The Point of No Return: God's Terrible Mercy Text: 2 Chronicles 36:15-21
Introduction: The Long Fuse of Wrath
We live in a sentimental age. Our culture has fashioned for itself a god who is all compassion and no holiness, all tolerance and no wrath. He is a celestial grandfather who winks at sin, a divine therapist who affirms our brokenness, and a cosmic butler who exists to meet our felt needs. But this god is an idol. He is a fiction. He does not exist, and he cannot save.
The God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a God of staggering compassion and patience. But He is also a God of terrifying holiness and justice. His patience is not infinite indulgence. His compassion is not a dismissal of sin. There is a point, a terrible line, at which divine patience is exhausted and divine justice must act. There is a point of no remedy.
Our text today is one of the most sobering in all of Scripture. It is the final, grim postmortem on the southern kingdom of Judah. It is the end of the line. For centuries, God had dealt with His covenant people with a longsuffering that should boggle our minds. He sent them prophets, warnings, judgments, and deliverances. He wooed them, He disciplined them, He called to them. But they would not listen. This passage describes the final hardening, the final rejection, and the final, catastrophic result. It is a terrifying thing to exhaust the patience of God.
But we must not read this as some dusty, irrelevant history. This is a perpetual spiritual principle. God deals with nations, with churches, and with individuals in precisely the same way. He warns, He calls, He pleads. But if His Word is continually despised, if His messengers are mocked, if His warnings are scoffed at, there comes a point when the only thing left is judgment. This passage is a warning to us. Do not mistake the patience of God for the permission of God. Do not presume upon His kindness. The fuse of God's wrath can be very long, but it is never infinite. And when it reaches the powder, the explosion is total.
The Text
And Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by the hand of His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His habitation; but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against His people, until there was no remedy. Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who killed their choice men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on choice man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. And all the articles of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king and of his officials, he brought them all to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God and tore down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles. And those who had escaped from the sword he took away into exile to Babylon; and they were slaves to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were fulfilled.
(2 Chronicles 36:15-21 LSB)
The Compassionate Warning (v. 15)
We begin with the astounding patience and compassion of God.
"And Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by the hand of His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His habitation;" (2 Chronicles 36:15 LSB)
Before the wrath, there is always the warning. Before the judgment, there is always the appeal. Notice the motivation: "because He had compassion." God's warnings are not the irritable outbursts of a frustrated deity. They are the loving appeals of a compassionate Father. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He sends His messengers "again and again," which the Hebrew literally says is "rising early and sending." It is a picture of an earnest, diligent master, getting up before dawn to ensure the message gets out. He is eager to warn, eager to save.
His compassion was for "His people" and for "His habitation." He loved the covenant people He had chosen, and He loved the Temple, the place where His glory dwelt. He did not want to destroy either. This is the heart of God. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He gives every opportunity for repentance. He sends Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, and others. He pleads with them. He reasons with them. This is not a God who is quick on the trigger. He is a God who exhausts every avenue of grace before resorting to judgment.
This should be a profound comfort to the repentant sinner. God's default posture toward His people is compassion. But it should be a terrifying thought to the unrepentant. The fact that God has been patient with you thus far is not a guarantee of future patience. It is a sign of His present mercy, a mercy that has an expiration date determined by your response.
The Contemptuous Rejection (v. 16)
In stark contrast to God's compassionate sending, we see Judah's hard-hearted response.
"but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against His people, until there was no remedy." (2 Chronicles 36:16 LSB)
This is a three-fold escalation of contempt. First, they "mocked the messengers." They treated the prophets like court jesters. They laughed at Jeremiah's warnings. They thought the whole thing was a joke. This is the first step in hardening the heart: trivialize the Word of God. Treat the preaching of the Word as mere entertainment or, worse, as a nuisance.
Second, they "despised His words." The mockery turned to disdain. They didn't just find it amusing; they found it contemptible. They hated the message because it exposed their sin. The Word of God is a mirror, and they did not like the reflection. So, they chose to hate the mirror instead of cleaning up their faces. To despise God's Word is to despise God Himself, for God has magnified His Word even above His name.
Third, they "scoffed at His prophets." This goes beyond mockery and despising. It implies active, hostile opposition. They didn't just ignore the prophets; they persecuted them. They threw Jeremiah in a cistern. They sought to kill him. This is the final stage of rebellion. When you move from ignoring God's Word to actively trying to silence it, you are on the brink of destruction.
