Mercy and Justice of God

When we reach Jeremiah 30, we have read, by far, the most optimistic oracle. Before that, we read that God instructed Jeremiah to send a letter from Jerusalem to the exiles in Babylon.
Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.
Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.
But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jeremiah 29:5-7).
They were to stay there for more than two generations. Therefore, God instructed them to settle themselves down, get married, bear children and prepare themselves to stay there for a long time. This was a very positive attitude in view of the gloomy prospect ahead. This piece of wisdom helped the Jews go through adversity. It had been so successful that in the end, when king Cyrus decreed that they should return to Judah and rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem, quite a number of them preferred to stay back in Babylon!
For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfil to you my promise and bring you back to this place (Jeremiah 29:10). 
So, God had decreed that the Jews would go to exile for seventy years.
Judah was completely conquered in 586 B.C. and Cyrus decreed their return in 537 B.C. The so-called Babylonian Captivity lasted for 50 years. How did Jeremiah come up with 70 years? Well, we should bear in mind that some years before the final conquer, Nebuchadnezzar had besieged Jerusalem and carried away some captives into exile. Interested readers may search the Internet to clarify how the 70 years were calculated.
Now, we come to the most optimistic of all oracles. Jeremiah had repeated many times that God was determined to punish Judah. He would not listen to their prayers, their cries for help and neither would He repent. It was indeed the most resolute curse on them. Therefore, the following oracle was like unto a great light shining through total darkness.
And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD of hosts, that I will break the yoke from off their neck, and I will burst their bonds, and strangers shall no more make servants of them.
But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
Then fear not, O Jacob my servant, says the LORD, nor be dismayed, O Israel;
for lo, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their captivity.
Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid (Jeremiah 30:8-10).
This would indeed be a piece of good news for those who were already in exile. But Jeremiah was speaking to a people who were leading a 'normal' life, believing in a lie of peace and rejecting Jeremiah's doomsday warnings. That's the trouble with prophets. They were almost always anachronistic. They remained vague in their time-frame. Nevertheless, one thing is certain. God favours the Jews. On one hand, God loved them. On the other, God punished them harshly. It seems that chastening is in direct proportion with love. Like parents, God punishes because He loves. Now, before sending them into mass destruction, God assured them that He would deliver them. This is His mercy. But ...
For I am with you to save you, says the LORD;
I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end.
I will chasten you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished (Jeremiah 30:11).
God will not leave Judah unpunished. This is His justice. Just as what Jesus tells us in the gospel, every action carries consequences. We need to pay a price for whatever action we take.
Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison;
truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny (Matthew 5:25-26).
As I have stressed many time before, ignoring consequences doesn't mean there is no consequence. Reality of life is, there is no free lunch. Someone has to pay the price. In most cases, it will not be you, but the others. But in the end, God will extract the price from you because we believe in the justice of God.

My dear Advocate, most of the time, we don't have the moral courage to face the mess we have made. Naturally enough, we put the blame onto the others. May we look squarely at our own faults and try our best to rectify them in ways that please You. Amen.