Jeremiah 25:12-14
New International Version (NIV)
“But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians,for their guilt,” declares the LORD, “and will make it desolate forever. I will bring on that land all the things I have spoken against it, all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”
You may ask, why 'seventy years'? Why not thirty or fifty years? We must realise that God sets the time for everything. He knows when everything will be fulfilled according to His purpose and plan. We may think that forty years would be enough as it was in the wilderness when Moses led the people of God. Here, God says seventy years would be enough to cause my people to return to me. God's obejctive is always to make His people return to Him by obeying all that He had commanded. After my people have genuinely repented, He says, I will punish the one who brought this suffering upon them. Nebchadnezzar knew who Daniel's God was but never bothered to obey Him. Yes, Nebuchadnezzar was at one time amazed by the power and authority displayed by Daniel's God but he did not obey Daniel's God as Daniel had. Instead, he continued with his sinful liviing through idolatry, personal pride and arrogance. Being amazed at God's power is one thing and obeying Him is another. Many of us are amazed by what God could do on earth but we still do not obey Him.
