Jeremiah 25:30-38 - Look! Disaster is spreading

25:30,31

Jeremiah is to proclaim this judgement in a loud and clear voice, there can be no mistaking the message. “He will bring judgement on all mankind”. Now notice how many “Christians” seek to soften or deny this message. Notice how you seek to soften or deny this message! We must not. Indeed, we are fools if we seek to do so. For where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Rom 5:20). If you seek to soften judgement, you diminish the glory, grace and love of the cross, of God’s great mercy to us in Christ.

25:32,33

Terrible destruction is coming, and it affects nation after nation. Note that in v33 it says “those slain by the Lord”. Now this does not mean men or women are not responsible, they clearly are, but this was all according to the Lord’s plan. We may find that hard to take. One solution is to say “God was not responsible, the people who wrote the Bible misunderstood things, they got it wrong”. This is not a good route to take. First, it means the Bible is wrong, so you cannot trust it, therefore you have no grounds for believing you are saved. Secondly it is taking a very man-centred approach. It is far better to accept what it says, knowing we do not understand everything, realising that God has a far better idea of the awfulness and destructiveness of sin than we do. Secondly, this is part of God’s truth, it is not all of it. So we need to take the whole Biblical picture.

25:34-38

All are guilty, but it is the shepherds of the flock who bear the greatest guilt. The priests were meant to direct the people in the way of the Lord. Every pastor, minister and church leader of any description should pay heed to this. Our role is to lead people in the way of the Lord, not in the way of the world. The Lord will come in judgement against the shepherds. The end of v38 sums up how things operate: “because of the sword of the oppressor and because of the Lord’s fierce anger”. The judgement would come through the invading Babylonian armies, but the Lord is the one who was behind it all.