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It Was Later Than They Thought!

THE year, 609 B.C.E. The place, Jerusalem. The speaker, Jeremiah the prophet. He foretold destruction for his beloved holy city, Jerusalem, a destruction to come because the Jews had turned their back on Jehovah and had submerged themselves in the worship of false gods. They engaged in lewd sex worship on the high places, offered drink offerings to heathen gods, worshiped the sun and moon and stars, burned incense to Baal, and sacrificed their children to Molech.​—1 Kings 14:23, 24; Jeremiah 6:15; 7:31; 8:2; 32:29, 34, 35; Ezekiel 8:7-17.

In their eyes Jeremiah was a calamity howler, a fanatic, a malcontent against everything and everybody. For 38 years Jeremiah had been warning them; for 38 years the inhabitants of Jerusalem had been mocking him. Up to this time, the people had been dismissing Jehovah, saying he was not a force to be concerned with. They said: “Jehovah will not do good, and he will not do bad” and, “Jehovah has left the land, and Jehovah is not seeing.”​—Zephaniah 1:12; Ezekiel 9:9.

The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel had been preaching the destruction of Jerusalem, but nothing had happened. So the Israelites ruled out any such vision’s being fulfilled in their day, saying: “The days are prolonged, and every vision has perished.” But Jehovah’s reply to this was: “The days have drawn near . . . For I myself, Jehovah, shall speak what word I shall speak, and it will be done. There will be no postponement anymore, for in your days, O rebellious house, I shall speak a word and certainly do it.”​—Ezekiel 12:22-25.

In 609 B.C.E., the time had arrived for Jehovah to fulfill his word. After Jeremiah had been sounding the warning for nearly four decades, the city of Jerusalem was besieged by Babylonian armies. Eighteen months later the walls were breached, the temple was burned, and most of the people were carried into exile to Babylon. As foretold, the city was destroyed by sword and famine and pestilence.​—2 Kings 25:7-17; 2 Chronicles 36:17-20; Jeremiah 32:36; 52:12-20.

Jeremiah was right. The people were wrong. It was later than they thought! The vision was not for years far off. It was for their day.

This is not mere history. What happened to Jerusalem was prophetic. It foreshadowed something to come. Present-day Christendom takes the name of Christ and claims to be in a covenant relationship with God; yet she walks in the footsteps of the inhabitants of Jerusalem of old. By and large, Christendom’s churches teach pagan doctrines, are contaminated with sexual immorality, champion political schemes, support the wars of the world, embrace evolution and set aside God as Creator, wink at the sacrifice of millions of the unborn on the altar of convenience, and generally adopt human philosophies, claiming that the Bible is myth and legend.

As the people of Jerusalem scoffed at Jeremiah, so Christendom scoffs at Jehovah’s Witnesses today. The Witnesses’ warning of a coming destruction at Armageddon is dismissed as worthless. ‘God is not interested in the earth,’ says Christendom. ‘Let him run heaven; we’ll run the earth. And if Armageddon comes, it won’t be in our generation. We’ve heard that story before. We’re not going to be taken in by that!’

Is this to be a repeat of history? Is it to be another time when millions will discover that it was later than they thought?