Jeremiah 22:20

Jeremiah 22:20 says, Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.  God said the people of Judah would call out to Him when all their idols had failed them, not because they were really putting their faith in Him, but out of the expectation that He would be obligated to save them.  We cannot just call out to God when all else fails and expect that He will have to save us.  We must go to God in real faith.  Verse twenty-one adds, I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.  God said that He had spoken to the people in their prosperity and thy would not listen to Him.  Too often, even as followers of Christ, we ignore Him in times of prosperity and only call out to Him in times of trouble.  Verse twenty-two continues, The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.  God said that after the people went away into captivity that then they would be ashamed of their wickedness.  Some people will never accept God's word until it is too late and then when they are forever separated from God they will cry out in despair.  Verse twenty-three states, O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!  God said that when the destruction came, then the people would cry out to Him, but it would be too late.  Verse twenty-four declares, As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;  The real statement was that Coniah had not been as a signet on God's right hand as he should have been I believe.  Verse twenty-five adds, And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.  God said that He was giving the king up to his enemies.  If we refuse to accept God when He offers us salvation then one day we will be given up to face the penalties of our sins alone.  Verse twenty-six continues, And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.  God said that those who were supposed to be his people would be cast out of the land that he gave them.  Verse twenty-seven concludes, But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.  God said that even though the people of Judah who had put their faith in false gods would desire to return to their land that they never would.  If we reject Jesus Christ in this life, then we may desire to go into heaven when judgment comes, but we will never be able to do so.  Verse twenty-eight asks, Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?  Though Coniah had been adored by the people, after his fall they would ask if he was really the person that they had looked up to.  Verse twenty-nine proclaims, O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.  God calls on all the earth to hear His word and not just the people of Judah.  God's plan has always been to save all who will hear and heed His call to salvation, and not just certain people.  Verse thirty concludes, Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.  The word that God had at that point was that Coniah nor his descendants would ever rule in Judah again.