Jeremiah
Chapters Forty-six through Fifty-one
Introduction
Throughout their history the Jews have been surrounded by enemies that looked for every opportunity to oppose and oppress her. Chapters forty-six through fifty-one of Jeremiah list ten of those enemies: Egypt, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, Hazor, Elam, and Babylon. These chapters are a prophecy concerning those nations.
These chapters are also a picture for us. These actual, historical nations that were the enemies of God's Old Testament people are also types of the spiritual enemies of God's people in every age.
What are those spiritual enemies? You know them; there are three - the world, the flesh, and the devil. These ten nations that were enemies of Israel are typical of your three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil:
The Jews were surrounded by enemies that oppressed and opposed them; through prophecy, God showed the Jews He would end the reign of their enemies over them.
You are "surrounded," in a sense, by enemies that oppress and oppose you; through pictures, God shows you that He has ended the reign of your enemies over you!
There are 603 verses in these six chapters. We are going to look at selected verses in each chapter that will give us both the prophecy and the picture of the end of the reign of these enemies.
The World...
We begin with Egypt and Philistia in chapters forty-six and forty-seven.
Jeremiah 46:1 The word of the LORD which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the nations.
Jeremiah 46:2 Against Egypt. Concerning the army of Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, which was by the River Euphrates in Carchemish, and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
This takes us back to the year 605 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar first came up against Judah. He was met by the armies of Egypt at the city of Carchemish on the Euphrates River, and there one of the great strategic battles of all history was fought. Until then, Egypt had been the most powerful nation of the day, but Babylon broke the power of Egypt at Carchemish. Jeremiah is describing that battle in advance - the approach of the Babylonian army, the clash of these conflicting forces, the terrible battle that ensued, and the defeat of Egypt.
Verses seven and eight use the imagery of the swelling of the Nile River to describe Egypt's desire for world conquest:
Jeremiah 46:7 "Who is this coming up like a flood, Whose waters move like the rivers?
Jeremiah 46:8 Egypt rises up like a flood, And its waters move like the rivers; And he says, 'I will go up and cover the earth, I will destroy the city and its inhabitants.'
It is the Lord, though, who appoints the rising and falling of nations:
Jeremiah 46:13 The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon would come and strike the land of Egypt.
Jeremiah 46:14 "Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol; Proclaim in Noph and in Tahpanhes; Say, 'Stand fast and prepare yourselves, For the sword devours all around you.'
Jeremiah 46:15 Why are your valiant men swept away? They did not stand Because the LORD drove them away.
Jeremiah 46:16 He made many fall; Yes, one fell upon another. And they said, 'Arise! Let us go back to our own people And to the land of our nativity From the oppressing sword.'
Jeremiah 46:17 They cried there, 'Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise. He has passed by the appointed time!'
Egypt was the place of tyranny and bondage, where the Jews were under the yoke of a wicked ruler who enslaved them and treated them cruelly. Yet strangely enough, after they were delivered by the power of God, it was the place they always fondly remembered and wanted to return to!
In the Scriptures, Egypt is a picture of the world and its influence on us as believers. In exactly the same way the Jews fondly remembered and wanted to return to Egypt, so believers often fondly remember and want to return to the world. You were wonderfully and powerfully delivered from its bondage, and from the tyranny of its ruler... But so often the believer has fond memories of its pleasures and comforts and desires to return there... Other believers were never in "Egypt," but desire to turn to it...
The prophecy of Philistia comes to you in chapter forty-seven:
Jeremiah 47:1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza.
Jeremiah 47:2 Thus says the LORD: "Behold, waters rise out of the north, And shall be an overflowing flood; They shall overflow the land and all that is in it, The city and those who dwell within; Then the men shall cry, And all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.
Jeremiah 47:3 At the noise of the stamping hooves of his strong horses, At the rushing of his chariots, At the rumbling of his wheels, The fathers will not look back for their children, Lacking courage,
Jeremiah 47:4 Because of the day that comes to plunder all the Philistines, To cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains; For the LORD shall plunder the Philistines, The remnant of the country of Caphtor.
Jeremiah 47:5 Baldness has come upon Gaza, Ashkelon is cut off With the remnant of their valley. How long will you cut yourself?
Jeremiah 47:6 "O you sword of the LORD, How long until you are quiet? Put yourself up into your scabbard, Rest and be still!
Jeremiah 47:7 How can it be quiet, Seeing the LORD has given it a charge Against Ashkelon and against the seashore? There He has appointed it."
Philistia occupied the coastal plains of Judah and was a perpetual antagonist throughout the history of Israel. Here Jeremiah pictures the Babylonians as waters that were rising in the north, about to become an overflowing torrent that would sweep away the Philistines. They would be caught in the middle of the struggle between Egypt and Babylon and be destroyed.
Many scholars feel that the Philistines originally came from Egypt. At any rate, we can see them as another picture of the world as the enemy of the believer. The Philistines lived right on the border between Egypt and Israel. They represent a believer who seeks to live on a spiritual border - between compromising with the world and the committed walk of a believer. It's a place many Christians try to call their home...
The world is your enemy. The Apostle James said that "...friendship with the world is enmity with God... Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." Before you were a Christian you "walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience..."
