On February 22, 1943, Sophia Magdalena (Sophie) Scholl was sentenced to die by the guillotine, and she was killed at 5:00 PM that very day. What was her crime? She and some other students at the University of Munich had written and distributed leaflets, making the citizens of Germany aware of the atrocities committed by the National Socialist party under Adolph Hitler and encouraging passive resistance to them. The leaflets told, for example, of mentally handicapped children being loaded onto a bus and told that they were going to a playground, only to be taken to a location where they would be killed.
The students involved in the work of writing and distributing these pamphlets knew that they were taking a great risk, but they felt compelled to proclaim the truth. And, sure enough, the risk they were taking was realized when a janitor spotted Sophie and her brother, Hans, leaving some of these leaflets around the university. They were reported, arrested, and stood trial for their “crimes.” The typical manner in which things were carried out in the legal system was for someone to have a ninety-nine day period before execution was carried out. But the judge demanded the execution of these individuals on the very day of the trial, and that execution was carried out promptly at 5:00 PM.
There was a powerfully gripping movie made about these students and especially Sophie, called Sophie Scholl: The Final Days. I first saw this movie at the conclusion of a German class I took in which we had translated the leaflets these students had written. And there was one scene in that movie that was powerfully moving. The judge is about to pronounce the guilt of Christoph Probst, Hans Scholl, and Sophie Scholl, when he asks them if they have anything to say for themselves. Christoph stands and asks if the judge would spare his life for the sake of his children. Hans then stands and, pointing to Christoph, says, “I beg the court to spare this man and punish me.” The judge strongly rebukes him, telling him that if he has nothing to say for himself, then he must sit down. Finally, Sophie stands, points to the judge, and says, “You will soon be standing where we stand now.”
No doubt Sophie meant that soon the war would turn, and this judge would be tried for his own crimes. And, in that sense, she was wrong. Judge Roland Freisler never stood trial because he was killed in his own courtroom as American planes dropped bombs on a number of buildings, including the People’s Court only two years after sentencing Sophie Scholl to be executed.
But there is another sense in which Sophie Scholl was exactly right in saying to the judge, “You will soon be standing where we stand now” because one day all men will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and be judged by the one to whom all must give an account. On that day, it will be clear that God is a just and holy God.
It may be that we look around and feel that men commit great atrocities and the Lord is turning a blind eye, but that is not the case. As we’ve read in Jeremiah, the Lord sees all, and he will judge all. In the end, the books will be balanced. Every sin and every sinner will be shown to have received just punishment. And one of the clearest reminders of this truth is found in these six chapters at the end of the book of Jeremiah.
For forty-five chapters the Lord has made clear that Judah will pay for their sins. He made clear to his people that though they might think the Lord has not noticed, he has seen every sin, declaring in Jeremiah 13:27, “I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighings, your lewd whorings, on the hills in the field.” Therefore, the Lord was going to judge them. This has been Jeremiah’s message.
Yet, the irony is that Israel and Judah were surrounded by pagan nations. I mean, it’s not like Israel was terrible and all the other nations were good. They were surrounded by evil nations that didn’t think twice about worshipping God, who had created their own gods and worshipped them. In fact, a number (if not all) of the evil practices of those in Judah had been learned from the practices of these pagan nations.
Not only that, but Babylon was full of wickedness. The Lord is using Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar specifically to carry out his purposes. He even says in Jeremiah 27:6, “Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him.” Yet Nebuchadnezzar was a wicked man.
So, for forty-five chapters there may have been this question lurking in our minds that says, “What about them?” What about these surrounding nations and especially Babylon? Surely the Lord is not going to punish Israel and yet let this pagan nation never see judgment. Isn’t God just? This is the question that almost leads Asaph to stumble in Psalm 73. When he looked at the wicked around him and saw them prospering, it was almost too much to take. The question he was asking is, “Isn’t there justice with God? Isn’t God just?” It’s the same question Abraham asked years earlier as he thought that the end for the righteous and the wicked would be the same in Sodom. He declared to the Lord, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” (Gen 18:25).
Jeremiah 46-51 to make the answer to this question absolutely clear. For six chapters the Lord tells his people through the mouth of Jeremiah, “Yes, there will be justice.” The wicked will be judged. Even the nation that the Lord has used to judge his people, Babylon, will be judged. The main message of these chapters is to send the message loud and clear …
Every sin and every sinner will get the exact punishment that God’s justice demands. We see this is verses like Romans 2:5-6, as Paul says to the unbeliever, “You are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works.” But we already see this truth in Jeremiah 46-51. You can outline these chapters in terms of which nation in being judged. Chapter 46 speaks of the judgment that Egypt is soon to face. They have thought that they would expand their empire over the earth. The Lord notes in 46:8, “Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge. He said, ‘I will rise, I will cover the earth, I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.’” But they were wrong. Babylon would soon crush them, for the day of their calamity had come (46:21), thus the Lord declares, “The daughter of Egypt shall be put to shame; she shall be delivered into the hand of a people from the north.” The Egyptians had worshipped their own gods instead of the true God, and now they would face judgment.
