2 Chronicles 36:11-21
11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. 12 He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. 13 He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel. 14 All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.
15 The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.
17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. 18 And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. 19 And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels.20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia, 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, You first sent Your Son, Jesus Christ, into this world to redeem us by paying for the sins of all people on the cross. Because of His first coming, we can have hope at His second coming. For the One who comes to judge is also our Savior who graciously offered up His life so that we might live. Grant us humility to heed Your warnings and faith to trust only in Jesus, who is our righteousness! Amen.
The Persistent Love of God
I. Warns of Judgement
II. Promises Peace & Rest
Dear friends in Christ,
There is nothing more sure and more inevitable than Judgement Day. We confess in the Creed, “He will come to judge the living and the dead.” Christ will return. He will return to judge. As Jesus said, “The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28–29). Judgement Day is coming. It will come when no one expects it, but when it comes everyone will know it has arrived.
Sinners have always struggled to listen to God’s warnings. If you study the Old Testament prophets, you will become amazed at how faithfully and persistently the Lord sent his prophets to the kings and people of Israel calling them to repentance. The Lord promised to bless those who humbled themselves and warned of judgement to those who rejected him. But the Lord’s prophets were ignored. They were persecuted. They were killed (Matthew 23:37). In our lesson, we hear about just one of the last four kings mentioned in chapter 36 who stiffened his neck—who stubbornly rejected the Lord’s warnings. Finally, when they had closed their ears to God’s Word and hardened their hearts, the Lord brought about the final destruction of Jerusalem, where men and women were killed by the Babylonians, and thousands taken into the Babylonian captivity leaving only the poor to tend to the vineyards in Judah.
The Judgement of Jerusalem serves as a picture example of the Lord’s judgement on the last day. God is not mocked. He will come to judge between the living and the dead. Despite how foolish or absurd it might sound to the world; it is certain and sure.
So, how should we, as people and a church, think about Judgement Day? There are two errors that we can fall into when it comes to Judgement Day. The first is for the church to be silent about it. It can be a temptation for people to avoid talking about judgement day—it’s not necessarily the most pleasant topic for conversation. And we are after all Midwesterners who would prefer to avoid uncomfortable conversations. It’s not popular to believe in or talk about Judgement Day. This is just as true today as it was in the prophet Jeremiah’s day.
Jeremiah was one of the prophets from God to whom king Zedekiah refused to listen. Jeremiah warned of the coming Babylonian captivity and urged them to repent. But they didn’t want to listen. In fact, there was even a false prophet, Hananiah, who said that the Lord had spoken to him and told him that the Jewish people would not have to serve the king of Babylon and that their Babylonian captivity would be brief—just two years (Jeremiah 28:3). The people preferred the false prophet’s lies. They didn’t like Jeremiah’s truthful words. So, they trusted in Hananiah’s lie.
There are false teachers today who ignore God’s warning and preach the exact opposite of what God says in the Bible just like Hananiah. We should beware of false prophets and stay away from them! We know this. While we might not fall into the same sin of speaking contrary to God’s Word as these false prophets, it is a real temptation for us to become complicit in their lies by failing to speak up for the truth.
Let’s say one night you looked out your front window and saw someone start fire to your neighbor’s house. Would you call 911 and run to your neighbor to get them out of the house? Of course! You would call 911 and then run to your neighbors, yelling and urging them to get to safety! If we didn’t do this, we would be complicit in the arson. If we knew the danger but were completely silent, we would be just as guilty as the arsonists.
We encounter dangerous teachings almost every day. There are false prophets and false teachings everywhere. There can be a temptation for you and me—because we don’t want to get burned—to keep silent to statements that are contrary to Scripture. To fail to speak up when we hear false teachings—whether that be about God and Christ or creation and evolution or about morality. If we know the importance of helping our hungry neighbors and those in danger, how much more so should we be considerate of those whose souls are in danger of hell fire! When it comes to Judgement Day, we shouldn’t be silent. Out of love for our neighbor, for their souls, we seek to speak the truth. Many of us are slow to speak because we don’t want to offend. But if you truly love someone, you are willing to cause strife. It is better to potentially offend someone and let God’s Word do its work, than be silent and let them be damned. This doesn’t mean you need to be shouting from the street corner, but maybe use an opportunity in a personal conversation with a friend or neighbor to speak the truth in love.
