:15 “I will once again have compassion on them, and I will bring them back”. But there are some that will not return. The Lord knows the work of every person and speaks individually in Jeremiah 20:6 “And you, Pashhur … will go to Babylon, and there you will die … and all your friends to whom you have prophesied falsely”. The Lord does hold us accountable for our actions.

Chastise Me in Moderation

Jeremiah 10:17–25
The people of Judah have resisted the word of the Lord from the prophets and now the Lord says in Jeremiah 18:18 “I will bring distress to them, so that they may feel it”. Now the people recognize in Jeremiah 10:20 “My tent is devastated … my children have gone”, in Jeremiah 10:21 “the shepherds … flocks have scattered”, and in Jeremiah 10:22 “a great roar … to make the cities of Judah a desolation”. Then there is the cry for God’s mercy in

Jeremiah 10:24 “Chastise me, O Yahweh, but in moderation, not in your anger, lest you eradicate me”.

followed by a cry to deflect God’s wrath against those that have abused Jacob in

Jeremiah 10:25 “Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, and on the peoples that do not call on your name, for they have devoured Jacob, they have devoured and consumed him, and they have caused his settlement to be desolate”.

I Will Bring Them Back

Jeremiah 12:7–17
Even though the children of Israel have failed to keep the covenant, they have failed to live on the land that the Lord gave them as a people separate to him, the Lord says in Jeremiah 12:15 “I will once again have compassion on them, and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance, and each one to his land”. Sadly though, he first says in Jeremiah 12:14 “the house of Judah I will drive out from among them”. And it isn’t surprising that the Lord would remove those of his people that were in some way doing “evil in the sight of the Lord” (44 references in the KJV).

But what does seem surprising is that the Lord also remembers the land, the inheritance he gave to his people and in

Jeremiah 12:14 “Thus says Yahweh concerning all of the evil neighbors who touch the inheritance that I gave as an inheritance to my people Israel: “Look, I am about to drive them out from their land (the land of the house of Judah)”.

The Lord never forgets, he has set the boundaries, he has selected his people, see Deuteronomy 32:7–10 “the Most High apportioned⌋ the nations … he fixed the boundaries of the peoples, according to the number of the children of Israel. 9 For Yahweh’s portion was his people, Jacob the share of his inheritance … he encircled him, he cared for him, he protected him like the apple of his eye”.