"But after that our fathers had provoked the God of
heaven unto wrath, he gave them into the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this
house, and carried the people away into Babylon" (Ezra 5:12).

"Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach
to any people" (Proverbs 14:34). When this basic principle
is abandoned, either by a nation or an individual, sooner
or later, judgment will follow. The children of Israel
learned the principle of "after that" (text) the hard way.

Their continual sin was a reproach to God,
provoking Him to wrath, resulting in the destruction of Jerusalem
and the Babylonian captivity. Yet, God in His marvelous
mercy, would bring them back. He said,
" after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, . . . in
causing you to return to this place" (Jeremiah 29:10).

The inevitability of judgment is not only for every nation
to seriously consider but also every individual. "But now once
in the end of the world hath He |Christ| appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto
men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was
once offered to bear the sins of many" (Hebrews 9:26-28).

Christ took upon Himself the full judgment for sin
by His great sacrificial death on the cross. Therefore,
those who trust Christ as their own personal Saviour will be
"delivered . . . from the wrath to come" (I Thessalonians
1:10). "He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he
that believeth not is condemned already" (John 3:18). "For
after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom
knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe" (I Corinthians 1:21).

"For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn
the world; but that the world through Him might be saved"
(John 3:17). NPS