The way back to God is always open. People are forever complaining "why should God send people to hell". The truth is that no one needs to go to hell, the way of salvation is open. But notice what the way of salvation is. It involves a returning to the Lord, a ridding ourselves of idols and a commitment to the Lord. Notice also the looking forward to "the nations" believing in the Lord. It is interesting that in both Jeremiah and Isaiah there is a strong recurrent theme of the nations believing in the Lord.
Mercy and judgement go together. God calls on Judah to repent. To change her ways and truly commit herself to the Lord. Without repentance we will receive the just judgement for our sins.
God knew that Judah would not repent. So we then get a dramatic looking forward to the coming disaster from the North. The destroyer of nations was Babylon. Babylon only had power because God let her have power. Today the nations of the world and other powers only have power in so much as God lets them have power. Judah would be utterly demoralised.
The dramatic foretelling of the coming disaster continues, and Jeremiah feels the pain. He is not a dispassionate deliver of a message, but one closely involved in it.
The destruction would be terrible, but would not be complete.
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