“This is the twenty-third year in which the word of the Lord has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early, and speaking, but you have not listened. And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever.’” [1]
The Lord speaks to those who are heading for destruction in hope that they will turn to Him and be saved. God can replace an evil heart with a good heart, but the sinner must ask God to forgive his or her sin, and to grant him or her a new heart. [2]
The people of Jeremiah’s day preferred to stay close to sin and far from God. This did not end well for them. An evil tyrant named Nebuchadnezzar rose up. He displaced, slaughtered, and impoverished them. [3] The evil that they reaped was greater than they sowed.
God is a whole-hearted lover. His essence is love. His loving heart can only bear with defiant and evil behavior for so long. Jeremiah told the people, “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.” [4]
The people preferred the preaching of false prophets over God’s truth-telling prophet. Jeremiah told them, “Do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’” [5]
Babylon was to the Jews of Jeremiah’s day as hell is to people of our days. It was a topic no one wanted to talk about and a future possibility everyone wanted to doubt. Jeremiah prophesied by the Word of the Lord that Babylon was going to destroy his nation if they did not repent and turn back to God. No one wanted to hear or take action on his message.
Today, the mission of the Church is to tell people that there is a hell to shun and a heaven to gain. Jesus spoke of hell more than any other person in the Bible. He spoke of it as a real place with real suffering. He was willing to become a real sacrifice for the sins of us people to save us from it. He also spoke of heaven as a real and wonderful place.
Salvation from sin always begins with repentance and faith in Christ. There must be conversion. “Heavenly Father, please give us the necessary boldness to warn those who are heading towards destruction, and please grant our listeners the grace to listen to us and be converted unto You.”
[1] Jeremiah 25:3-5
[2] James 4:7
[3] Jeremiah 25:8-28
[4] Jeremiah 26:13
[5] Jeremiah 27:9
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