Till there was no remedy
By Elizabeth Prata
Some verses just strike fear into the heart. They make you shudder. Or even cry. Several verses do that to me, including the well known “Depart from me you evil doer. I never knew you!” (Matthew 7:23). Also the one in Revelation that simply says the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth “and the earth was reaped.” (Revelation 14:16).
There is this which struck me at church on Sunday:
but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against His people, until there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:16).
Until there was no remedy. Ponder that. In this day and age, people have dragged Jesus down from His heights of transcendent glory, to make Him a buddy, a boyfriend, a butler in their minds. They render Him toothless, weak, and a simpering milquetoast, pleading for souls but unable to bring them into the kingdom if they choose to reject. They have errantly thought that His longsuffering is endless, that His patience is boundless.
But no.
There will come a day. That day will come for individuals, when he gives them over to their sin, forever locked in a deadly embrace with it, to gnash but also pet their sin even in hell. There will come a day for nations, when there are not even 10 righteous, and like Sodom, will be smote under His wrath. One day, in one moment, it will be too late. God’s limit allowing sin has been reached, and He will punish their sin.
Matthew Henry says,
“They mocked the messengers of God (which was a high affront to him that sent them), despised his word in their mouths, and not only so, but misused the prophets, treating them as their enemies. The ill usage they gave Jeremiah who lived at this time, and which we read much of in the book of his prophecy, is an instance of this. This was an evidence of an implacable enmity to God, and an invincible resolution to go on in their sins. This brought wrath upon them without remedy, for it was sinning against the remedy.” (Source Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 614). Hendrickson.)
If you are playing church, if you are doubtful you are actually saved, if you are pretending to be Christian, you may be coming up to the line of no remedy. For it isn’t only mocking and deriding God that provokes His anger, but our sin itself is enmity against Him. Rejection of God’s word is not mere disagreement, it is actually despising it. As my friend said Sunday in his sermon devotional, “Rejection of God leads to rejection by God.”
He promised that and He DID do that with his own People that He chose, the Israelites. He will do the same with His very own people the Bride that He chose for His Son.
Today is the day of salvation! Find Him while He may be found.
and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)