In chapter 47, the judgment of the Philistines is pronounced, as we read in 47:4, For the LORD is destroying the Philistines.” Like Egpyt, the Philistines had not worshipped the true God but idols, and they would now be judged. In chapter 48, Moab’s condemnation is announced. They had worshipped the false god, Chemosh, and they would be destroyed by the true God, Yahweh. The Lord declares in 48:35, “I will bring to an end in Moab . . . him who offers sacrifice in the high place and makes offerings to his god.”
Chapter 49, then, pronounces the judgment upon Ammon (1-6), Edom (7-22), Damascus (23-27), Kedar (28-33), and Elam (34-39). The Lord has seen the evil and idolatry of each of these nations, and now they will give an account.
And, history confirms that each of these nations was destroyed. The Lord used Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon to put an end to nation after nation, both small and great. Their judgment might be manifest through the fighting of the Babylonians, but God wanted them to understand clearly that the judgment was from him.
But what about Babylon itself? Well, chapters 50-51 (by far the longest in this section) tell us that Babylon will be no exception to the Lord’s judgment. They too will pay for their sins. The Lord is going to use the Persians, under the leadership of Cyrus, to conquer Babylon. But it must be clear that this would be no accident of history. The Lord was judging them. Thus, we read in 50:17-18, “Israel is a hunted sheep driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has gnawed his bones. Therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing punishment on the king of Babylon and his land, as I punished the king of Assyria.”
Now, we might say, “Well, hold on a second. How can Babylon be punished? Weren’t they carrying out God’s intended purpose in punishing Israel? Wasn’t Babylon the Lord’s servant, like a tool in his hand, used for his purposes?” And the answer to that is, “Yes, the Lord used Babylon as his servant, like a tool in his hands, to discipline his people.” But don’t for one minute think that Nebuchadnezzar or Babylon as a whole carried out punishment on Israel because they were trying to obey the Lord. Rather, their hearts were to oppose the Lord. The Lord makes this clear in 50:24-25, “I set a snare for you and you were taken, O Babylon, and you did not know it; you were found and caught because you opposed the LORD. The LORD has opened his armory and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the LORD God of hosts has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.”
You see, even though Jeremiah had prophesied that even the temple would be destroyed, Babylon didn’t destroy the temple in an attempt to obey God. They not only destroyed the temple but defiled it, in an effort to despise the God of Israel who had commanded his people to worship him there. The Lord declares, “A voice! They flee and escape from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, vengeance for his temple. Summon archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp around her; let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her according to all that she has done. For she has proudly defied the LORD, the Holy One of Israel” (50:28-29).
Babylon carried out the Lord’s will in the same way that Joseph’s brothers carried out the Lord’s will when they sold him into slavery so that he went to Egypt. The Lord intended that for good so that Joseph might provide for his brethren and preserve the people of Israel. Joseph’s brothers intended it for great evil. The same is true with Babylon. They intended their actions for great evil, not for good. Thus the Lord declares, “I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in Zion, declares the Lord” (51:24). God wants no one to doubt that they too will face justice and judgment, even as Judah has. In fact, 50:41-43 is simply a repetition of what God said to his own people earlier in 6:22-24, now spoken to Babylon.
And Jeremiah took this message and sent it with Seriah, who went to Babylon, read all these words, tie them to a stone, and throw them into the river to show that like that stone, so Babylon would one day sink. Ironically, as his own people were accusing him of being a traitor, Jeremiah was sending word to the Babylonians that they would not escape the judgment of God. Justice would be done; the books would be balanced in the end.
This message serves as a good reminder to us that all men will stand before the God who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ and spoken infallibly to us with the Scriptures. The question, “Can men worship whatever God they want to and be okay in the end?” is answered loud and clear: “No!” No doubt the Egyptians worshipped the Nile River, claiming that they really believed it was a god. No doubt the Moabites worshipped Chemosh, convincing themselves that he was the true God. No doubt the Babylonians convinced themselves that their false gods were true. But the only reason they believed these things is because though God had made clear in the creation around them that he was the true God, they had suppressed this truth in their rebellion against him, their foolish hearts and minds were darkened, and they had come to believe lies (Rom 1:18-21).
