Jeremiah (1-31) 5:10 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Go ye up upon her walls and destroy.’ This seems to be a prophetic instruction to the Chaldeans. The sovereign God is going to cause them to come as if they were consciously operating under his instruction to go and punish Jerusalem, but of course they are completely unaware that they are carrying out his will. They come for their own evil reasons, and afterwards, they too will be judged for what they have done. But the destruction will not be total – ‘make not a full end.’ Babylon will come and Jerusalem will fall, but the Lord’s secret instruction, which governs perfectly what will happen, is ‘make not a full end.’ Babylon will be held back from totally destroying Juday, for the sake of the elect, and for the sake of those elect Jews who will be born to future generations. There is going to be a remnant preserved, true believers perhaps, a little minority that is going to be saved. Nevertheless, the city will not escape what is coming upon it. ‘Take away her battlements; for they are not the LORD'S.’ All the means she employs to protect herself and preserve her idolatries and the things that are improper and wrong in the house of God; none of them will succeed. After centuries of patience and after many, many warnings and lesser judgments, God is not going to ignore their treachery any longer. It has gone on long enough to prove that, without genuine conversion to God, even the most lavish kindness and provision are not enough to keep people walking in God’s ways. ‘For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the LORD.’ Israel has been treacherous because they have entered into a covenant relationship with God, and they have broken his covenant. They have, as it were, betrayed the marriage bond between them and the Lord, and committed adultery with all their idols. They have betrayed a trust. Even the prophets have lied about the Lord. ‘They have belied the LORD,’ that is to say, they have lied about the Lord, ‘and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us.’ They will not have it that there is a blight, there is a withdrawal of God's blessing, that he won't work with this, and he will actually oppose it and judge it. ‘Neither shall we see sword nor famine.’ And yet it is happening, even while they say it. There is always a church somewhere, that is prepared to say, there is no punishment, there is no hell, and fashion a faith to suit the people, and to let them get away with the way they want to behave.‘And the prophets shall become wind’, there word will be empty. Nothing from God. Well that literally happened of course, during the four hundred years intertestamental period, when God withdrew every prophet, and every spokesman, and the heavens were silent for all that time.