“Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you.  This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Much of the judgment heralded in the prophets is tough to read.  It is gloom and doom that sometimes seems to roll on for pages without reprieve.  But, if there’s anything we can take from all of this today it is this: Our choices have consequences. When we choose to behave in a certain way that is at odds with the kingdom of God, eventually, that is going to catch up with us.  We will not be able to get by with our sin forever.  God is patient and gives us lots and lots of time to repent and get back on the straight and narrow path, but He will not hold back the tide of our choices forever.  Eventually He will unleash the flood and we will be made to face the music.

If you are on a path away from the kingdom of God, no matter how minor a path it may seem to you to be, know well that you will not be able to walk it forever.  The time will come when the piper will have to be paid.  Turn back now while the time seems long.  Your ways and your deeds will eventually bring ruin on you.  It will be your doom and it will indeed be very bitter.  Repent now.  Don’t wait another moment.  Real life is waiting to be lived.