Lo, I am with you always

The captivity of Judah

The emphatic word is “therefore.” It rings with sad and solemn cadence through the most mournful of all the books of the Bible. It is the epitaph of the nation to which once the conquest of the world was possible, but whose persistent resistance to the will of God secured at last its complete destruction The processes by which it ruined itself are those by which individuals are destroyed. This “therefore” is the monumental inscription over a dead nation, which may serve as a warning and guide to every living soul.

I. The sins which brought about the downfall of Judah.

1. Unbelief. They refused to see God, and they gradually lost the power to see Him. When they found that their kings could not be trusted, could not take care of them° they trusted, not to God, but to other nations. One day they were vassals of the king of Egypt; the next, of the king of Babylon Nothing but trust in God can make men free. As soon as we begin to doubt his word, and trust in human opinions, we expose ourselves to become the prey of untrustworthy powers. No confidence in our own learning or judgment, no trust in the boastful words of others, can ever take the place of confidence in the simple Word of God, and leave us sound and safe.

2. Pride. They could not accept God’s way. They could not wait for other nations to be uplifted and join them. They chose to join other nations. Doubtless they said it would more quickly bring the world to God; that to be singular would only repel men, and make God repulsive to them. They preferred their way to the way of God, ostensibly because They thought their way was wiser, really because they could not bear to lose esteem in the eyes of tree world God’s way is the same now. He still calls disciples a peculiar people. He still says, “Come ye out from among them and be ye separate.” He still finds only occasionally a hearty response. But to these who do respond with willing love, what wonderful rewards He gives!

3. Sensuality. Outward contamination soon resulted in inward corruption. Vice belongs with separation from God, and association with the world. In time it will as surely follow as it is sure that man is made subject to temptation.

4. Idolatry. When men or nations become polluted, they seek to make religion justify their wickedness. Often the most self-indulgent are those most devoted to their ideas of religion. They make their gods responsible for their sins, and therefore treat them with greatest care.

II. The consequences of Judah’s sins.

1. Blindness. They could not see the ruin they were approaching. When we cease to lay bare our sins and call them by their real names, we cease to feel them. We enter into moral darkness. The light of the world shines as before, but there is nothing in us which answers to that light. All knowledge of what we ought to do rests on some knowledge of what God is and does. We speak of seeing God, and though He is not visible to the bodily eye, there is no other description which expresses our perception of His character and presence surrounding us in all our ways. Men have eyes which behold Him; eyes which He Himself has opened to that light which is not the light of the sun, but which is the light of the celestial city. But when men turn away from that light, His character becomes to them distorted and unreal.

2. Untrustworthiness. When they became false to God they became false to all trusts. They substituted forms for righteousness, and increased them in proportion as they lost the spirit of truth.

3. Misery. The consequences of sin were seen too late. They were not foreseen.

Lessons--

1. The captivity of Judah was the fault of her religious men. Beware of seeking to justify what your conscience condemns by appeals to God in prayer, or by observing forms of worship.

2. Outward reformation but slightly arrests the progress of destruction. We cannot hope for much from the reform which aims only at self-protection. It is not deep, honest, hearty, unless we choose to renounce sins because we hate sin, and follow God because we love His ways.

3. Sin destroys the choicest qualities of human character.

4. The one thing necessary is to keep the eye on God.