For twenty-three exhausting years, Jeremiah stood in the streets and preached the unvarnished truth of God. And for twenty-three years, the nation completely ignored him. Finally, the heavy, inevitable gavel fell: Babylon was coming to dismantle the country. But tucked right inside that terrifying decree of divine judgement was a staggering detail. God put a strict time limit on it. Seventy years. The darkness was not going to last forever, and the punishment was not spinning out of control. Babylon might have been the undisputed, terrifying superpower of the decade, but the Almighty was the unquestioned Lord of history. The invaders held the swords, but God held the stopwatch. The devastating consequences of Judah’s rebellion were real, but they were entirely contained within the sovereign boundary lines of heaven.
There are seasons in our own lives where the consequences of our choices feel like a heavy, suffocating blanket. Perhaps you are doing the slow, agonising work of rebuilding a shattered trust. Maybe you are carrying the daily, lingering financial weight of a very foolish decision. Or perhaps the suffocating grief of a deep loss simply refuses to lift. But hear this clearly: just because a season is painfully long does not mean the Father has walked away. Life does not have to come to a grinding halt in the waiting room. What do you do today? You put your head down and faithfully do the next right thing. You nurture your family. You fulfil your daily responsibilities. You stay on your knees. We nervously count the days; God masterfully orchestrates the seasons.