We can enjoy it now and pay for it later. We just put it on our credit card. But one of the realities of this credit-driven consumer economy is sooner or later the bills come due. And this truth about commerce is also a profound truth reflected in the Bible.
Consequences are a reality in life.
This is the way life is. As my granddaddy used to say, Sooner or later, somebody has to pay the fiddler. Consequences are a reality. Jeremiah certainly knew this to be true. The passage we read today is from a letter Jeremiah wrote to the people who had been captured in Jerusalem and taken to Babylon to live in exile.