Specific judgment on Jerusalem in Jeremiah 21 starting with the Jews’ request for deliverance:

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, “Inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.” (Jeremiah 21.1, 2, ESV)

“Perhaps the LORD…will make him withdraw from us.” NOPE. Not this time. “Thus says the Lord…”

I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. Afterward, declares the LORD, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion. (Jeremiah 21.5 – 7, ESV)

A specific message for the king:

Hear the word of the LORD,…I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds, declares the LORD… (Jeremiah 21.11, 14, ESV)

We like to think of the “wonderful deeds” the LORD has done in the past, what he is capable of doing today. But we don’t often think of reaping the “fruit of (y)our deeds.” We want God’s deliverance without giving a thought to how God wants us to live.

I’m in the middle of the book WITH, by Skye Jethani. He argues that God wants us to live with God, with faith, hope, and love. We, however, have other postures, including what he calls LIFE FROM GOD. That is, I can pray and ask him for things, and he will deliver. It’s a life that, like the prodigal son, values our Father’s gifts more than we value our Father.

And here are the Jews living as they please, violating all kinds of God’s laws, wanting to know if “the LORD will deal with us according to his wonderful deeds and deliver us.” In this case, they will be rewarded, not according to God’s wonderful deeds, but according to their deeds.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6.8, 9, ESV)