In these chapters, Jeremiah is letting the Israelites know that God has not abandoned them and in the end will redeem them. In the short run, Cyrus will defeat the Babylonians and will allow those in exile to return and will give them the means to rebuild the land and the temple. In the long run, this refers to the coming of the Messiah and the new covenant ushered in by the birth of Jesus.
Whenever the Israelites got themselves into trouble, God sent them the prophets to warn them of the dangers of following the path that they were on as well as to let them know that eventually he would put things right.
We may not realize that he does the same for us when we go astray, but if we think about it, he does. Maybe it's a spouse who expresses concern, or a good friend who calls us back. They may see signs that we are less kind or more selfish in our behavior.
But we also know that Jesus is there to forgive us and bring us back.
In so many ways we are so much better off than the Israelites. We have the Good News of salvation to bring us joy. We are not waiting for the Messiah, and we have been told that all we need to do is turn back to God and follow his law of love to show our acceptance of the gift.
Although there are no kings to tell us to worship other gods, we do have leaders who sometimes can create laws that are unjust and we have a responsibility to try to change them, because the results can be quite similar. When government leaders are corrupt or just misguided or selfish, they can lead their nations into conflicts with other nations and while the result may not be an invasion, an economic war can also create injustice especially for the poor.
Maybe we need to pay more attention to the "prophets" God sends us today, and work harder to live as God wants us to.
