Jeremiah 21:8

GOD'S MESSAGE TO THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM (JER. 21:8-10)

"And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He that abideth in the city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goeth out and passeth over to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him a prey. For I have set my face upon this city for evil, and not for good, saith Jehovah: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire."

God had decreed the inevitable destruction of Jerusalem because of the total apostasy and gross wickedness of the people; and the terrible destruction impending was nothing but what the people themselves had ordered by their rejection of God's will and their utter reprobacy. It was very appropriate that the words in these three verses should be taken almost verbatim from Deuteronomy 30:15-20. Countless warnings the people had received, but they would not hear. Some terrible inability to respond to God's warnings seems to have taken hold of the hearts of the people. Like a bird charmed by a snake, they simply sat still until the blow fell.

Even when such inability in the face of certain death is witnessed in the natural creation around us, it is sad indeed, but in no manner as sad as when it is seen among human beings whom God has endowed with the gift of intelligence.

It is said that sometimes in the late fall of the year in the Cornwall area of England, the migratory waterfowl are trapped by an early freeze, resulting in the death of large numbers of them. They are tempted to feast a little too long on the apples that lie rotting on the ground.

HEAR THE SUMMONS FROM ON HIGH!

"Beneath the Cornwall apple trees,

The migratory fowl delay

Their flight from Winter's chilling breeze

And feast their day of grace away.

Spread ripe and rotting on the ground,

The banquet seems to have no end.

The warning trumpet does not sound

Within, or, sounding, fails to send

Their strong wings on the Southward path.

The noble fowl remains too long,

All heedless of the Winter's wrath,

Unmindful of the even-song...

Until they're trapped beneath the trees

In misty sheets of freezing rain.

Feet locked to earth by bitter freeze;

The call to rise and fly is vain.

Also, for me, Life's banquet calls;

Its pleasures drown all doubts and fears.

The soul's high purpose dims, and falls

Unrealized despite the tears.

At last, the summons from On High

Strikes through the heart. Shall I

Too find that hope has passed me by?

Or shall I rise, in time and fly?"

- James Burton Coffman

The dreadful alternative of life or death was here presented in the words of Deuteronomy; but there was a significant difference. When Moses thus addressed the people, "The choice was between a life lived under the blessing and favor of God, and a life of sin and death; but here it is the miserable alternative of a life saved by desertion to the enemy with its resulting captivity, and certain death sure to come to all who remained in the city by sword, by pestilence, or by famine."[12]

Jeremiah was indeed a type of Jesus Christ in some particulars; and one of them is evident here. Both Jeremiah and Christ commanded the true followers of God to abandon the city of Jerusalem. Christ did so in Matthew 24:16 at the time of the Roman siege in A.D. 70. In that instance, however, the Christians would be fleeing to a place of safety at Pella.