God judges his chosen people - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Jeremiah 52:3,

"It was because of the Lord's anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence."

Here we read of the end of the line for Israel, God's own chosen people, at the hands of the Babylonians. The Babylonians destroyed Judah. But, as this verse clearly states, it was the Lord who decreed the destruction of Jerusalem and the people of Judah. The kingdom that was begun when Joshua brought the nation across the Jordan to take possession of the promised land was now at an end. The kingdom that suffered, due to their own rebellion against God, during the period of the judges was now at an end. The kingdom that was built up by Saul, David and Solomon was now at an end.

It would be another seventy years following this that the fledgling remnant of Jews who survived in Babylon would be allowed to return to the land. All of this destruction, all of this ruin, all of this misery, caused by their own hands. As God's chosen covenant people, they turned their backs on God in rebellion to him and found the end of his patience and the beginning of his judgment.

God had his purposes for Israel. They were to be his voice in the world, they were to be the people that would prepare the way for God's Son to enter into the human race to be a sin offering. They were to be God's chosen people to through which God would carry out his plan of redemption. However, they failed to remain faithful to God and discovered just how frightful it can be to fall into the hands of God's judgment.

The history of Israel does not end here, however. The remnant will return to the land and the nation will begin again to become the people through whom God would send his Son into the world. His motivation to do so was his incomprehensible love of all mankind. Israel would rise again and become the instrument through which God worked to bring about his plan of redemption.

There is a lot to be considered here in regard to the consequences of turning our backs on God. There is also much to be considered relative to God's amazing love that would work beyond his judgment of Israel and raise them up again to provide a way for all of us to join his own family.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

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Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com