Jeremiah 25:1-38

Bad news is hard to give and the Lord called Jeremiah to give a ton of it.  His message to Judah was one of destruction and captivity and then his message to the nations was of complete annihilation.  We all enjoy delivering good news but bad news is a very difficult thing for all of us.  Jeremiah was given a very difficult message but he delivered it with faithfulness and integrity.  In many ways we too have been given a message that is hard to deliver.  The majority of the people with whom we come in contact and share this planet are not believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.  We are called to deliver the bad news about their condemnation before God and the horror of their eternal plight.  However, we also have the GOOD NEWS of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which grants forgiveness to all who believe on the Lord Jesus.

THE BAD NEWS FOR ISRAEL: Jeremiah had been warning the nation of Israel for 23 years about the coming judgment from God.  Two decades is a long period of ministry and for two decades his message had been largely ignored.  He now informs the nation of God’s determination to send them into captivity for 70 years and leave the land in desolation.  Many of the people would be killed and the nation of Babylon would take the vast majority of the survivors into captivity where they too would perish and never see their homeland again.  Jeremiah had called for them to repent and turn to the Lord from their idols but they would not listen to him and continued down their idolatrous and immoral paths.  Unfortunately, they continued to rebel and make a mockery of the Lord and His Word.  Now they were going to experience the wrath of God.  It is our job to proclaim the truth even when it is not popular or easy.  The church has been proclaiming the Gospel for two millennia and the majority of the world continues to reject this message of hope. 


THE BAD NEWS FOR NATIONS:  Jeremiah was not only a prophet to his people but was also sent by God to the surrounding nations to warn them of God’s wrath.  God sent him with a cup of wine symbolizing the wrath of God and let the nations know God’s sword was on the way to judge them for their evil and idolatrous ways.  God hates sin and has promised to judge sin decisively.  Jeremiah goes to all the nations and their kings with a message of their coming destruction and devastation.  God’s determination is sure and it really does not matter what men think of His ways.  This world is not a democracy where the majority gets to decide what they want.  This world is a Theocracy where God decides the fate of the world and all who live on it.  The voice of God’s wrath will roar like a lion.  Disaster is on its way and God will not relent.  Kings and shepherds will all suffer under God’s judgment with no place to hide or find refuge.  The only hope for any man in any nation is to turn from the idolatry of his heart and trust in the cross of Christ as the only means of finding forgiveness from God.  This is the only refuge God has provided and all who reject this path will be eternally judged.

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