Jeremiah 5:14-19 – God’s word never fails.

Jeremiah 5:10-13 tell us that God’s people in Judah acted treacherously in unbelief. They would not believe the word of God. They treated His message as mere wind. But here in Jeremiah 5 verses 15-18, God told Jeremiah that the message he spoke would come to pass.  The prophet’s words would not be idle words.  As proclaimed, his word would be the fire of judgment and the people as wood would be burned. Their skepticism would be debunked when God brings all that the prophet had aid to pass.  

 Verses 15 -17 then proceed to describe how the judgment would come. God would bring a God mighty nation from afar against Israel. A strong and enduring nation whose language Israel neither knew nor understood. The fighting men of that nation were described as mighty men. In saying that their quiver is an open grave,” God was warning of the devastating death they would cause the nation. Their arrows would rain down upon Israel resulting in countless deaths.

 

This formidable enemy, God asserted, would literally destroy the land. Verse 17 said that their land would be overtaken. Everything from their harvest to their food, sons, and daughters, flocks, herds, vines, and fig trees would be devoured and ravaged, including their fortified cities. Yet God here promised that there would not be a complete dealing.

 

God's assurance was that despite the destruction, there would be a remnant that would survive the scathing judgment and be left wondering and asking, “Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?” Then it would be told that just as they had chosen to forsake God to serve foreign gods in their land, they would be sent to serve strangers in a foreign land.  Here God was saying that they would be exiled to a foreign land. And it came to pass.    

 

The tragedy of Judah and Israel was their failure to take God at His word. Their experience tells us that none of us needs a tragedy to know that God’s words never fail. He says what He means and means what He says. We need to hear His word and we also need to understand what He is saying. But more importantly, we need to trust what He says and that will result in change and transformation. Remember the rod of the budding almond tree that Jeremiah saw? God is watching over His Word to perform it!