Context for Jeremiah 16:1-17:18
God’s judgment against Judah was a sure and terrible thing, yet it would come when the people of Judah had most deluded themselves that such a judgment was not going to come. In their minds, God was impotent or had turned a blind eye to their sin, so they went on sinning, right until they day everything they had was taken from them.
The worst kinds of disasters come when we do not expect them. Such will be the disaster the unfaithful have on the day Jesus returns to gather His people to Him. The unbelieving world will be unprepared for that event, likely disbelieving even as every eye sees the return of the Son of God.
In a lesser way, the consequences of sin come upon us just as unexpectedly simply because those consequences are the result of ignoring God’s will. When we sin, especially when we do so persistently, we turn away not only from God’s will, but from the realization that sin affects us. As a result, when those consequences come, we often wonder at their source.
Thankfully, though faith, we turn to God at those times and ask “Why?â€. Then, through the Word, God points us at our sin and how that sin threatens our faith and our relationship with Him. At that moment, we then come to realize what we are doing, and by repentance, are restored to God’s will.
