SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/28/2014
3:06 PM
My Worship Time Focus: More Gentile Nations Prophecies
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
49:1-27
Message of the
verses: I want to look at a number
of nations that Jeremiah writes about in the 49th chapter of his
book.
Judgment on Ammon (Jeremiah 49:1-6): “1 Concerning the sons of Ammon. Thus says
the LORD: "Does Israel have no sons? Or has he no heirs? Why then has
Malcam taken possession of Gad And his people settled in its cities? 2 “Therefore
behold, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "That I will cause a
trumpet blast of war to be heard Against Rabbah of the sons of Ammon; And it
will become a desolate heap, And her towns will be set on fire. Then Israel will take possession
of his possessors," Says the LORD. 3 “Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has
been destroyed! Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah, Gird yourselves with sackcloth
and lament, And rush back and forth inside the walls; For Malcam will go into
exile Together with his priests and his princes. 4 “How boastful you are about
the valleys! Your valley is flowing away, O backsliding daughter Who trusts in her treasures,
saying, ’Who will come
against me?’ 5 “Behold, I am going to bring terror upon you,"
Declares the Lord GOD of hosts, "From all directions around you; And each
of you will be driven out headlong, With no one to gather the fugitives
together. 6 “But afterward I will restore The fortunes of the sons of
Ammon," Declares the LORD.”
We mentioned in our last SD on Jeremiah that Moab came
from an incestuous relationship between Lot and one of his daughters and Ammon
came from the other daughter of Lot and Lot himself. There is more information about this in that
SD.
When the Assyrians defeated the 10 tribes of Israel in
722 B. C. the people of Ammon moved into Gad as if Israel would never return,
and this is one of the reasons that God was against them. We see from verse four that Ammon was a very
proud people, with no need of the Lord, for in those days, and I suppose it is
the same today the nations had many gods and when they defeated a country it
was believed that their god was stronger than the one they defeated, however
God was ordaining all of the victories and defeats, including what will happen
to Ammon. We see once again that God
shows His mercy as He promises to restore Ammon in the later days. John MacArthur has a note in his study Bible
about verse six: “As with Moab God promised
that captives would have an opportunity to return. This was partially fulfilled under Cyrus, but
will be more fully in the coming kingdom of Messiah.”
Judgment on Edom (Jeremiah 49:7-22): “7 Concerning Edom. Thus says the LORD of
hosts, "Is there no longer any wisdom in Teman? Has good counsel been lost
to the prudent? Has their wisdom decayed? 8 “Flee away, turn back, dwell in the
depths, O inhabitants of Dedan, For I will bring the disaster of Esau upon him
At the time I punish him. 9 “If grape gatherers came to you, Would they not
leave gleanings? If thieves came by night, They would destroy only until they
had enough. 10 "But I have stripped Esau bare,
I have uncovered his hiding places So that he will not be able to conceal
himself; His offspring has been destroyed along with his relatives And his
neighbors, and he is no more. 11 “Leave your orphans behind, I will keep them
alive; And let your widows trust in Me." 12 For thus says the LORD,
"Behold, those who were not sentenced to drink the cup will certainly
drink it, and are you the one who will be completely acquitted? You will not be
acquitted, but you will certainly drink it. 13
"For I have sworn by Myself," declares the LORD, "that
Bozrah will become an object of horror, a reproach, a ruin and a curse; and all
its cities will become perpetual ruins." 14 I have heard a message from
the LORD, And an envoy is sent among the nations, saying, "Gather
yourselves together and come against her, And rise up for battle!" 15 “For
behold, I have made you small among the nations, Despised among men. 16 “As for
the terror of you, The arrogance of your heart has deceived you, O you who live in the clefts of
the rock, Who
occupy the height of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as an
eagle’s, I will bring you down from there," declares the LORD. 17 “Edom
will become an object of horror; everyone who passes by it will be horrified
and will hiss at all its wounds. 18 “Like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah
with its neighbors," says the LORD, "no one will live there, nor will
a son of man reside in it. 19
"Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the
Jordan against a perennially watered pasture; for in an instant I will make him
run away from it, and whoever is chosen I shall appoint over it. For who is like Me, and who will
summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd who can stand against
Me?" 20 Therefore
hear the plan of the LORD which He has planned against Edom, and His purposes
which He has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely they will drag
them off, even the little ones of the flock; surely He will make their pasture
desolate because of them. 21 The earth has quaked at the noise of their
downfall. There is an outcry! The noise of it has been heard at the Red Sea.
