26 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, 27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” 28 Therefore thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am about to give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it. 29 The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will enter and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses where people have offered incense to Baal on their roofs and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger. 30 Indeed the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been doing only evil in My sight from their youth; for the sons of Israel have been only provoking Me to anger by the work of their hands,” declares the Lord. 31 “Indeed this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My wrath from the day that they built it, even to this day, so that it should be removed from before My face, 32 because of all the evil of the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah which they have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their leaders, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned their back to Me and not their face; though I taught them, [f]teaching again and again, they would not listen [g]and receive instruction. 34 But they put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. 35 They built the high places of Baal that are in the valley of Ben-hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I had not commanded them nor had it [h]entered My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
When faced with the question in v. 27, there are a couple different reactions. For some, they will come up with impossibly contradictory scenarios, like, “Could God create a rock that is so large that even He couldn’t lift it?” It isn’t a valid question because there is no rock that God could not move. Further, God has created stars that are so large, our sun is a grain of sand by comparison–and our sun is nearly a million times larger than the Earth!
The other reaction is an emphatic “no, of course not!” To which the people in the first camp would point to v. 33, and ask “Why couldn’t He teach the people of Israel?” And again, the point is missed. The point isn’t that God couldn’t, but that they couldn’t stay the course. Look at the very beginning, when Adam and Even walked with God, even they couldn’t stay on track, nor could their children. Certainly, some did their best to follow God, and that was likely true (though in a very small minority) in Jeremiah’s day.
God started over again with Noah, a righteous man. He even built an ark because he trusted God, which was no small feat, taking 50-100 years to complete. And still, his children and their descendants wandered ever further from God. Then God took Abram and made a new nation, one dedicated to following God, and it still couldn’t be done.
The point is clear, we cannot get it right on our own. Yet God is so powerful, that out of the mess described in this passage, He could still fulfill the plan. He found a young woman who was faithful and devoted (Mary), in the midst of a similarly depraved Israel. God brought forth His one and only Son as the Messiah promised to Jeremiah, Isaiah, and the other prophets. And He conquered sin and death once for all of us.
We have conquered nothing, and yet when we put our faith and trust in God, He cleanses us white as snow. That’s the most impossible thing yet, and at the same time not too difficult for God. Though it cost Jesus his very life, the plan was carried out just as God said it would be. Nothing in our lives is impossible for God either, but we have to surrender it first. When we put our hope in Him, God does not leave us on our own. Rather, He will come alongside us and teach us the way in which we ought to walk.