Jeremiah 25:1-14 Timeline
God gives Jeremiah a partial timeline to share with the people. For ignoring God’s call for the last 24 years, so far, Judah will spend 70 years in captivity.
God did NOT give Judah a beginning date for that captivity. It will be another 18 years before their ‘sentence’ begins. Jeremiah will have brought God’s words of repentance for 41 years by the time Judah is conquered and deported. We have seen Jeremiah ask God to ‘hurry up’ before. Jeremiah gets impatient some times when he is treated shabbily by the people or he sees what they are doing as especially evil. But God does NOT hurry on Jeremiah’s account.
How much effect did this prophecy have on the people? Did they consider how it would affect their lives or their children’s? Did they blow it off like the previous prophecies? Did they ignore it because they were too busy dealing with the needs of the day? Did they even consider their need for repentance? Did they think they were ‘fine’ so God must be talking to their neighbors? Whatever it was that they were doing, they loved it enough to risk receiving God’s promised wrath.
One thing that occurred to me is that this captivity would last for one generation. God would begin to build again with a new generation, just as He did with Israel after leaving Egypt. Psalm 90:10 tells us that man is promised 70 years, if he is really healthy and strong, 80 years. There will be those who return that were alive before the fall of Judah but they will be old men. And they will be disappointed by what they see being rebuilt, but God won’t.
God will rebuild a people who will follow His laws with vigor. It will become part of their nature and national heritage. Unfortunately, His words will be added to and structure over spirit will become the norm. But this is the environment God will introduce His Son into. One without Baal or Ashtaroth worship. One where His people are looking for their Messiah. They refused to recognize Him when He came, but that too was part of God’s plan. Enough of them did to begin building a true body for Him; out of a remnant of a remnant.
There is a HUGE ‘reset’ button looming in our future too. It includes called the Rapture, the Great Tribulation and the Battle of Armageddon. Once these are completed another remnant will begin rebuilding during the family again. The FINAL remnant will come after Satan is released at the end of the Millennial reign.
Can you imagine being Jeremiah? Being the one who has to keep calling out “Repent or be swept away”? For 41 years he called to the people and was abused by them for it. Not only didn’t they listen to him but they tried everything they could to silence him. That and more happened to Jesus’ disciples and many who came after them proclaiming God’s message. And that message is NOT destruction but a heart calling out for His children to come to Him for safety. His message is LOVE. A love that frees us from sin and death.
A picture of a father calling to his child to come back from the ledge before he falls. The father can’t reach the child to pull him back. The child has to choose to listen to the father’s voice and return to safety. The edge is crumbling beneath the child and if he doesn’t listen, he WILL fall. This is how God is calling out to us. We are on the edge. We have to choose to come to Him. He is calling, but He won’t force us to come. But if we don’t, the destruction He is calling us away from WILL overtake us.
Father God, THANK YOU for continuing to call to me until I finally listened. I DO NOT even want to think about what my life would be like without You. I pray that You use the words I share to draw even one person back from the ‘edge’. Thank You for letting me be part of Your family. For making me YOUR child.
Help me to forgive as You do. Without Your forgiveness there would be no salvation. There would also be no restoration. I need restoration regularly. Salvation though is a gift that You never take from me. It is also a gift that man cannot take from me either and I cannot lose. It would be like me losing my blood tie to my earthly father. Our relationship may suffer but that tie can never be broken; even by death. I’m Yours for ETERNITY!
