The Chastening of the Lord

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Jer. 32:3 “For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.”

Here is a wicked king, Zedekiah, who received a warning from the Lord through the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah for him and for the Israelites to depart from their evil ways. But instead of repenting and telling his people about the warning, he imprisoned Jeremiah because he didn’t like the prophecy. And so the Lord, because of the wickedness of His people, gave them to Babylon to be captured for 70 years where they suffered a lot!

This is always the way of our Lord. He will first give His word to warn us to repent from our wicked ways. He will not let you continue in your ways by giving a warning through His word. In fact, He will find a way for you to take heed to His word. But if we continue on our ways, His next step would be drastic and painful. He will allow evil to chasten us so that we will turn our ways from evil and for us to be saved. He doesn’t want us not to be saved.