21:9
God gives the people a clear choice. If they stay in the city they would die, if they surrendered to the Babylonians they would live? What are we to make of this in the light of the cross? One of the most fundamental things is that we need to accept our guilt, our sin, our sinfulness. Jerusalem needed to face up to the fact that she was not just the unfortunate victim of Babylonian aggression, she was enduring the judgement that God had placed upon her for her persistent sin. Jesus died upon the cross for our sins, and we need to face up to that. Those who deny penal substitutionary atonement seem to be very close to denying our need for Jesus to die in our place because of our guilt.
21:10
Judgement was coming upon the city, and God had determined to do this. We do not like facing up to the fact of our guilt, of the whole human race. Unless we accept that God has declared judgement upon the whole world we will never understand the gospel, we will never understand God. Nor will we understand ourselves.
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