Jeremiah 16:1-13 Death Abounds
God is sending four destroyers upon Judah and death abounds everywhere. God tells Jeremiah NOT to grieve for them in any way. They earned it!
Jeremiah’s pity party is over. He is ready for the work that lies ahead. As part of God’s protection for him, Jeremiah is told NOT to get married or have children. It would tear his heart out to watch his own family receiving the penalty slotted for Judah. And I think Jeremiah is more than happy to go along with this restriction after hearing what is about to befall the people.
God has already had Jeremiah telling the people that BAD things are on the way. In his earliest prophecies, he was given words of hope ONLY with repentance on the part of the people. This message holds NONE of that hope. The last few messages give no chance for reprieve. They hold absolute judgment. It is a just judgment.
This judgment will happen in Jeremiah’s lifetime. Many prophets told of far distant future events. Jeremiah speaks of things happening VERY soon; for the judgment part. The redemption part will happen after Jeremiah ‘sleeps with his fathers’. Time has run out for repentance.
Reading about all the bodies left lying on the ground with none to burry them brought two different times in history to mind. The number of dead initially brought the days of COVID-19 to mind. Not everywhere had the bodies piling up like cordwood but some areas did. New York was one of those areas. Refrigerated trucks were called into service to hold the dead because there were so many. But that time actually allowed mourning and later caring for the dead.
The next time that popped into my head was the time of the Holocaust. There was no energy, resources, or time to mourn the dead. The concentration camps and even the ghettos were full of death. When one person dies, that just made a little more room for those that remained to stand, sit, or sleep. The gas chambers produced bodies by the hundreds that were rolled into mass graves. Some of which were covered over while others left open for the animals to feed on. For Israel, “the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride” (verse 9b) were silent.
This gives us just a tiny taste of what was about to happen in Judah. And Jeremiah had to share this message with the people. Exactly the kind of message that would get him hated by the people. But share it he would.
God KNEW Jeremiah would share this message as delivered. And He also knew what the people would say in response; “WHY?! What have we ever done to God to deserve this?” So, God gave Jeremiah the answer.
I believe that this message was given well after the time of Josiah. Josiah brought the people back to God and He promised not to bring the prophecy of His judgment during the life of Josiah. Josiah did EVERYTHING possible to bring the hearts of the people back, including removing ALL the false gods he could find in Judah AND in Samaria.
But Josiah’s reform did not last. As soon as he was dead, things went right back to the way they were beforehand. These were the people God was addressing when He gave His answer of “why” He would not relent. IF somehow the people had stayed true to God after Josiah, what would have happened? It would have had to be a continual ‘from the king down’ change. Second Kings 22 tells us that God honored Josiah’s heart. It doesn’t mention the people’s hearts here. And the people are the ones who chose an ungodly king in Josiah’s place. Not only had their ‘fathers’ sinned against God but they too were steeped in that same sin; “worse than your fathers” (verse 12b).
It’s time.
Father God, where are we in the “it’s time” spectrum? How much longer will You hold off Your judgment of this world? How many more chances do we have? I have a feeling that You have allowed some of these things in history to show that, without Your hand restraining it, BAD things happen. Thank You for the reprieves we have had so far. I TRULY pray that another will be warranted from You SOON. Otherwise… That time IS coming.