22 Behold, He will mount up and swoop
like an eagle and spread out His wings against Bozrah; and the hearts of the
mighty men of Edom in that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor.”
The Edomites are were descended from Esau who was the
older brother of Jacob, but it was Jacob that received the blessings from the
Lord and it was Jacob who had the beginnings of the twelve tribes of Israel as
he had twelve sons. The Edomites did not
get along with the Jews, but they both had a common enemy which was
Babylon. According to Jeremiah 27:3 “and
send word to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of
Ammon, to the king of Tyre and to the king of Sidon by the messengers who come
to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah,” Edom was at the Jerusalem summit in
the days of Zedekiah to make plans to fight against Babylon.
The book of Obadiah is also written about the judgment
against Edom and it is uncertain when Obadiah was written, so Jeremiah may have
quoted from Obadiah or the other way around if Obadiah was written first.
The judgment of Edom was a very severe judgment as we see
it described like a harvest where nothing would be left for the gleaners (Jer.
49:10). It is Nebuchadnezzar who will
come upon Edom, but read the quote from Dr. Wiersbe “In the midst of wrath, the
Lord remembers mercy (Hab. 3:2 and shows compassion for the widows and orphans
(Jer. 49:11; see Ex. 22:21-24; 23:9; Lev. 1933; Deut. 10:18; 2719. But Edom’s pride would bring her low as pride
always does.” Hab. 3:2 says “LORD, I
have heard the report about You and I fear. O LORD, revive Your work in the
midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.”
Judgment on Syria [Damascus]: (Jeremiah 49:23-27): “23 Concerning Damascus. "Hamath and
Arpad are put to shame, For they have heard bad news; They are disheartened.
There is anxiety by the sea, It cannot be calmed. 24 “Damascus has become
helpless; She has turned away to flee, And panic has gripped her; Distress and
pangs have taken hold of her Like a woman in childbirth. 25 “How the city of
praise has not been deserted, The town of My joy! 26 “Therefore, her young men
will fall in her streets, And all the men of war will be silenced in that
day," declares the LORD of hosts. 27 “I will set fire to the wall of
Damascus, And it will devour the fortified towers of Ben-hadad."”
One only has to look at the TV sets or look on the
Internet or listen to the radio, or even read their newspapers to see that
there is great trouble in Syria, and especially in Damascus. A man that I greatly respect from his
writings and also from his stance on many different things that concern Israel
and the Bible was on TV a number of weeks ago talking about what is right now
going on in Syria and actually read these verses from Jeremiah on the air
stating that this could be the time when these verses come true. Damascus, from what I have heard, is the city
that has had people living in it the longest of any city in the world, and also
from what I heard has never been completely destroyed, so as we read from the
book of Jeremiah which was written a very long time ago we can see things going
on in Damascus that perhaps come be what Jeremiah wrote about.
1 The oracle concerning Damascus. "Behold, Damascus is about to be
removed from being a city And will become a fallen ruin. 2 “The cities
of Aroer are forsaken; They will be for flocks to lie down in, And there will
be no one to frighten them. 3 “The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And sovereignty from Damascus And the remnant of Aram; They will be like the
glory of the sons of Israel," Declares the LORD of hosts. 4 Now in that
day the glory of Jacob will fade, And the fatness of his flesh will become
lean. 5 It will be even like the reaper
gathering the standing grain, As his arm harvests the ears, Or it will be like
one gleaning ears of grain In the valley of Rephaim (Isaiah 17:1-5).” The entire 17th chapter of Isaiah
is about Syria and Damascus.
Dr. Wiersbe completes his writings on Syria by writing “This
message is brief, but it carries power.
How much does God have to say to convince people that His wrath is about
to fall?”
We will look at Kedar and Hazor along with Elam in our
next SD from Jeremiah.
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