12 ‘Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the Lord, ‘for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation. 13 I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. 14 ([h]For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will recompense them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.)’”
15 For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. 16 They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.”
17 Then I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it: 18 Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its kings and its princes, to make them a ruin, a horror, a hissing and a curse, as it is this day; 19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes and all his people; 20 and all the [i]foreign people, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines (even Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod); 21 Edom, Moab and the sons of Ammon; 22 and all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon and the kings of the coastlands which are beyond the sea; 23 and Dedan, Tema, Buz and all who cut the corners of their hair; 24 and all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the [j]foreign people who dwell in the desert; 25 and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam and all the kings of Media; 26 and all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the earth which are upon the face of the ground, and the king of [k]Sheshach shall drink after them.
27 “You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Drink, be drunk, vomit, fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you.”’ 28 And it will be, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you will say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “You shall surely drink! 29 For behold, I am beginning to work calamity in this city which is called by My name, and shall you be completely free from punishment? You will not be free from punishment; for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth,” declares the Lord of hosts.’
Well, that’s pretty gross, drinking, vomiting, and staggering around… Yet, to focus too much on the details of this punishment is to miss an important point. God gave Jeremiah these words seventy years in advance. And not just that, but God had Jeremiah write down the time frame. Now, in other cases, there are days and weeks and all sorts of things written down.
Yet it seems in those cases, God keeps it kind of vague so that it’s hard to know exactly what He is saying until it actually happens. Afterward, one can do the math, and it comes out quite nicely. But how could He be so bold as to predict a year for such a thing? What if people don’t do what He expects, and it ends up being 90 years, or more?
No, that’s asking the wrong question, because God is not bound by time, and had already seen that future. Cool, that’s great for Him… However, it emphasizes something pretty amazing for us, perhaps two things. First, God knew all the things we would do… before He gave Himself as a sacrifice for our sin and rebellion. It wasn’t just, “while we were still sinners”, but before we were rebels, knowing we would rebel against Him, God made a plan.
The second thing? God’s plan isn’t over! Oh certainly, Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all, but His plan is still going, and it includes us. So, we can either try to figure out this life on our own, wandering around in the dark, smashing our nose on walls in the dark–or we can trust the One who already knows tomorrow, and next year, and has a hope and a future prepared for us.
I think that’s pretty incredible, and trusting God is a lot better than trying to figure things out on my own. Oh, He still gives us puzzles to figure out, and doesn’t tell us the whole plan from start to finish. Yet He walks beside us, and even carries us through hard times, if we will invite Him into our lives and put our hand in His. God will lead and guide, but will we trust Him enough to give up the driver’s seat? I would rather let the One who knows the road drive, than trust a blind man (myself) to get me there safely, how about you?