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. Jeremiah understood that the defeat of Jerusalem and the exile of these people were part of the consequences of Jerusalem, and all of Judah for having ignored and gone against God s will. Rather than humbly obeying God and taking their modest role in history, they had tried to play the game of power politics, and the end result was they brought down on themselves the full might of the superpower of that day Babylonia. And the result was the significant leaders who were not killed in the war were marched off to live out their days in Babylonian captivity.