Then the Lord said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! And if they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ Tell them,

‘This is what the Lord says:

Those destined for death, to death;
Those for the sword, to the sword;
Those for starvation, to starvation;
Those for captivity, to captivity.…’

I can no longer show compassion. I will winnow them with a winnowing fork at the city gates of the land. I will bring bereavement and destruction on my people, for they have not changed their ways.” (Jeremiah 15:1–7)

This is an exceptionally hard piece of prophecy. In fact, it is the most devastating pronouncement in the whole book of Jeremiah. In true prophetic tradition Jeremiah had been pleading with God at the time of the drought recorded in chapter 14. His prayer was “Although our sins testify against us, O Lord, do something for the sake of your name, for our backsliding is great; we have sinned against you” (Jer 14:7).

The response to that plea was that even if Moses and Samuel were to bring the same request, God would refuse to grant further mercy. Jeremiah realised that God had reached the same point of exasperation with the people as in the time of Moses when Aaron constructed the golden calf. God had said to Moses: “I have seen these people, and they are a stiffnecked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them”. But Moses interceded on behalf of the nation, pleading for mercy (Ex 32:9-10).

Israel’s Great Intercessors

Like Moses, Samuel was also known as a great intercessor on behalf of Israel. So this pronouncement is unique in saying that even if the two greatest national intercessors were present, God would not heed their request. There was no point in Jeremiah coming before God asking for more mercy. God had forgiven them time after time in fulfilling the promises he made when he established his covenant relationship with Israel. But that covenant required obedience from the people and the very first commandment was that they should have no other God.

It was the breaking of this first commandment by all the people, including the priests and prophets, that caused this terrifying statement of judgment. As news of the approaching Babylonian army caused panic among the citizens of Jerusalem, instead of the whole nation coming together in the Temple courtyards for national days of prayer and fasting, the people were actually worshipping the gods of Babylon in the hope of appeasing them!

This pronouncement is unique in saying that even if Israel’s two greatest national intercessors were present, God would not heed their requests for mercy.

This was the final straw. God was appalled at the outrageous unbelief of the Children of Israel who had pledged themselves to him in the Covenant he had established at Mount Sinai. They were to be a special people for the fulfilling of his purposes to take his salvation to the Gentile nations.

God had called them out of Egypt for that purpose. He had heard their cries and delivered them from slavery; carried them through the desert, fed them with water from the rock and manna from heaven, saved them from their enemies and brought them into a land of milk and honey. But despite all God had done for them, the people he loved had treacherously deserted him.

Back to Slavery

Now, God was reversing the command he had given via Moses. “Let them go!” was the imperative delivered to Pharaoh. Now those same words were given to Jeremiah, the faithful prophet who had risked his own life to deliver the word of the Lord to the people and their leaders.

Where were they to go? The three traditional agents of judgment – disease, war and famine – are now appended with a fourth and even more devastating judgment: captivity and exile. This latest judgment was the very one from which God had rescued his people in Egypt. He was now reversing his great act of salvation – let them go! Go, back into slavery!

These four agents of judgment reappear at the end of the Bible as the Four Horses of the Apocalypse in Revelation 6:1-8. The entire arsenal of covenant curses was now to be executed. There was no hope of deliverance – all the red lines had been crossed – all the warnings had been ignored – all the acts of mercy had been scorned. There was now no other way for the God of love and justice to treat his own people. He had to withdraw his presence: to remove his cover of protection, allowing the enemy the freedom to enter the land God had designated for his own special purposes of conveying his nature and his salvation to the world.

In order to maintain his own integrity, God could no longer accede to Jeremiah’s requests for mercy – for more time to plead with the people and to reason with the leaders, the politicians and the priests. God knew that there was such hardness of heart that none of the people or their leaders would repent. It was useless trying any more. They had had every opportunity to change their evil ways and put their trust in the Lord. His word and his truth had been declared faithfully for the past 40 years – a whole generation – but there were no signs of repentance. The sword of judgment had to fall.

The final judgment of captivity and exile was the very one from which God had rescued his people in Egypt. He was reversing his great act of salvation – let them go! Go, back into slavery!

A Fearful Message

In the face of such a message should we not be trembling before God? In a single generation there have been momentous changes in the fundamental nature of Western civilisation. Its biblical foundations have been ripped apart. Laws have been passed that are directly against biblical truth.

In our nation we have soaked the land with the blood of the innocent through abortion. We have ceased to teach truth in our education system. We now have a generation of young people where many have no understanding of the God of Creation, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who created the universe and who made us human beings in his own image. We have deliberately turned our backs upon truth.

Of course, it is not only the Western nations that are in turmoil, but conflict and rebellion are in every region of the world – the nations are running wild. Is there now any reason why God should hold back from the earth those same judgments typified by the Four Horses of Revelation 6?

Postscript

I believe this to be a faithful presentation of Jeremiah’s message, but I am not implying that we are about to see the fulfilment of eschatological prophecy, because no-one knows the timing of the Lord. Nevertheless, it is a strong warning that should be heard by all the leaders of the nations – Church and state! But the New Testament also assures all the Bible-believing remnant that Jesus will never desert his faithful flock. Whatever judgments lie ahead, those who put their trust in the Lord will never be lost.

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here to read previous instalments.