Your words were found and I ate them (Jeremiah 15:16)

Your words were found and I ate them,
And your words became for me
a joy and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called by Your name,
O LORD GOD of hosts. (Jeremiah 15:16)

Jeremiah. The weeping prophet. No wife for him, no children, just the hard road of obedience. Jeremiah agonized over the unfaithful people, and he warned again and again, as he was instructed to do.

For decades the Lord gave the people opportunity to repent and return to Him.

Thus says the LORD,
“Stand by the ways and see and ask
for the ancient paths,
Where the good way is, and walk in it;
And you will find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

And I set watchmen over you,
saying,
‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet.’
But they said, ‘We will not listen.’ (Jeremiah 6:16-17)

And it did indeed come to pass, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the enslavement of the Hebrew people. Torn from Jerusalem and banished to Babylon, where men of God such as Ezekiel and Daniel served as faithfully as had Jeremiah in Jerusalem.

The cruel Old Testament God? I do not know Him. He does not exist. Let not the holiness and righteousness of a sovereign God be perceived as capriciousness. The Old Testament God is kind and merciful, for He is the God of the New Testament.

He is still giving opportunity to repent and come to Him.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)