The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. But they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against his people, until there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:15-16)

When God sent word through the prophetess Huldah that he would bring disaster upon Judah and its inhabitants, he meant it. First came the Babylonians and then the Chaldeans, who brought death, looted and burned the Temple, reduced Jerusalem’s wall to rubble, and carried the people away to serve as slaves.

When God gave word through the prophet Jeremiah that the land would lay desolate for seventy years, he meant it. And for seventy years the descendants of those freed by Moses from Egyptian bondage would serve another king while the land of promise rested from their rebellious and idolatrous ways.

But, when God gave his word to their forefather Abraham that he would give him a seed through whom his heirs would number as the sands of the sea and stars of the heaven and through whom the nations of the world would be blessed, he meant it. And after seventy years God stirred the heart of a Persian king by the name of Cyrus to declare:

The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up. (2 Chronicles 36:23)

The people of promise would return to the land of promise and through them the God of the promise would deliver the seed of promise, namely Jesus.

You can trust God to keep his promises.