Jeremiah 5:30

"A wonderful and horrible thing has come to pass in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end?"

This, in fact is an eloquent summary of the prevailing conditions in Judah in the times of Jeremiah, preceding the fall of Jerusalem and the captivity of God's people.

The cause of the trouble is the failure of the nation to honor their religious duty of praising and worshipping God. This made way for the false prophets and the reprobate priests who deceived and encouraged the people in their wickedness. With all religious restraint out of the way, the whole people at once fell into the pursuit of selfish and lustful goals. With no adequate guidance, they quickly degenerated into a nation of idolaters, oppressors, and debauchees; and "the people just loved it!" There was no genuine hope whatever of such a condition ever healing itself.

As it was in the days of the flood when every thought and imagination of men's hearts was evil, and only evil, continually, the mission of Abraham and his posterity to keep alive the knowledge and love of the true God had, at last, totally failed (except for the righteous remnant).

"What will ye do at the end thereof ..." (Jeremiah 5:31)? This was the question that not only concerned Israel, but God Himself. What would God do, now that the Chosen People had failed in one of their principal purposes?

No disaster ever took God by surprise; and we can read God's answer to the disastrous situation that surfaces here in the first two chapters of Paul's Book of Romans.

GOD'S ANSWER

The judicial hardening of mankind was at this point complete, it was the third such emergency in God's dealings with humanity. (1) There was the condition before the flood; and God's answer then was the Great Deluge. (2) Then there was the organized wickedness that culminated in the Tower of Babel; and God's answer then was the confounding of the languages of humanity and the introduction of the device of the Chosen People; (3) Now that the whole race of Adam, Jews and Gentiles alike, had given themselves to Satan for the third time, what would God do? He sent the Blessed Saviour in his FIRST ADVENT. That is the reason God has been so careful to announce three times in the last two chapters that "this is not the end of Israel." This will be a mission of mercy. Is this hardening of all mankind ever going to happen again? The answer is yes. And what will God do then? (4) The Final Judgment will come upon Adam's rebellious race.