The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy. 2 Chronicles 36:15-16.
Zedekiah was the final ruling king of Judah before the exile. He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and he refused to humble himself before Jeremiah, who was God’s messenger / prophet who spoke on the LORD’s behalf. There are two very glaring contrasts in these two verses: the compassion of God and the wrath of God.
God’s compassion is demonstrated toward His people by repeatedly sending messengers to them to call them to repent and restore their relationship with the LORD. His persistence to keep on inviting His people to change their attitude is amazing. It shows how patient He was with His people. It also tells us that God provides every opportunity for His people to realign with him. God is not frivolous or vindictive when dealing with the stubbornness of our heart. His love is compelling and persistent towards His children. This gives us tremendous hope that God does not easily give up on us in spite of the stubbornness of our ways. He is relentless in His pursuit of us because He desires His people to live in fellowship with Him. He gave Israel opportunity after opportunity to return to Him and restore that fellowship. The problem, as evident in the following verses, is that these people wanted nothing to do with Him.
God’s wrath is the second component of this text. God was not quick to jump all over His people the moment they stepped out of line. In fact, God had to put up with a constant rejection from His people as they refused to accept God’s messenger and the message they passed on to God’s people. Notice the intensity of their reaction to God’s messengers: “But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets…”.
There is a threefold description of their response to God. First, they kept mocking the messengers. There is not even a respect to have discussion. The power of this mocking was to make sport of them or to deride them. The point is they expressed contempt for God’s messengers. Apparently, God had more people in addition to Jeremiah that spoke for Him. It is hard to imagine that God’s people would treat God’s messengers this way, but that was the reality. Their hearts had become so hardened that they treated others with this level of disrespect. Secondly, God’s people despised the words of God’s messengers. Since these messengers were passing along God’s message and not their own, this is appalling. The need to make any changes in their life, their attitude and behaviors was not going to happen if they had any say in the matter. Thirdly, and somewhat redundant, we are told they even scoffed at God’s prophets. This probably happened over the lifetime of several kings who would not listen to them. Zedekiah was the “last straw” in an ongoing line of leaders who kept “doing evil” in the sight of the LORD. The result was the same. They had hardened themselves to such an extent that nothing was changing their mind. They did not need God; they did not see any reason to submit to Him in any way, shape, or form. They had brought peril on their own heads.
The final response from the LORD was His wrath continued to build until there was no remedy! Wow, that is startling. God’s patience had run out and the justification for decisive judgment and exiling His people from the Land of Promise, was their complete and absolute rejection of God’s rule over their lives. I hope that I never develop the arrogance that I refuse to listen to my Savior. It sounds incomprehensible but the reality is that it did happen with Israel.
Pastor Brad
