Jeremiah 5:18-19
“‘Even then, as bad as it will be’—GOD’s Decree!—‘it will not be the end of the world for you. And when people ask, ‘Why did our GOD do all this to us?’ you must say to them, ‘This is back on you. Just as you left me and served foreign gods in your own country, so now you must serve foreigners in their own country.’’”
“‘Yet even in those days I will not blot you out completely,’ says the LORD, ‘And when your people ask, ‘Why did the LORD our God do all this to us?’ you must reply, ‘You rejected him and gave yourselves to foreign gods in your own land. Now you will serve foreigners in a land that is not your own.’’”
With God’s promise to preserve a remnant of the population comes this dreadful prophesy. Judah is to be reduced to slavery and servitude in a strange land. Imagine we Americans forcibly exported to Beijing. Knowing nothing of China or its language. We’d be isolated in an unknown culture, families disbursed in the transition, cultural ties ripped apart. Our existence would shrink to long days of manual labor, exhaustive sleep, strange food and a cacophony of strange noises. Judah’s elders and statesmen said, “Jeremiah’s prophisies will never happen to us.” But they did. It could happen to us too.
Lord, have mercy on us. May we turn to you before it is too late, our sin and selfishness cascading back upon us. May we, your people, more effectively call our countrymen back to the way we work best. Show us how to do this in our pluralistic society. Return us to virtues of honesty, commitment, and hard work. We need a hard lesson. Help us please!