The hardest parts of Scripture, in my experience, are not the bits you don\u2019t understand. Failing to understand can be good; it can prompt thought, investigation, and discovery. No, the real trouble comes when you know exactly what is going on, and it doesn\u2019t look good, true, or beautiful. Think, for instance, of the prophetic oracles of judgment against the nations, which run for page after terrifying page, with (apparently) no hope, no contemporary application, and no end in sight.<\/p>\n
The last seven chapters of Jeremiah are a case in point. How can a book containing such glorious promises have such a depressing ending? There are nine oracles of judgment against the nations\u2014Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar and Hazor, Elam, and Babylon\u2014followed by Jerusalem\u2019s destruction. The judgments are severe and sometimes graphic. Four nations receive a one-verse promise of future mercy (46:26; 48:47; 49:6; 49:39), but these are just four droplets of hope in a seven-chapter desert of disaster. How do we find goodness, joy, and gospel in these passages? As happens so often in the Old Testament, we find an answer in the exodus story.<\/p>\n
The final chapters of Jeremiah contain ten divine judgments: nine against foreign nations, and the last upon Judah itself. Ezekiel 25\u201333 runs through an equivalent sequence: nine oracles against nations and their kings, followed by Jerusalem\u2019s destruction. And a similar pattern occurs in Isaiah 13\u201323. That is unlikely to be a coincidence.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n Page after terrifying page in Jeremiah describes judgement against the nations. It's a desert of disaster.<\/p>\n Where is the gospel? @AJWTheology<\/a> writes: https:\/\/t.co\/7yuJHm7h8u<\/a><\/p>\n — Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) January 12, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n