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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Concerning Edom:
This is what the Lord Almighty says:
“Is there no longer wisdom in Teman? Has
counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom decayed?”
“Turn and flee, hide in deep caves, you
who live in Dedan, for I will bring disaster on Esau at the time when I punish
him. If grape pickers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes? If
thieves came during the night, would they not steal only as much as they
wanted? But I will strip Esau bare; I will uncover his hiding places, so that
he cannot conceal himself. His armed men are destroyed, also his allies and
neighbors, so there is no one to say, ‘Leave your fatherless children; I will
keep them alive. Your widows too can depend on me.’”
This is what the Lord says:
“If those who do not deserve to drink the
cup must drink it, why should you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished,
but must drink it. I swear by myself,” declares the Lord, “that Bozrah will
become a ruin and a curse, an object of horror and reproach; and all its towns
will be in ruins forever.”
“I have heard a message from the Lord; an
envoy was sent to the nations to say, ‘Assemble yourselves to attack it! Rise
up for battle!’”
Jeremiah 49:7-14
This ends today’s reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever experienced a serious lack of judgment in
something you have done?
Unless you’re the only perfect person in the world, I think
you have.
The truth of the matter is that we all make mistakes and
some of those mistakes come as a result of us failing to use or seek wisdom to
ensure we do what is right. We tend to want to do what we think is right when
it would have been more prudent to seek the view of someone else, particularly
someone who had some life experience and may be able to alert us to something
we have failed to consider when trying to make a decision.
We might turn to our parents or some other family member. We
might ask an older friend or colleague. We may sit down with the pastor of our
church to seek spiritual guidance.
All of these are options but none of them are the best
option, the option we can always use to guarantee we will get perfect direction
every time.
Of course, that option is the Lord God Almighty who will
never ever steer us the wrong way but He will always steer us away from going
the wrong way.
It’s true today and it was true back in the days of Jeremiah
as we continue our study his book, looking at chapter 49 and one of God’s
messages to the nation of Edom. Look at his words for today centered on a
country that lost a grip on wisdom:
Concerning
Edom:
This
is what the Lord Almighty says:
“Is
there no longer wisdom in Teman? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has
their wisdom decayed?”
“Turn
and flee, hide in deep caves, you who live in Dedan, for I will bring disaster
on Esau at the time when I punish him. If grape pickers came to you, would they
not leave a few grapes? If thieves came during the night, would they not steal
only as much as they wanted? But I will strip Esau bare; I will uncover his
hiding places, so that he cannot conceal himself. His armed men are destroyed, also
his allies and neighbors, so there is no one to say, ‘Leave your fatherless
children; I will keep them alive. Your widows too can depend on me.’”
This
is what the Lord says:
“If
those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, why should you go
unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but must drink it. I swear by myself,”
declares the Lord, “that Bozrah will become a ruin and a curse, an object of
horror and reproach; and all its towns will be in ruins forever.”
“I
have heard a message from the Lord; an envoy was sent to the nations to say, ‘Assemble
yourselves to attack it! Rise up for battle!’”
Jeremiah
49:7-14
Before we delve in too far here, we need to do a brief
review on Edom and its connection to the Israelites.
Go back to Isaac, Abraham’s son who would carry on his
birthright. You’ll recall that Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was pregnant with their
first children as she gave birth to two sons. The scriptures tell us the first
son emerged from the womb red and hairy and so they named him Esau (meaning
red). Esau was followed by another boy they would name Jacob who came from
Rebekah holding the heel of his twin brother. Thus given the birth order, Esau
would be the one who deserved to have the birthright and carry on the name and
authority of his father after his passing. It also meant an increased
inheritance over other siblings. Of interest and pertinent to our devotion today,
as the boys grew up, Jacob had prepared a red stew and his brother Esau took a
liking to it and so the scriptures tell us that he was also given the name Edom
(Genesis 25:24-30).
Well, if you know the Bible, you know how things played out
with these two sons. Isaac, up in years and nearly blind, sent his firstborn
son Esau to hunt some game and then prepare his father a dish to eat. All this
was heard by Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, who conspired with Jacob to take away the
birthright blessing from Esau. Rebekah conjured up a meal from some young goats
that Jacob brought her and then took the hairy skins of the goats on Jacob’s
arms so his father would really think he was Esau. The plan went off just as
Rebekah planned and Jacob, the younger son, took away the birthright from his
oldest brother (Genesis 27). All this fulfilled the Lord’s words to Rebekah
before she gave birth:
The Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be
separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve
the younger.” Genesis 25:23
And so it came to be. Jacob would go on and find his name
changed to Israel. He would bear twelve sons who would make up the twelve tribes
of Israel and inhabit the Promised Land of Canaan. The people of Israel would
be called Israelites.
Meanwhile, a bitter, resentful Esau went off and became the
father of his own nation, the nation of Edom, the people therein referred to as
the Edomites.
Of no surprise, the Edomites became constant enemies of the
Israelites, warring against them any chance they had until they were subdued
and subjugated by Israel’s King David, giving the Israelites free passage
through the country until the end of Solomon’s reign as king when the Edomites
revolted and regained their freedom. It was this generation of Edomites that
are being addressed by God in our scripture today.
What makes Edom interesting is that although they opposed
the Israelites, the country was focused on Yahweh as God in many circles. This
was unlike the other pagan nations God had addressed prior (Egypt, Philistia,
Moab, and Ammon) who had placed their full hope and trust in false gods. So
when God is asking them about losing their wisdom, we know He is alluding to
the fact that there were times when they did seek Him and follow His ways.
Unfortunately, they had abandoned Him in their thinking and actions, something
that put them in common with the other aforementioned nations who found
themselves in the crosshairs of God’s judgment.
And judgment was coming on Edom. The Lord leaves little
doubt about that as He tells of coming disaster on the nation and its people.
Edom was known for its geography and how it offered its people safe havens to
hide in times of trouble but when God’s punishment rained down on them, there
would be no place to escape it. In the end, the nation would become a “ruin and
a curse, an object of horror and reproach” with all its towns in ruins forever.
All because they chose to lose the wisdom of the Lord.
Ask yourself this:
How many times have I ended up falling into hardship or
difficulty because I failed to seek the Lord’s wisdom on the things I’ve done
in life?
If you’re really honest with yourself, I believe you will
see that it happened nearly every time you found yourself in the midst of touch
circumstances in life.
Friends, the Lord’s wisdom is always available to us. We can
find it in prayer. We can find it in His word. We can receive it through His
Holy Spirit. There’s no excuse for not seeking it and finding it.
Let us learn from the errors of the Edomites and commit
ourselves to never rely on our own understanding but rather trust In Him with
all our heart and mind and soul, submitting to Him fully so He can make our
paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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