The second error that you and I can fall into is thinking that the Lord’s warnings only apply to other people. “Warnings for thee, but not for me.” If we only think of other people’s sins when we hear about Judgement Day, we are thinking about it wrong. God is warning us of our sins too. If we act as if our sins are no big deal, if we persist in sinning without any concern, we are throwing away the grace of God. As Scripture says, “No one who abides in [Christ] keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him” (I John 3:6). God warns us because he loves us and wants us to repent.
Through the preaching of the Law, the Holy Spirit shows us our sin—the times we have been silent or the times we should have been silent, the times we have sinned without concern for its consequences, the times we have fallen short as children of God, as parents, spouses, coworkers, neighbors, and friends. But if you see your sin and realize the punishment that it deserves—don’t try to hide it. Instead, thank God for showing it to you and confess your sins and trust in his mercy. Because it is those who see their sin, who recognize their need of saving and help, that our Lord Jesus came to save. As the Apostle Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief” (I Timothy 1:15). The reason God warns us, shows us our sins, and calls us to repentance—is because he loves us. Because he wants to save us! God shows us our sin now, so that we don’t have to be condemned on the last day. And we know this, because someone has already been judged and condemned in our place!
We all should have a healthy concern of Judgement Day. But the devil tries to exploit this fear by making us think that our sins are beyond forgiveness. He points out sins in our lives and the mistakes we’ve made and makes us question whether we could be saved. Maybe, there are sins in your life that no one else knows about and it is eating you up inside. Sins that you are ashamed of that you don’t want anyone else to know about. And it kills you, because you know God knows and you’re afraid of what he might say. If this is you, then be afraid no more. This is what God says to you: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18); “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).
If you confess your sins and believe in Jesus, you will be saved. His clear word of promise tells us so. You are forgiven. The only sin that condemns is unbelief. Consider the thief on the cross—he had, by all accounts, lived a horrible life, he didn’t have a life full of good works, but he came to see Jesus as his Savior, and we will see him in heaven.
Every single one of us in this church is saved by God’s grace alone. Our confidence in standing before God on judgement day is because our Lord Jesus lived a holy life for us. He perfectly fulfilled God’s Law for us—he loved God with his whole heart and his neighbor as himself. He never grew weary of serving and helping his neighbor; he didn’t let public rebuke keep him silent—he spoke the truth of God’s Law and Gospel, to save sinners. Then Jesus carried every one of our sins—even the ones we are so ashamed of—and he paid for them on the cross. They are no more. They are forgiven. And that forgiveness is yours through faith in Jesus.
This is the most comforting message in the world! It is the only thing that can save our souls. And we have it. We know it. This is what also makes us the best suited for sharing this message with our neighbor. We don’t preach the law or talk about judgement day to condemn people—we want them to be saved! We can tell them of the love of Jesus which knows no bounds. The Savior who has saved us can also save them. We are all in need of God’s grace.
Jeremiah preached a difficult message of God’s judgement upon Judah. But Jeremiah also foretold how God meant this for good. The Lord brought about this destruction—this harsh preaching of the Law—to lead the people back to him. This is the same reason God preaches his Law today—not to condemn us, but to save. To lead us back to our Savior. It’s interesting, that one of the most beloved verses in Jeremiah comes at a time when he was sharing the worst news about their captivity. But he reminds the people that God intends it to be for their good. He wrote, “’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’”(Jeremiah 29:11).
God wants you to be saved. God plans to give you hope and a future. He wants you to be with him forever in heaven. When we see his efforts to bring Israel to himself and how our Lord promises to come after the lost sheep, the lost coin, or welcome the prodigal son, we see his persistent love for us. You don’t need to be afraid of judgement day. God’s word promises each believer that judgement day is the day of our redemption where we will inherit the joys of heaven! But until that day, may we abide in his word and live in humble repentance, and use our time to continue to love our good God and our neighbor whom God has placed in our lives. Amen.