Context for Jeremiah 21-22
Jeremiah begins the account of the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar. In this account, Jeremiah reminds the people of Jerusalem how they had been warned and how each of their successive kings had ignored God’s warning. Now, everything God had told them through Jeremiah was about to come to pass, yet they still refused to listen.
“If you do that one more time, you are going to be in trouble!â€
Every parent has warned his child with the same stern words, yet very often that child commits that offense just one more time to see if his parent’s word is true. Good parents follow through on that warning, leaving no doubt that they are in charge.
God had warned the people of Jerusalem in the same way. Over and over, through hundreds of years of prophets, God had told His people to repent and return to Him or there would be consequences, yet those people simply ignored Him and did their own thing, which was to sinfully rebel against God.
Now, the consequences were at hand, and much like a child screaming “Daddy, NO!†after an offense warned against sparked a spanking, the king of Judah went to Jeremiah to ask for God’s favor in spite of his and his nation’s continued unrepentance and idolatry. One can imagine that, at the same time Zedekiah’s emissaries were on their way to Jeremiah, they were on their way to the priest’s of Baal as well.
God’s answer through Jeremiah was the same as a parent’s, “I told you, now you are in trouble.†God pronounced His discipline: surrender to the Babylonians or suffer death and captivity. History shows us the path Judah chose.
In the end, we see in this story the fact that God keep’s His word just as surely as a parent should with a wayward child. This fact is a warning to us to remember that God will not sit idly by while we claim to be Christians yet go on living in sin. There will be consequences unless we return to His will. God promises us that just as surely as He promises us salvation and eternity through faith and repentance.
