Whose Side Are You On?

Passage: Jeremiah 49

The bulk of Jeremiah’s prophecy focuses on the ways God intends to judge his people. The instrument of God’s judgment, it turns out, will be the Babylonian Empire. The assumption Jeremiah’s audience members, and we the readers, are tempted to make is that God is effectively switching sides. God’s been on the side of Israel and Judah all this time. Now he’s done with them, and Babylon is his new favorite. What other conclusion is there to draw here? The success that should have been Israel’s has been handed to Babylon, even as the Israelites have been handed over as slaves to the new superpower. God’s on their side now.
Not so fast. In Jeremiah 49 God lashes out not against Israel and Judah but against…Babylon? God says,
So Babylonia will be plundered; all who plunder her will have their fill…Because you rejoice and are glad, you who pillage my inheritance…
God goes on to say that Israel will be forgiven and Judah restored, while Babylon is punished for treating God’s chosen people so deplorably.
What?

Here’s what’s going on. God committed to his people that if they rejected him, they would face the consequences. Those consequences take the form of the Babylonian invasion. But even though they have become instrumental in God’s plan, the Babylonians are not innocent. The mechanisms they use to mete out God’s judgment are, themselves, cruel and corrupt. No doer of violence; no merciless oppressor will go unpunished, either. The Babylonians will also be held accountable for the abominations they’ve committed.

The paradox of God’s action in the world is that his hand is always at work in the lives of his people – even in the bad things that happen to us. However, God is not the source of the bad things. The Belgic Confession puts it like this:
We believe that this good God, after he created all things, did not abandon them to chance or fortune but leads and governs them according to his holy will, in such a way that nothing happens in this world without his orderly arrangement. Yet God is not the author of, nor can he be charged with, the sin that occurs. For his power and goodness are so great and incomprehensible that he arranges and does his work very well and justly even when the devils and wicked men act unjustly. (Belgic Confession, Art. 13a)

The thought of a good God willing painful – even tragic – circumstances on the people he loves is unsettling. Those who call ourselves God’s people, however, believe that God uses all circumstances to shape our lives and guide us toward our ultimate destination: salvation and eternal life. This still raises the question about those people at whose hands God’s children suffer. The answer is simple: all people will be held accountable for their sins before God – even those sins God has co-opted for his purposes. When someone else has hurt you, the question is not, “How could God let this happen?” but, “How will God use this for good in my life?” The fact that God can use someone else’s hurtful act for a good purpose does not condone that act. Our comfort in the face of such an experience is knowing that God still calls to account those whose evil acts have hurt us.