However, even though Nebuchadnezzar's victory over Judah and their captivity was all part of God's plan and served His purposes He then punishes Nebuchadnezzar for this evil.
“But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” (25:12)We humans always seem so intent on making everything fit in a box. Were Nebuchadnezzar's actions good or evil? Well, apparently they were evil...God says so and punishes them accordingly. Then why does God refer to Nebuchadnezzar as His "servant" as if he is doing God's bidding? If he was only doing God's bidding how can it be evil? It won't fit in our box. I think we have a lot to learn about God.
The thing that is quite clear is that, through this whole process, God's desire was for His people to repent and turn back to Him. He gave them all these warnings through Jeremiah and the other prophets in the hope that they would came back to Him. He says:
Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done. (26:3)This is always His desire. But the people didn't like what God was saying through Jeremiah. Jeremiah was prophesying bad things...they wanted good things so...
Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man should be sentenced to death because he has prophesied against this city. You have heard it with your own ears!” (26:11)They wanted to kill Jeremiah! The reality was that they really wanted to kill God. It was, after all, His message they didn't want to hear.
Sometimes I think that's what we do. We don't like what God has to say so we kill Him. Well...not really. We're too sophisticated for killing. Instead we decide He doesn't exist. Same thing.
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