No Remedy

The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place.  But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.  II Chronicles 36:15-16

….and there was no remedy…the words came screaming off the page at me when I read them recently.

No remedy for a terminal illness.  As a nurse, I have cared for a child in continuous convulsions, dying of lead poisoning.

No remedy for destroyed relationships.  I have seen gossip shred what had seemingly been multiple loving friendships.

No remedy for broken china.  There are items that I just haven’t been able to super-glue back together.

What does it mean when God Himself says there is no remedy?

It isn’t for lack of trying on His part.  He has repeatedly sent messengers, who weren’t just passively ignored.  They were aggressively mocked.  God is loving and infinitely patient.  He stands ready to forgive.  He is also righteous and just.  The time can come when His holiness demands that He is angry at persistent defiant evil.   And then….there is no remedy.  The tipping point has been reached and judgment falls like a cauldron of scalding oil.

However, historically God always spares a remnant.  No matter how pervasive the evil in a society, a few who bow the knee only to the one true God remain.  When judgment comes some of the righteous may be caught up in it along with the unrighteous….the rain falls on the just and the unjust.  But God always has a plan.  During the era these verses in II Chronicles reference, Daniel was carried off to Babylon, made a eunuch, and forced to serve the foreign monarch.  But, what man intended for evil, God meant for good.  One of the things I find fascinating is that even what is obviously the result of sin on the part of human beings can be redeemed by God and fashioned into a key piece of His master plan.  There may be no remedy, but there is always redemption available to anyone who wants it.

It may be too late for a remedy, but it is never too late for redemption.