Jeremiah 47-49 Messages of Doom, But Some Hope

“The time has come to destroy all of the Philistines …  Moab is destroyed…. The people of Moab thought they were greater than the Lord… The nation of Moab will be destroyed … The time will come when I will make Rabbah, the capital city of the Ammonites … become a hill covered with ruins … You are like an unfaithful child who believes his treasures will save him … I will bring disaster on the people of Esau … I will strip Edom bare … Edom will be no more … I will bring you down … Edom will be destroyed like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah … I will set fire to the walls of Damascus and it will completely burn the strong cities … Kedar and Hazor will be an empty desert forever … I will bring disaster to Elam and show them how angry I am…”

 

God had planned so much terror and disaster for people in the middle east.  Their own apostasy was the cause.  My commentary said, “God sees what the nations do, and He rewards them justly … God never gave the law of Moses to any of the nations that Jeremiah addressed, but He still held them accountable for the sins they committed against Him and against humanity.  Because of the witness of creation around them and conscience within them, they were without excuse.”

 

I couldn’t help but also notice this though:  “But in days to come, I will make good things happen again in Moab … But the time will come when I will make good things happen to the Ammonites again … But I will make good things happen to Elam again in the future,” says the Lord.

 

God was making promises of judgment.  But He also, in a few cases, made promises to restore after judgment.  I hope He has that in mind for us.  The last thing I’d want to hear Him say is, “America will be no more.”

 

Father, turn us around as a nation.  Cause us to see what we’ve done in the name of political correctness.  Show us the way back to You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford