The Reality of God’s Judgment

Transcript

GR 449
6/20/1982
God’s Fierce and Unrelenting Judgment
Jeremiah 4:19-31
Gil Rugh


Jeremiah has just talked about the severity of judgment and the fact that it is a result of their own personal iniquity. But the fact that this judgment is a result of their own sin does not keep Jeremiah from being tremendously moved by the calamity that is about to descend upon the Jewish people.

The reality of that judgment causes him to cry out, “My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot be silent, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war” Jeremiah 4:19. Note the impact that the imminence of judgment has had upon Jeremiah. He is moved tremendously within. “My soul, my soul!”

The Jews often spoke of the bowels or intestines as the inner part of their emotions. We know what that is like. Under a tremendously moving experience, we talk about the churning and pounding in the pit of the stomach. If you place your hand there you can feel your heart beating all over.

This gives real insight into the man Jeremiah who was chosen and appointed by God to proclaim a message of judgment with a message of salvation. Jeremiah never becomes hardened to the realities he is dealing with. The fact that he could tell these people that their ways and deeds had brought these things upon them does not keep him from being moved with compassion and concern for the people to whom he is ministering.

One of the dangers we have as believers is that our dealing with matters like judgment can become only an intellectual matter. We can talk about people under the condemnation of God, about the reality of hell, and it almost becomes a hardened subject for us that we discuss without any feeling. We can talk to people about how God is going to judge them and sentence them to hell, but somehow that is only an intellectual, theological concept that fails to move us.

One of the factors that is very influential in the kind of testimony we have as believers is how the reality of the judgment of God has really gripped us. Jeremiah is going to be very moved by all of this. As a result, he is going to say, “I cannot be silent.” Jeremiah 4:19. The fact that Jeremiah had to speak again and again of the judgment of God did not cause him to become callused and hardened to it. It gave him a much greater burden and compassion for these people who were under that judgment, and it constrained him to speak to them regarding how precarious and serious their situation really is.

Look at his deep concern in Jeremiah 9:1, “Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” Jeremiah could not be moved enough with concern and compassion for the people of Israel. There is no hardness in Jeremiah’s heart; he does not say, “Well, that is the penalty for your sin. You deserve it!” He is moved by the situation. We are going to see later the destruction upon the mountains and the hills. Verse 10 of Jeremiah 9 describes the reality of this judgment to Jeremiah and how it moves him. “For the mountains I will take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a dirge, because they are laid waste, so that no one passes through, and the lowing of the cattle is not heard; both the birds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.”

Matthew 23:37 and 38 describes Jesus’ compassion for Israel. As He comes toward the conclusion of His own earthly ministry, the nation has rejected Him as Messiah. Yet He says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!” Jesus does not become hardened and callused even though judgment is right and just and has to come. It is so important that we as the people of God have the proper heart attitude toward judgment and its reality.

In Romans 9 the Apostle Paul speaks of his burden, concern and compassion for the nation Israel. “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites” Romans 9:1-4. He speaks of this burden as great sorrow and unceasing grief. He understood fully that Israel was under the judgment of God for rejecting the Messiah. He also understood the severity of the judgment, the rationale for it and its ultimate climax. But that did not change the fact that he was tremendously gripped within by a desire for their salvation. Though greatly persecuted by them, he did not sit back and say, “They are getting what they deserve; they will find out I was right.” Do you ever find yourself developing that kind of attitude? You are trying to witness to somebody who just will not accept it, and you think, Boy, if God would just strike them right now, then they would learn something. The day is coming when they will find out I was right. We need to guard against that kind of attitude.

Jeremiah’s recognition and understanding of the reality and imminence of judgment moves him to be a spokesman for God. How did he keep from being intimidated to silence? He was so moved by the reality of the coming judgment of God that he knew he could not be silent. Maybe we have lost that burden by failing to consider more fully some of the prophets of the Old Testament where judgment receives such a strong emphasis. Unbelievers are not the only ones to be warned of coming judgment. Believers are to be so gripped by the reality of coming judgment that we are moved to speak. We are to be the salt and the light of the earth. Being able to list the defense of the doctrine of hell as presented in Scripture is not enough. If we understand what the Scripture says about the awfulness of judgment and if we are gripped by the reality of that judgment, we will be moved as Jeremiah was. Just as he was unable to remain silent, neither should we.
In chapter 20 Jeremiah says, “I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me. For each time I speak, I cry aloud; I proclaim violence and destruction, because for me the word of the Lord has resulted in reproach and derision all day long” Jeremiah 20:7-8. Things have not changed. People do not want to be told about their sin today; they did not want to be told about their sin 2500 years ago when Jeremiah spoke to them. “But if I say, ‘I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name,’ then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it” verse 9. Jeremiah is saying, “I cannot keep silent. I know it is going to make me a laughingstock, and people will ridicule me for it, but I just cannot keep quiet.” He knew the realities that he was speaking about.

In Ezekiel 33, Ezekiel is called a watchman of the people. A watchman is the guard who stands watching to warn the city of any coming armies. After drawing the picture, then he applies it. “Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so, you will hear a message from My mouth, and give them warning from Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand” Ezekiel 33:7-8. Note that the wicked will never have an excuse. They will die in their iniquity, but as a watchman I bear responsibility for the message committed to my trust. “But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your life” verse 9. My responsibility before God as a watchman is primarily to proclaim the message of salvation. How you respond is your responsibility before God. When I tell the wicked of their sin, of coming judgment and of salvation in Christ, and they do not believe, they will die in their iniquity. If I do not tell them those realities, they will still die in their iniquity. But when I tell them, I have carried out the responsibility entrusted to me by God.

The response of those to whom I minister is not primarily my responsibility or concern. The fulfillment of the responsibility is my concern. I should share with a desire that they will believe and turn, but either way I must share it. Some say, “But if I tell them, they will not listen anyway.” Well, you had better tell them, because God says that is what you have to do. They will not want to heart it. God did not say, “Watchman, tell them if they want to hear it.” If they do not want to hear it, tell them anyway and you have delivered yourself. You have proven yourself faithful before God. He will deal with them. Ezekiel and Jeremiah have the same kind of message--proclaiming judgment to a people who did not want to hear it. But they did not keep silent. They proclaimed the message anyway.

In Acts 17 the Apostle Paul spoke at Mars Hill in Athens about the reality of judgment. “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” Acts 17:30-31. You can be sure judgment is coming because God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead. He proclaims to them a message of salvation and judgment. It divided the multitude. Some began to sneer, others said they would hear him again concerning the matter.

And what did John the Baptist come preaching? The coming of judgment with the Messiah, the need to repent and to be ready.

So, the message has not changed. The responsibility has not changed either. Perhaps we as the people of God fail to have the burden that we need. Do we see the people around us, the people of this city, the people of this world, under the same danger of imminent judgment? Are we really moved by the fact that judgment could come at any time? I question how we can go through life day after day and be silent. Do we see those unbelievers that we talk with under the imminent judgment of God? They do not know. I am the watchman, and I have to tell them. I see the judgment coming, and I know its reality. How can I be intimidated from telling them? Can there be any excuse that I knew and did not tell them? Do I see the people I come in contact with in that light? That ought to fix it in our minds. Look at the unbelievers you see this week and remind yourself that this is an individual who does not know he is on the brink of awful and terrible judgment. I must tell him that judgment is coming, and that salvation is available only in Jesus Christ. If the truth of the reality of the judgment of God grips us, we will be speaking a lot more and being silent a lot less, because we just will not be able to keep silent.

As I have studied Jeremiah again it has given me a greater appreciation for why God spends so much time talking about judgment. I have wondered how I am going to preach on judgment to believers all the time. Well, if the believers of this church are gripped by the reality of judgment, our ministry as a local body will be transformed. So maybe we need to hear it again and again until the reality of it so grips us that we cannot be silent, and our lives are directed and motivated by its reality.

One thing to note before we move further into Jeremiah is that there is pressure and emotional stress involved in our serving the Lord. It is not easy. We protect and insulate ourselves as believers. We often think that everything ought to be comfortable and that there should not be any pressure. There is a right and a wrong kind of pressure or concern. We have failed to distinguish between the right and wrong kind of pressure, and we have insulated ourselves. As we consider those who served God so effectively in the Scriptures, we find tremendous pressure in their lives. Jeremiah ministered under tremendous burdens and stress. Yet we as believers want to avoid that at all costs. I do not know how it can be done. Read the life of Moses and you will find a man who lived a life under pressure. He knew what emotional stress was. It needs to be handled in dependence upon the Lord as Jeremiah or Ezekiel had to handle it. But that does not remove the pressure.

In 2 Corinthians 11 Paul shares his life’s testimony about the times he had been beaten, shipwrecked and stoned. Then after sharing all these physical hardships, he says in verse 28, “Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure upon me of concern for all the churches.” As believers we are exhorted not to have concern or anxiety regarding things of this life. But there is a proper kind of concern which Paul is expressing here. He continues in verse 29, “Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?” Paul identified with the people to whom he wanted to minister, and he said that pressure weighed upon him--pressure and anxiety, a proper, biblical concern.

There are too many believers today who are indifferent. They do not know what it is to function under pressure and stress in their service for the Lord. We have insulated ourselves. We do not want to take a stand and be out front in our testimony because we are intimidated by the response. We do not want to be too involved in ministry because of the inconvenience it will be and the burden it will place upon us. We are saying that we do not want to function like Paul, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Moses or Jesus Christ. We want to live an insulated and protected life, one that is joy all the time, going from one Bible study to another to discuss theological concepts. But that is not what God has called us to do.

Are you serving the Lord and feeling the pressure? Do you feel the burden and weight of that ministry? Be encouraged. You are in good company. We can take it upon ourselves in the wrong sense. We are to do it in dependence and faith in Him. But just because we feel the pressure it does not mean something is wrong. It may mean something is right, and I am functioning the way God wants me to. If you are living the Christian life without pressure, opposition and stress, you are not living a Christian life. You are a Christian living in this world as the world lives.

Jeremiah continues to describe the judgment that is coming, “Disaster on disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is devastated; suddenly my tents are devastated, my curtains in an instant. How long must I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?” Jeremiah 4:20-21. Do you think Jeremiah did not get tired of judgment? He did. In the next verse God speaks, but He does not answer how long this judgment would last. But He does answer why judgment must happen. It is the same reason that Jeremiah has presented before and will present again. “For my people are foolish, they know Me not” verse 22. The stress here is on “Me.” Literally, “Me they know not.” They know a lot of things and a lot of gods, small g. But “Me, the only true God, they do not know.”

We saw this in chapter 2, verse 8. “The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ And those who handle the law did not know Me.” The same emphasis is in 9:3. “And they bend their tongue like their bow; lies and not truth prevail in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me.” They are a people who are without the personal knowledge of God by faith that brings them into a relationship of intimacy with God. The word for “know” is used in referring to the sexual relationship in marriage. An example is when Adam knew his wife in the intimacy of marriage. When Jeremiah talks about knowing here, he is not talking about knowing some theological facts about God, but of having entered into this relationship of intimate knowledge, personal awareness of Him as a result of faith in Him as God and as Savior.

God gives another example to show how Israel does not know Him in Isaiah 1:3 and 4. “An ox knows its owner, and a donkey its master’s manger, but Israel does not know, My people do not understand. Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from Him.” Animals know their masters, but the people of God are ignorant of Him. What a tragedy.

Some of the expressions Jeremiah uses to describe Israel give insight into them and their condition.

Foolish. “My people are foolish” Jeremiah 4:22. The word translated foolish means to be up front, to be a leader. It pictures one who desires to be first, who puts himself out front. Thus, it comes to mean conceited; a foolish, self-deceived person. Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes.” He is a person who is going off on his own; he desires to be out front as a leader but is ignorant. He is self-deceived, conceited. Israel thought they knew something but did not. They are going on in their ignorant foolishness.

Proverbs presents a number of concepts on this. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction” Proverbs 1:7. “Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly” Proverbs 26:11. “Though you pound a fool in a mortar with pestle along with crushed grain, yet his folly will not depart from him” Proverbs 27:22. Often this denotes a person who is not open to be changed. He is conceited and wants to be out front. He is not open to help.

Stupid. Jeremiah 4:22 continues the description of Israel. “They know Me not; they are stupid children.” Stupid also means foolish. It includes the idea of sinfulness or wickedness. It is not a lack of intelligence or mental capability, but rather it is characterized by being sinful, full of folly and foolishness. The people are stupid in a sinful sense. Jeremiah 5:21 contains the idea of sinful, willful stupidity. “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not; who have ears, but hear not.” Ecclesiastes 7:17 says, “Do not be excessively wicked, and do not be a fool. Why should you die before your time?” It has nothing to do with mental capability, but rather with sinful folly.

Without Understanding. After describing them as stupid children in Jeremiah 4:22, he says, “They have no understanding.” Understanding has a basic meaning of separation or distinction. It has the idea of being able to make a differentiation, to recognize what marks something off as being different. It is really a foundation of true knowledge, the ability to discern or to recognize the difference. Israel had lost the ability to recognize the difference between good and evil. “They have no understanding and they are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know” verse 22. They no longer have any ability to discern between good and evil.

We have come to this very thing in our own day. We call right wrong and wrong right. Nobody knows which is which because a people who are foolish, who do not know God, who are stupid in the sinful sense of the word, are without the ability to discern. They do not know. What is the foundation for them to make decisions regarding right and wrong? If man rejects the revelation of God, how can anyone say what is right or wrong? Is it any wonder we live in a society that now wants to make laws to protect those who want to live together outside of marriage, those who want to live in homosexual relationships, those who say they want to be married but retain their own personal rights? On and on it goes. Why? They are without understanding. But that is something for which they are accountable to God. It is a result of not knowing Him.

Shrewd. Jeremiah continues in verse 22 of Jeremiah 4, “They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know.” That is why it is of utmost futility to try to steer an unbelieving world without the knowledge of God on a path of righteousness. They are shrewd and clever when it comes to evil because that is the realm in which they live. But they do not know to do good. They are without knowledge. The tragedy is that God is addressing a people to whom He has spoken His Word, but He has to describe them as foolish, stupid, and without understanding. What a tragedy!

Paul rejoices over the Romans’ testimony in Romans 16:19, but also warns them, “For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore, I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil.” The Jews in Jeremiah’s day were at the exact opposite extreme.

How would we be described? So often the pressures of the world conform us to its mold. Only those living in submission to the Word of God in a personal relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ really know God and can thus function in a manner pleasing to Him, wise in good and innocent in evil. It helps us to understand what is going on in the world today. We are tearing ourselves apart as a society. We proceed to dismantle our own structure to our own ruin. But Jeremiah explains it, “Me they know not, and they have no understanding.” People have no ability to discern right and wrong, no foundation upon which to make decisions of ultimate reality.

Jeremiah goes on to develop the fact of judgment and to picture a scene of awful judgment.

Formless and Void. “I looked on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled. I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, and all its cities were pulled down before the Lord, before His fierce anger” Jeremiah 4:23-26. In verse 23 the description of the earth as “formless and void” is the same as the expression in Genesis 1:2, “And the earth was formless and void.” The destruction he sees is so complete that it is just like before God brought creation into existence. Everything is in ruin. It is the picture of a land that has been devastated. Where are the people? Where are the animals, the birds, the mountains? Nothing! Jeremiah sees a picture of absolute destruction in judgment.

At the end of Jeremiah 4:26, this happens “before the Lord, before His fierce anger.” We want to talk about the love of God, and He is a God of love, but we need to have some concept of the fierce anger of God. Anger itself is not sinful. God is angry at sin and deals with it in awful judgment and destruction.

Devastation. In verses 23-26, the whole land is in devastation. You would think that is the end of Israel. The first half of verse 27 gives the same idea. “For thus says the Lord, ‘The whole land shall be a desolation.’” But note the promise at the end of that verse. “Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.” That promise is plugged in there because if you took that out you would get the idea that there would be nothing, but nothing left, that Israel would be annihilated. But that is not the case. There will be destruction but not annihilation. “I will not execute a complete destruction,” Jeremiah 4:27. God promises.

In spite of the judgment, there is still a future for Israel. “Go up through her vine rows and destroy, but do not execute a complete destruction” Jeremiah 5:1). “‘For I am with you,’ declares the Lord, ‘to save you; for I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you, only I will not destroy you completely. But I will chasten you justly and will by no means leave you unpunished’” Jeremiah 30:11. With all the severity of the judgment of God, He continually promises He will not annihilate the nation Israel. That is why there is a future for Israel. How does that little sandy, barren nation continue to get away with what it gets away with today? How has it survived? Where are the other great nations of the world--Assyria, Babylon and other empires? They no longer exist. Where are the Jews? Everybody knows where they are. God has promised He will not completely destroy the nation. Their continuance is founded upon His promise.

Warnings of Judgment. When God was giving Israel His laws, He warned them of the judgment that would come for them if they departed from Him. But in those warnings is a promise in Leviticus 26:44, “Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies,” after having been deported by other nations, “I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.” God’s relationship with Israel is based on a covenant relationship. He says, “It is My covenant, and I will never annul the covenant I have with them.” So in the midst of all the warnings of judgment, God stands true to the covenant that He has ordained.

Why is Israel in existence 2000 years after Christ? Because God says He will not abhor them so as to destroy them. He will not annul the covenant that He made with them because He is the Lord. That is His covenant. There are people today who believe Israel has no future. They think God is done with Israel because they have sinned too much. They lose sight of God’s covenant. He founded it in Himself. He promises never to annul it.

God deals harshly with sin. You know all the judgment and suffering Israel has experienced. The worst is yet to come. They have the seven years Tribulation ahead of them yet, and it will be like nothing the Jews or the world has ever seen. But the promise through it all is, “I will not abhor them as to destroy them.” Why? Because He has a plan, promised in a covenant, that will be realized as God intended. He is simply going to chasten and chastise them in preparation for it.

Remnant to be Spared. Let us look at a few of many passages that deal with the remnant to be spared through this judgment. Isaiah 6:13 says, “Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, and it will again be subject to burning, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump.” There is still going to be a remnant left of Israel.

In Isaiah 10:20-22 we see that Israel will not rely on the nations for help, but they will turn to God. “Now it will come about in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant within them will return.”

Isaiah 11 also mentions the remnant. “Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea” verse 11. “And there will be a highway from Assyria for the remnant of His people who will be left, just as there was for Israel in the day that they came up out of the land of Egypt” verse 16.

In Ezekiel 37 the dry bones are described. Can these bones live? If you had looked at that valley of dry bones, you would have said, “No hope.” But what did Ezekiel say? “O Lord God, Thou knowest” Ezekiel 37:3. And what happens? Those bones come to life. God promises a resurrection, a restoration of the nation Israel.

Temporary Hardening. Look at one passage in the New Testament--Romans 11:25, “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in.” The phrase, “Until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in,” is significant. The promise of God did not change in the New Testament under the New Covenant. Now Israel, during the times of the Gentiles, is set aside. They are undergoing a hardening. The time of the Gentiles will be brought to a climax with the Rapture of the Church. God will complete His program with Israel during the 70th Week of Daniel, that time of chastening and refining through fire. By the time that seven-year period is over, Israel in mass will turn to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, their only hope of salvation. Thus, all Israel will be saved when the Messiah will intervene on their behalf. Israel will be established with Jerusalem as its capital.

In the midst of the great judgment there is a promise, which is the evidence of the grace of God, that He will preserve and protect His people. That ought to influence your thinking as you watch the news about Israel. They are now in a hardened state; they are not open to the gospel. That does not mean there are no Jews being saved today, but Israel as a nation is not open to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Messiah who loved them and died for them. But that will change. God is not finished with Israel. His chastening work is not over. It is going to get much worse before it gets better. But praise God, there is a promise to Israel, and God will meet all the details of that promise. The promises of God are settled and sure. The calling of God cannot be revoked.

Unchanging Purpose. There is a finality about God’s decision of judgment. “For this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be dark, because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I will not change My mind, nor will I turn from it” Jeremiah 4:28. Will God ever relent? Will He decide that those in hell have suffered enough? That in love He will cancel the judgments? No. He has made up His mind; He will not relent. We think of black as a picture of mourning. The picture here is of the heavens being dark, draped in mourning. That is how vast and great the judgment is.

The response of the people is pictured in verse 29, “At the sound of the horseman and bowman every city flees; they go into the thickets and climb among the rocks; every city is forsaken, and no man dwells in them.” The people are trying to hide from the judgment. A similar picture develops for Israel during the seven years of the Tribulation. All of these immediate judgments talked about by the prophets are representative of the ultimate, climactic judgment on earth for Israel known as the Tribulation. Isaiah describes this graphically, “And men will go into caves of the rocks, and into holes of the ground before the terror of the Lord, and before the splendor of His majesty, when He arises to make the earth tremble. In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, in order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of His majesty, when He arises to make the earth tremble. Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; for why should he be esteemed?” Isaiah 2:19-22. Keep this in mind when you are intimidated in your witnessing. Stop regarding man; the awesome God brings judgment. This is a picture of coming judgment during the Tribulation. Revelation 6:15 and 16 tells how they go into the rocks and caves and cry for them to fall upon them to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. This judgment on Israel by the Babylonians is a preview of that day.

b. A Painted Prostitute

The picture in Jeremiah 4:30 is of a whore getting herself beautiful, while one of her lovers is coming to destroy her. “And you, O desolate one, what will you do? Although you dress in scarlet, although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold, although you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain you make yourself beautiful; your lovers despise you; they seek your life.” She thinks she can paint herself up enough to be attractive so he will take her again as a lover. The word used there for lover is used only in a bad sense in Scripture. It is only used here and six times in Ezekiel 23. It shows Israel painting herself for her lovers.

For another picture of this, look at 2 Kings 9. Do you remember Jezebel? Her name is still a synonym for a whore. To speak of a woman as Jezebel is not a compliment. In 2 Kings 9, Ahab has died, and Jehu now reigns. He is going to mete out destruction upon the house of Ahab. In verse 30, “When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her eyes and adorned her head, and looked out the window.” She has prepared herself. Maybe she will entice Jehu. You can almost hear her thinking, If I can get Jehu into bed with me, we could make sweet music, and that will take care of it. Then he will not kill me; he will love me, and we will really have fun. That is the picture of Israel. She thinks she can entice Babylon to be her lover rather than to destroy her.

Do you remember what God prophesied about Jezebel? She will “be as dung on the face of the field” verse 37. In verses 33 and 34 we see how the prophecy was fulfilled. Jehu said, “‘Throw her down.’ So, they threw her down, and some of her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her under foot. When he came in, he ate and drank.” Jehu was a rather tough guy. After dinner he thought it might be nice to bury her, but he went out and all they could find were the palms of her hands and a few other pieces, because the dogs had had their dinner while Jehu ate his. And that fulfilled the prophecy. When God speaks about judgment, He fulfills it literally.

Judah has played the harlot. Now she must pay the price for all her sins. Verse 31 of Jeremiah 4 describes her suffering, “For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor, the anguish as of one giving birth to her first child, the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands, saying, ‘Ah, woe is me, for I faint before murderers.’” The pattern is set. Judgment is coming. It will be severe and awful.

In the midst of it all, there is the invitation to salvation. The brokenhearted servant of God, moved with compassion and concern for these people, gives them the message one more time hoping they will repent and turn to God.

May God make us to be Jeremiahs, burdened for the people we see, carrying this message of judgment and salvation to them. Perhaps God in grace will draw them to Himself.