We must not forget this. The woman who sincerely worships some god in the sincerity of her heart, committing herself to him and even making moral decisions in dedication to him, is only doing and believing what she does because she is rebelling against the truth that God has made clear to her. And she will give an account before him.
When I was younger and my parents would tell me that I couldn’t do something, I would sometimes point out that one of my friends is permitted to do that. Or, if I got into trouble for something, I would point out that one of my friends is able to do that without getting punished. And you probably know my parents’ response. They would say, “Well, your friend isn’t my son. We’re not his parents. But you are our son, and we are your parents, and therefore you will live by our rules.”
With God, however, there is no one who is outside his jurisdiction. He is the Creator, and all men were created by him, for him, and to bring glory and honor to him. And those who refuse to bow the knee to his Son, Jesus Christ, will face his just judgment in the end. In the end, the books will be balanced, and everyone will receive his just punishment.
You see, even these chapters are just a shadow of what is to come. Yes, these nations tasted the Lord’s judgment in history, as the Lord raised up nations to bring them down. But ultimately, they will face the Lord’s judgment on that final day, when those who refused to bow to Jesus Christ will be thrown into a lake of fire where they will suffer eternally. So, these chapters are supposed to, it seems, point us forward to that final judgment. In fact, in Revelation 18, the Lord uses Babylon as a personification of his enemies. Babylon comes to represent all of God’s enemies, and we learn there that God’s enemies will face his just wrath.
And yet, there might be a haunting question in our minds, namely, “What about us?” I mean, let’s acknowledge that we’ve not measured up to God’s demands. We too have lived life suppressing the truth of God in our unrighteousness. If we were to put a video of any one of us up on this screen playing out all of our sins and revealing the thoughts of our hearts, we would want to run out of this room in embarrassment. We have despised the Lord every time we chose to do what we know he has forbidden and failed to do what we know he has commanded. Every time we chose to give priority to anything above God, we have committed idolatry. We know that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God has given us his law both in the Bible and written it on our hearts “so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God” (Rom 3:19).
If the books are indeed balanced in the end and if we have all sinned and merited God’s just judgment, then is there any hope for us.
The answer is, of course, to remember what God has done for all who will believe in him through his Son on the cross. Jesus did not fundamentally come because we needed an example of his love (though the cross shows that). He did not fundamentally come because Satan needed defeating (though he is defeated through the cross). For our greatest problem was not our inability to love or that Satan held us captive. Our greatest problem was that we had sinned against the just God who punishes all sinners in his righteous judgment. And it would seem hopeless, for the Lord even declares in Proverbs 17:15, “He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.”
Now, considering that we are wicked, then it would seem that there is no chance for any of us to be justified but only face God’s just wrath. However, God demonstrated his love for the very ones who were the objects of his wrath by sending his Son into the world. Jesus came into the world, born under the law. That is, he lived his life under the same demands for perfect obedience before God that fall on us. However, unlike us, he obeyed his Father perfectly. But that’s not all he did.
Jesus came not just to live for us but to die for us. And on the cross, as Jesus died, crying out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me,” it was because he was bearing the punishment we deserved. You see, as a just God, the Lord was not going to overlook what we deserved. Punishment must be meted out. He’d made clear even in Jeremiah 46-51 that in the end, all would receive their just punishment. The books would be balanced. However, the Father allowed his only Son to serve as our substitute and receive the penalty for us. Therefore, standing in our place, Jesus Christ bore the punishment for our sins. He drank down every drop of God’s wrath and condemnation for us. Every ounce of punishment we deserved for our sins fell upon him.
And when God did this, he showed in history that the books would be balanced. Our sins and we ourselves were being judged. Just punishment was being handed out. The glorious thing is that Christ was taken the just punishment for us. And by meting out the punishment on his own Son, which Christ voluntarily and gladly bore, God is able to proclaim as righteous, to justify, anyone who is united with his Son in faith. As Romans 3:25-26 says, “God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received in faith. . . . It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
So, the news that justice will be done and that the books will be balanced should lead us to remember the cross. For either we will face God’s wrath in hell as his just punishment for our sins or we will be united by faith with the one who bore God’s just punishment for our sins on our behalf. There is no other position. And, if we have placed our faith in Christ and been united with him on that account, then there is no condemnation for us. We do not have to fear that final day. For our just punishment has already been declared and executed in history, and one bore on our behalf, only to be raised from the dead so that we might live with him forever. That is the good news.
And that’s why every week we celebrate this meal, remembering our Lord’s death for us until he comes. Therefore, may we remind ourselves and delight again in the good news of the gospel as we come to the table. Amen.