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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.
This is the message the Lord spoke to
Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to
attack Egypt:
“Announce this in Egypt, and proclaim it
in Migdol; proclaim it also in Memphis and Tahpanhes: ‘Take your positions and
get ready, for the sword devours those around you.’ Why will your warriors be
laid low? They cannot stand, for the Lord will push them down. They will
stumble repeatedly; they will fall over each other. They will say, ‘Get up, let
us go back to our own people and our native lands, away from the sword of the
oppressor.’ There they will exclaim, ‘Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is only a loud
noise; he has missed his opportunity.’”
“As surely as I live,” declares the King,
whose name is the Lord Almighty, “one will come who is like Tabor among the
mountains, like Carmel by the sea. Pack your belongings for exile, you who live
in Egypt, for Memphis will be laid waste and lie in ruins without inhabitant.”
“Egypt is a beautiful heifer, but a
gadfly is coming against her from the north. The mercenaries in her ranks are
like fattened calves. They too will turn and flee together, they will not stand
their ground, for the day of disaster is coming upon them, the time for them to
be punished. Egypt will hiss like a fleeing serpent as the enemy advances in
force; they will come against her with axes, like men who cut down trees. They
will chop down her forest,” declares the Lord, “dense though it be. They are
more numerous than locusts, they cannot be counted.”
“Daughter Egypt will be put to shame, given into the hands of the people of the north.” The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to bring punishment on Amon, god of Thebes, on Pharaoh, on Egypt and her gods and her kings, and on those who rely on Pharaoh. I will give them into the hands of those who want to kill them—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers.”
“Later, however, Egypt will be inhabited
as in times past,” declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 46:13-26
This ends today’s reading
from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Egypt had gone too far in their sinfulness against God.
How far gone were they?
So far gone that they did not even acknowledge God in their
worship practices, choosing to instead worship multiple gods in seeking
provision and protection in life. All this when they surely knew their history
and how God had sent judgment before on the nation when the Israelites were
being held and no set free as God commanded through Moses. Things did not go
well for their ancestors and as we see in looking at our scripture passage for
today, things were not going to go well for the Egyptians of Jeremiah’s time
either. Look at these verses from Jeremiah 46 as we continue looking at the
message God sent to the people of Egypt:
This
is the message the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to attack Egypt:
“Announce
this in Egypt, and proclaim it in Migdol; proclaim it also in Memphis and
Tahpanhes: ‘Take your positions and get ready, for the sword devours those
around you.’ Why will your warriors be laid low? They cannot stand, for the Lord
will push them down. They will stumble repeatedly; they will fall over each
other. They will say, ‘Get up, let us go back to our own people and our native
lands, away from the sword of the oppressor.’ There they will exclaim, ‘Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, is only a loud noise; he has missed his opportunity.’”
“As
surely as I live,” declares the King, whose name is the Lord Almighty, “one
will come who is like Tabor among the mountains, like Carmel by the sea. Pack
your belongings for exile, you who live in Egypt, for Memphis will be laid
waste and lie in ruins without inhabitant.”
“Egypt
is a beautiful heifer, but a gadfly is coming against her from the north. The
mercenaries in her ranks are like fattened calves. They too will turn and flee
together, they will not stand their ground, for the day of disaster is coming
upon them, the time for them to be punished. Egypt will hiss like a fleeing
serpent as the enemy advances in force; they will come against her with axes, like
men who cut down trees. They will chop down her forest,” declares the Lord, “dense
though it be. They are more numerous than locusts, they cannot be counted.”
“Daughter Egypt will be put to shame, given into the hands of the people of the north.” The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to bring punishment on Amon, god of Thebes, on Pharaoh, on Egypt and her gods and her kings, and on those who rely on Pharaoh. I will give them into the hands of those who want to kill them—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers.”
“Later,
however, Egypt will be inhabited as in times past,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 46:13-26
As the Lord speaks to Jeremiah, we learn
that Egypt is soon to suffer the same fate as Judah and Jerusalem, attacked by
Babylonian forces under the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar. No matter how
hard the soldiers of Egypt tried to defend their nation, it would all be for
not for the Lord, the true King had already determined their defeat. In fact,
we get the sense that Pharaoh has talked a good game as he rallied his forces
to fight against Babylon because in the end, he was seen as “only a loud noise”
who “missed his opportunity”.
In other words, the king of Egypt was no
match for the Lord God Almighty, the true King of kings and Lord of lords, a
King and Lord who always spoke words that came to be, a King and Lord who never
failed in any opportunity to see His will would be done.
The opportunity at hand was to send a
clear message to Egypt and any nation on the outside looking in at what was
happening.
What was the message?
Don’t dishonor and disregard the true
King of all.
Egypt became a poster child for what
would happen if you tried to challenge God. We read where the people would be
annihilated to the point where the land would have no inhabitants. As for the
land, it would be laid to waste and left in ruins. Once a great nation, Egypt
would be left just a former shell of itself once the Lord’s judgment ended, put
to shame by the true King it chose to abandon in exchange for gods like Amon and
other gods, gods that were nowhere to be found as the Babylonians devastated
the country and its people because those gods were non-existent.
The people of Egypt had placed their hope
in nothing in the end and their king had not done anything to urge them to do
differently. Thus, God’s punishment would fall on Pharaoh and all those who
relied on him.
God, the true King, was going to send a
message and let the Egyptians know that they pledged allegiance to the wrong
leader.
Fast forward to today and as we look at the United States,
an election year is in progress, a year when a new leader will be selected for
the nation. There is a ton of rhetoric that comes with this process and
everyone seems to have an opinion or viewpoint as to what direction the nation
needs to go in and who would be the right person to lead it there. But note one
thing that is unfortunately absent in the discussions you hear and read:
There is no mention about placing trust in the Lord God
Almighty, the true King, regarding who He thinks should lead the nation, the
person He has set aside to carry out His will and way. Perhaps if we just
placed our trust in God, we would make this whole process so much easier,
allowing Him to guide where we cast our vote to ensure the person elected is
the one who He desires to be in power.
If we would do this, we can be sure that God will bless the
leader and give them the wisdom to conduct the affairs of their office in
accordance with His will and way because that leader would have been the one
ordained and favored by Him. And a big part of the leader’s attitude toward
carrying out what God had asked them to do would be to submit fully to His desires
for the nation and not any self desires or desires of special interest groups.
In the end translation, what really counts for any nation is
that the nation places its hope and trust in the words of the true King, the
Lord God Almighty who was in full control in Jeremiah’s day and is still in
full control today. As we move closer and closer to electing another official,
let’s keep in mind that there have been many presidents but there has only been
one King through the ages, God, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
And He will ever reign over all His creation, now and
forever.
Can I get an amen to that?
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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