And so we reach the tipping point: "until the wrath of Yahweh arose... until there was no remedy." The Hebrew for "remedy" is literally "healing." They had become so cancerous with sin that the disease was terminal. There was no medicine left to apply. The only option was radical, destructive surgery. When a people or a person reaches the point where they are no longer capable of repentance, where their hearts are so calloused that they can only mock and despise the offer of grace, judgment is not only just, it is the only possible outcome.
The Catastrophic Consequence (v. 17-19)
What does it look like when there is no remedy? The following verses paint a grim, detailed picture.
"Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who killed their choice men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on choice man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand." (2 Chronicles 36:17 LSB)
Notice the clear statement of divine sovereignty. "He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans." Nebuchadnezzar thought he was acting on his own geopolitical ambitions. But he was a tool. He was the axe in the hand of God. God had shown compassion, but they rejected it. So He sent an instrument that had no compassion. They had mocked His messengers, so He sent an army that would not be mocked. The judgment fits the crime.
The slaughter was total and indiscriminate, even "in the house of their sanctuary." The very place they had defiled with their idols became the place of their execution. They had presumed upon the temple, thinking it was a magical charm that would protect them regardless of their sin. God demonstrates that a holy place cannot protect an unholy people. In fact, sinning in a holy place invites a more severe judgment.
The destruction continues, systematically and thoroughly.
"And all the articles of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king and of his officials, he brought them all to Babylon. Then they burned the house of God and tore down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles." (2 Chronicles 36:18-19 LSB)
This is the great unraveling. Everything that gave them their identity as a people is stripped away. The treasures of the Temple, the symbols of their covenant relationship with God, are plundered. The house of God itself is burned to the ground. The walls that provided security are torn down. The palaces that represented their national pride are incinerated. God is dismantling the entire nation, piece by piece. When a people abandons the God who gave them everything, He is just in taking everything away.
The Covenantal Reckoning (v. 20-21)
The final verses explain the theological purpose behind this national catastrophe.
"And those who had escaped from the sword he took away into exile to Babylon; and they were slaves to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were fulfilled." (2 Chronicles 36:20-21 LSB)
This was not random violence. It was covenantal litigation. It was the fulfillment of specific prophecies, particularly those of Jeremiah, who had warned of a seventy-year exile. But the reason for the seventy years is profoundly theological. It was "until the land had made up for its sabbaths."
In the Mosaic law, God commanded that the land was to lie fallow every seventh year (Leviticus 25). It was a Sabbath for the land, a tangible reminder that the land belonged to God, not to them. It was a test of faith: would they trust God to provide in the seventh year, or would they greedily work the land to exhaustion? For centuries, they had ignored this command. Their disobedience was a manifestation of their greed, their lack of faith, and their practical atheism. They acted as though the land was theirs to exploit as they saw fit.
So God, in His perfect justice, collects the back-taxes. He evicts the rebellious tenants and lets the land enjoy the rest they had stolen from it. For every year they failed to keep the Sabbath year, the land would now lie desolate for a year. The seventy-year exile corresponds to 490 years of Sabbath-breaking. This is a meticulous, mathematical, covenantal judgment. God keeps perfect books. No sin is forgotten. Every debt will be paid, one way or another.
The Gospel at the Point of No Remedy
This is a dark and terrible passage. It shows us the severity of God. And if the story ended here, we would be left with no hope. But this is not the end of the story. The final words of Chronicles, in the very next verses, speak of the decree of Cyrus to let the people return and rebuild. Judgment is never God's final word for His people.
This entire narrative is a picture of our own condition apart from Christ. We, like Judah, have mocked God's messengers. We have despised His Word. We have scoffed at His law. We have reached the point of no remedy. In ourselves, we are terminal. There is no healing for our sin-cancer. The wrath of God is justly aroused against us.
And God did bring a foreign invader to execute judgment. But it was not Nebuchadnezzar. It was His own Son. On the cross, Jesus Christ stood in the place of rebellious Judah. He stood in our place. The full, unmitigated, catastrophic wrath of God that was due to us was poured out upon Him. He was led outside the city walls, and the sword of God's justice fell upon Him. He endured the ultimate exile, crying out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
He paid the Sabbath debt. He is our Sabbath rest. All the accounts are settled in Him. Because of His cross, God's compassion can be extended to us without compromising His justice. The point of no remedy for us was met by the ultimate remedy in Christ.
Therefore, the warning of this text comes to us with a gospel invitation. Do not mock the message of the cross. Do not despise the words of grace. Do not scoff at the Son of God. For if you do, there is no other remedy. There is no other sacrifice for sins. But if you will turn from your rebellion and trust in Him, you will find that God's compassion is not exhausted. His grace is sufficient. The judgment has already fallen on your substitute, and you are free. The exile is over, and you are welcomed home.