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The Scriptorium

Judgment on Moab (2)

It gets worse. Jeremiah 48.18-47

Judgment on the Nations (1): Jeremiah 46-48.17 (6)

Pray Psalm 83.1-3.
Do not keep silent, O God!
Do not hold Your peace,
And do not be still, O God!
For behold, Your enemies make a tumult;
And those who hate You have lifted up their head.
They have taken crafty counsel against Your people,
And consulted together against Your sheltered ones.

Sing Psalm 83.1-3.
(St. Chrysostom: We Have Not Known Thee As We Ought)
O God, do not be quiet now; do not be silent, nor be still!
See how Your foes erupt in a row and those who hate You chafe at Your will.
Shrewdly they plan, conspiring as one, against Your daughters and Your sons.

Read and meditate on Jeremiah 48.18-47.


Prepare.
1. The Lord mentions more than 25 places in Moab by name. Why?

2. Is there any hope for Moab?

Meditate.
It’s one thing for a teacher to denounce an unruly class as irresponsible, frivolous, and disrespectful. It’s another thing for that teacher to call out and condemn each student by name.

This is what God is doing in this lengthy passage. Having pronounced judgment against Moab for its misguided trust and treachery against Israel, in these verses, to make sure everyone in Moab gets the point, He calls out the cities of Moab by name. More than 25 different cities, encompassing the entire nation of Moab, are condemned to judgment by God.

And the denunciations are terrible. Waste, plunder, destruction, shame, captivity, and worse are prophesied against the rebellious cities of Moab. More specific reasons are given as well: The people of Moab exalted themselves against the Lord (vv. 26, 42); they derided the people of God in their distress (v. 27); they lived pridefully (v. 29); they offered sacrifices to idols (v. 35).

There will be no escape for the people of Moab. And as they mocked and derided Israel in her distress, so the nations will deride Moab as well, when Babylon brings it low (v. 39).

But the Lord holds out hope to the people of Moab. A day is coming when He will have mercy on them and return their captives. This will be in “the latter days”, when the Gentile nations stream up to the mountain of the Lord’s house to learn from and follow Him (Is. 2.1-6). When Jesus, God’s new temple, is raised up as the Chief of all mountains, then He will draw all nations unto Himself, Moab included.

Reflect.
1. Can we continue in sin and not expect God to exert discipline against us (Heb. 12.3-11)? Explain.

2. How can believers help one another to continue in the path of righteousness?

3. How do unbelievers today learn about Jesus and come to know Him?

We have stated why the Prophet describes so fully the ruin of the Moabites, and dwells so long on a subject in no way obscure; it was not indeed enough merely to teach and to show what was useful to be known, but it was also necessary to add goads, that the Jews might attend to these prophecies; nay, it was necessary to drive as it were with a hammer into their minds what would have been otherwise incredible; for they deemed it a fable that the Moabites could thus be broken, laid waste, and reduced to nothing. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Jeremiah 48.20

You have appointed me to be Your witness, Lord; help me to bear witness to You as I…

Pray Psalm 83.4-18.

Pray for the Church which is experiencing persecution, and for God to shame into repentance those who harass our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Sing Psalm 83.4-18.
Psalm 83.4-18 (St. Chrysostom: We Have Not Known Thee As We Ought)
“Come, let us wipe them out,” they say. “Let Israel’s name no more be heard!”
Bold they conspire to do us away, and covenant against You, O Lord.
Peoples and nations cast in their lot for this ambitious, wicked plot.

Deal with them, Lord, and bring them down, as You against old foes prevailed,
When You Midian cast to the ground and all her kings and princes assailed –
all who Your pastures sought to possess You brought to ruin and deep distress.

Make them like whirling dust, O God!  Scatter them like the windblown chaff!
Rage like a fire consuming a wood, like flames that burn a mountain pass!
Blow like a tempest, bring them to harm, and terrify them with Your storm!

Fill with dishonor every face that they may seek Your Name, O Lord.
Bring them to shame, dismay, and disgrace, and let them perish under Your Word,
that they may learn Your infinite worth, O God Most High of all the earth!

T. M. Moore

You can also now listen to a weekly summary of our daily Scriptorium study. Click here for Jeremiah 43-45. You can also download for free all the weekly studies in this series on the book of Jeremiah by clicking here.

Check out the special offer on our book The Church Captive. Are churches today captive like the people of Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day? Order your copy of The Church Captive and decide for yourself (click here).

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from Church Fathers from
Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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