Jeremiah 5:15-19 - I will not destroy you completely

5:15-17

God tells Israel that He is bringing a distant nation against them, an ancient and enduring nation. Babylon had a long history, going back some 2000 years. They were militarily powerful and would overwhelm Judah. They would destroy and devour the land and the people. Many object that this is a God of wrath (which He is, but they do not understand what wrath means), but what such people are saying is that sin does not matter, it is of no importance. A key to life is realising the importance and destructiveness of sin. God’s wrath is never capricious. It also comes only after many years of warnings.

5:18,19

5:18 shows there is still hope and that destruction is not the ultimate goal. Israel would not be completely destroyed. Some would survive and go into exile. There they would worship God. They had worshipped foreign gods in their own land, so now they would be taken off to live in those foreign lands. This is like Paul’s instruction in a couple of place in the New Testament to “hand people over to satan”. They wanted foreign gods, well they would get the whole package. In the west our societies are quickly rejecting all our Christian heritage. As a result we will encounter what a truly pagan society is like (we will call it secular, but it amounts to the same thing), and this will not be pleasant.