God Appoints His Servants

Leading up to the presidential election, we all had a favorite candidate whom we desired to win; someone who would represent our values. We envisioned how he would bring about prosperity and freedom to our nation; but if he lost, we envisioned the end of the world. Anyone of any political party whose candidate fell into the loser’s position would feel absolutely devastated! If Biden lost, it would be the end of the word. If Trump lost, it would be the end of the world. You see, we would all feel the same way if the candidate we admired lost the election. But how many of us have considered that no matter who wins the election, that it might be God’s will and that the Lord might have a purpose in it? Well, this is the spiritual concept that we’re going to explore in our message this morning.

A Nation Falls by God’s Appointed (Jeremiah 25:1-11)

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), 2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:

3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the LORD has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. 4 And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. 5 They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. 6 Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ 7 Yet you have not listened to Me, says the LORD, that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.”

8 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Because you have not heard My words, 9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the LORD, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”

I think it’s important that we begin by seeking to understand the historical context under which Jeremiah spoke these words. The location where he spoke was Judah, which was southern Israel. “Jeremiah began his prophetic [ministry] in the thirteenth year of king Josiah (627 B.C.), and finished in the eleventh year of king Zedekiah when Jerusalem went into exile, during the sixth month. During this period, Josiah changed the [country’s] religion, Babylon . . . made Judah a Babylonian vassal (605 B.C.), Judah revolted but was subjugated again by Babylon (597 B.C.), and [then] Judah revolted once more. This revolt was the final one, [for] Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and its Temple and exiled its king and many of the leading citizens in 587 B.C.”(1)

“Four times in this message, Jeremiah pronounced the solemn indictment, ‘You have not listened’ (vv. 3–4, 7–8). The earlier prophets . . . had warned of great judgment if the nation didn’t repent and turn to [God], but their ministry went unheeded.”(2) In Matthew 21:34-36, Jesus elaborated on how the prophets’ message was ignored, saying, “He sent his servants to the vinedressers, that they might receive its fruit. And the vinedressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did likewise to them.” “Jeremiah had preached to the leaders and common people of Judah for twenty-three years . . . As they disobeyed the law, worshipped idols, and rejected God’s servants, the people deliberately provoked God to anger, and the day of His wrath was fast approaching.”(3)

In 2 Chronicles 7:19-22, the Lord warned His people as follows: “If you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and this house?’ Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore, He has brought all this calamity on them’.”