It’s SO important, not to add or subtract or gloss over what God really is saying. God stands firm, and we don’t see a relaxation of God’s rules ever, but instead we see an overpowering overpowering of forgiveness by Jesus holding us in His cleansing blood. It’s believing in forgiveness that we bring to the altar rather than an escape door.

Escape doors are awesome in theaters, I just saw “Wicked” on Broadway, a joy with time with my daughter, AMAZING and AWESOME. “Defying Gravity” is stuck in my head. it’s just plain fun to be entertained. I won’t tell you that plot, but know an escape door is so cool… and the show has twists (and twisters being a pre-adaptation new novel angle of the Wizard of Oz) about being perceived as wicked as much as it is about being real to oneself… learning and growing… (Great music too)… they may fictionalize defying gravity but the real evil ways of some are never going to get past notice by false illusion. The whole twist of this story is a separate twist of the other fictitious story – we could get this “hey that isn’t how the story goes” – but remember this is all fantasy… 

God however is REAL – GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE AND GOOD!

Jeremiah is fortified by God to speak, learns to go out and speak truth and trust God’s protection to those projecting an illusion of faithfulness… We are especially to know Jeremiah’s text was written down for us to believe too. God wanted even His exiled people to LISTEN. God fortified the delivery of the message too, after being blamed for being blasphemous, they decided not to kill him then. Jeremiah told the people plainly: TURN FROM YOUR EVIL WAYS. God had planned harsh conditions to make them WAKE UP,  but it was calculated and timed. And in all this WAKE UP, He still had planned a path to Himself, re-gathering after many years, and He would bring their people back. This is not a forgetting of past sins but a FORGIVENESS to MOVE FORWARD! GOD ALWAYS REMINDS His Israelite descendants of Jacob and of David, a line reserved for a KING (Jesus) to come as Ultimate King,  that He makes provisions. 

God wanted the people to get over their rebellion by going deeper into submission under the Babylonians, captives under King Nebuchadnezzar, they needed to wait it out (70 years in Babylon) in OBEDIENCE. God told them everything they needed to know, that He would take care of punishment to the oppressors but after 70 years… That they had to wait upon the Lord.  That’s us too, WAIT UPON THE LORD. 

It’s important that if we held onto God’s hope this long, we can continue. 

God’s got this… God’s got this… It may take time but GOD’S GOT THIS!

Amen

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Jeremiah 25:8-14

Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

“But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate forever. I will bring on that land all the things I have spoken against it, all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”

Jeremiah 26 NKJV

Jeremiah Saved from Death

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the Lord, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Stand in the court of the Lord’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the Lord’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not diminish a word. Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings.’ And you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: “If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you, to heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them (but you have not heeded), then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.” ’ ”

So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. Now it happened, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You will surely die! Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without an inhabitant’?” And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord.

When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and sat down in the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house. And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes and all the people, saying, “This man deserves to die! For he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.”

Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and all the people, saying: “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city with all the words that you have heard. Now therefore, amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; then the Lord will relent concerning the doom that He has pronounced against you. As for me, here I am, in your hand; do with me as seems good and proper to you. But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will surely bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city, and on its inhabitants; for truly the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”

So the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man does not deserve to die. For he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”