Thinking about Judgment

Jeremiah 44-45

            I was thinking this morning about how all of these oracles of judgment apply to us today. The first way they apply is to understand Jesus. Jesus placed Himself under God’s ultimate wrath. Final judgment fell on Him; all of the Father’s wrath for human sin fell on Him. The destruction of Jerusalem was but a harbinger of that final judgment; the destruction of the world by water in Noah’s day was but a harbinger of that final judgment. So, strangely, there is a Gospel aspect to all of this: the substitutionary atonement of Jesus took all judgment into His death and paid for it there.

            Still, Israel faced all sorts of condemnation for her idolatry and rebellion, and this morning, I couldn’t help but think that, were Jeremiah walking around churches today, he might condemn us for our idolatry. We have some of the same hang-ups about our buildings and property that ancient Israel had about their Temple. Yes, it was the place the Lord promised to meet them, but it became a sort of talisman for them, a good luck charm, a distraction from the faith the place was supposed to call forth. And we have some of the same hang-ups about political power as ancient Israel did. And at least they had the excuse that Israel was at the same time God’s holy people (the Old Testament church, so to speak) and an actual nation among the other nations. The New Testament church is not a nation at all, but we often act like we’d rather rule by coercion on earth than offer grace and compassion to all sorts of people now so that we can all together enjoy the new creation then.

            I think the thing that got me thinking about this was Jeremiah 44:22, “When the Lord could no longer endure your wicked actions and the detestable things you did, your land became a curse and a desolate waste without inhabitants, as it is today.” Many, many churches today are only a shadow of their former selves. The Missouri Synod has churches with enormous buildings in Milwaukee, in Chicago, in St. Louis that are either closed or mostly empty on a Sunday today. And it will only get worse. The millennial generation and Gen Z are the most unchurched generations in U.S. history. A smaller percentage of people attend church in a weekend than ever before in the U.S. And this morning, I wondered, “Is this the punishment for the church’s idolatry?”

            Maybe. It bears thinking about. And it also bears thinking about the remnant that the Lord left Israel so that He could fulfill His promises, and it bears thinking about Jesus, whose atoning death is the key to the church’s mission. It bears thinking about what the church is really for, namely, the bringing of many into a right relationship with God.