Even while God punishes a nation, does He do so in hope? Let’s look at Jeremiah 16.
Why did God tell Jeremiah not to marry and have children in that place?
The Lord gave me another message. He said, “Do not get married or have children in this place. For this is what the Lord says about the children born here in this city and about their mothers and fathers: They will die from terrible diseases. No one will mourn for them or bury them, and they will lie scattered on the ground like manure. They will die from war and famine, and their bodies will be food for the vultures and wild animals.” (Jer 16:1-4 NLT)
Would people die without burial or mourners attending their graves?
For Yahweh says, “Don’t enter into the house of mourning. Don’t go to lament. Don’t bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says Yahweh, “even loving kindness and tender mercies. Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. Men won’t lament for them, cut themselves, or make themselves bald for them. Men won’t break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead. Men won’t give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. (Jer 16:5-7 WEB)
What did God tell Jeremiah about attending parties, feasting in the land? Would people ask what they had done wrong?
Don’t enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink. This is what the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Before your very eyes and in your own lifetime, I will silence in this place the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bridegroom and the bride. When you proclaim all these things to the people, and they ask you, “Why has the Lord pronounced such massive devastation against us? What have we done wrong? How have we sinned against the Lord our God?” (Jer 16:8-10 CEB)
How did God want Jeremiah to answer the people, when they asked why such massive devastation?
Then tell them I have said: People of Judah, your ancestors turned away from me; they rejected my laws and teachings and started worshiping other gods. And you have done even worse! You are stubborn, and instead of obeying me, you do whatever evil comes to your mind. So I will throw you into a land that you and your ancestors know nothing about, a place where you will have to worship other gods both day and night. And I won't feel the least bit sorry for you.
A time will come when you will again worship me. But you will no longer call me the Living Lord who rescued Israel from Egypt. Instead, you will call me the Living Lord who rescued you from that country in the north and from the other countries where I had forced you to go. Someday I will bring you back to this land that I gave your ancestors. (Jer 16:11-15 CEV)
Was God fishing for people to punish because of their detestable wrong?
“Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.” (Jer 16:16-18 ESV)
What was Jeremiah’s prayer about idols and lies, and what was God’s answer?
Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in a time of distress, the nations will come to You from the ends of the earth, and they will say, “Our fathers inherited only lies, worthless idols of no benefit at all.” Can one make gods for himself? But they are not gods.
“Therefore, I am about to inform them, and this time I will make them know My power and My might; then they will know that My name is Yahweh.” (Jer 16:19-21 HCSB)
Did Jesus turn the metaphor of fishing for people to punish into fishing for people to give hope?
“Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fishers of people!” (Matthew 4:19 ISV)
Even while God punishes a nation, does He do so in hope? You decide!
