It was the worst thing that can ever happen. To anyone, anywhere, at any time. God temporarily was going to with withdraw.

The Israelites had so sinned against God through the generations that he says he is going to no longer pour on them his love, his kindness and his compassion. They didn’t want God. They had rejected him. They wanted their gods and idols and worship of the Babylonian deities. So he was going to give them what they wanted..

The LORD tells Jeremiah not to even marry because this people and the land are destined for terrible times. It’s I’m sure a hard pill for Jeremiah to swallow.

The time will be so bad that bodies will lie in the street. There will be no one to mourn them. Devastation will come upon them.

Would this mean that God would withhold his love forever? No. Or his kindness and care forever? No. He would one day again show them love and compassion and return them to the land.

But for now he would give them over to the desires of their heart. To sin as freely and as fully as they would like. And they would see the disaster that it would bring.

The people who ask God why? And he would respond because of the sin of your ancestors was so bad, and what you have done is even worse.

It makes me think of what life would be like without the love of God in it. Without his kindness. I think we have no idea how bad that is. On a daily basis we do experience Him. We see beauty in his creation, kind acts from random people, and love still persists. But can you imagine if all that were gone?

Honestly last night I had a tough time. The news broke of someone well-known now facing charges for child molestation he committed as a teen. His own upbringing was quite awful. And then tehre’s the horror the abused experienced. So much evil on every side. I have compassion for them both and that’s what makes it hard.We truly are crumbling from within.

As evil grows the righteous become like the stars. Yes, he will not destroy the earth with the flood. But there are times where I think he pulls back and man gets to experi