Just as God showed the Jews that the rule of Egypt and Philistia over them would end, He has shown you that the rule of the world over you has ended! The Apostle Peter said,
2 Peter 1:3 ...His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
2 Peter 1:4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
You have "escaped the corruption that is in the world." How did you escape this enemy that is still all around you? Two passages penned by the Apostle Paul tell you how you escaped:
Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Colossians 2:20 ...you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world...
On the cross Jesus defeated the world and its influence over you. The reign of the world over you has ended. You are in the world, but you need not be influenced by the world.
Don't look fondly upon the world - whether to return or to turn there. And don't try to live on the border. The Old Testament character, Lot, tried to live on the border between God's promises and the world. He ended up wasting his life and testimony under the influence of Sodom and Gomorrah, and was barely saved from its destruction.
The Flesh...
Six nations are discussed in chapters forty-eight and forty-nine: Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, and Hazor. They are all somehow related to Israel. For example, Edom is the nation descended from Esau, the son of Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob's twin brother. The typological link is that they picture for you what the Bible calls the flesh - that part of your nature which is inherent in you, to which you are still "related" as a believer. As these nations were related to, but enemies of, the Jew, so your flesh is related to you but is your enemy - the enemy within you.
Look at Moab and Ammon. These were the sons of Lot by his own daughters. In the terrible story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, when Lot and his daughters fled from the city, you are told that later they got him drunk so that he would lie with them and they could conceive by him. This is all a graphic depiction of the flesh - impulsive, irrepressible, and immoral - that each and every believer continues to struggle against in the war within.
The nation that descended from Moab was confident, complacent, and conceited. In verse eleven of chapter forty-eight you read,
Jeremiah 48:11 "Moab has been at ease from his youth; He has settled on his dregs, And has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, Nor has he gone into captivity. Therefore his taste remained in him, And his scent has not changed.
Confidence...Complacency...Conceit. But God said in verse twelve,
Jeremiah 48:12 "Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I shall send him wine-workers Who will tip him over And empty his vessels And break the bottles.
The reason for God's judgment is given in verses twenty-nine and thirty:
Jeremiah 48:29 "We have heard the pride of Moab (He is exceedingly proud), Of his loftiness and arrogance and pride, And of the haughtiness of his heart."
Jeremiah 48:30 "I know his wrath," says the LORD, "But it is not right; His lies have made nothing right.
So your old nature, your flesh, is exceedingly proud within you, with arrogance and pride and haughtiness.
The people descended from Ammon were like the Moabites with one addition: They were more warlike and aggressive. The King of Ammon, you remember, had commissioned the death of Governor Gedeliah of Judah back in Jeremiah chapter forty. The end of Ammon is prophesied in chapter forty-nine. You read in verse two,
Jeremiah 49:2 Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will cause to be heard an alarm of war In Rabbah of the Ammonites; It shall be a desolate mound, And her villages shall be burned with fire. Then Israel shall take possession of his inheritance," says the LORD.
The aggression of Ammon pictures the warfare of the flesh against the Spirit...
The complete destruction of Edom is prophesied:
Jeremiah 49:8 Flee, turn back, dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Dedan! For I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, The time that I will punish him.
Jeremiah 49:9 If grape-gatherers came to you, Would they not leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves by night, Would they not destroy until they have enough?
Jeremiah 49:10 But I have made Esau bare; I have uncovered his secret places, And he shall not be able to hide himself. His descendants are plundered, His brethren and his neighbors, And he is no more.
The Edomites were descended from Esau who, you remember, was a man dominated by his flesh and who is most remembered for selling his spiritual birthright for a bowl of soup. In the book of Hebrews Esau is called "profane."
Damascus, Kedar, and Hazor fit into this same category - proud, restless oppressors whom God judged:
Jeremiah 49:23 Against Damascus. "Hamath and Arpad are shamed, For they have heard bad news. They are fainthearted; There is trouble on the sea; It cannot be quiet.
Jeremiah 49:24 Damascus has grown feeble; She turns to flee, And fear has seized her. Anguish and sorrows have taken her like a woman in labor.
Jeremiah 49:25 Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of My joy?
Jeremiah 49:26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, And all the men of war shall be cut off in that day," says the LORD of hosts.
Jeremiah 49:27 "I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, And it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad."
Jeremiah 49:28 Against Kedar and against the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon shall strike. Thus says the LORD: "Arise, go up to Kedar, And devastate the men of the East!
Jeremiah 49:29 Their tents and their flocks they shall take away. They shall take for themselves their curtains, All their vessels and their camels; And they shall cry out to them, 'Fear is on every side!'
Jeremiah 49:30 "Flee, get far away! Dwell in the depths, O inhabitants of Hazor!" says the LORD. "For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, And has conceived a plan against you.
Jeremiah 49:31 "Arise, go up to the wealthy nation that dwells securely," says the LORD, "Which has neither gates nor bars, Dwelling alone.
Jeremiah 49:32 Their camels shall be for booty, And the multitude of their cattle for plunder. I will scatter to all winds those in the farthest corners, And I will bring their calamity from all its sides," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 49:33 "Hazor shall be a dwelling for jackals, a desolation forever; No one shall reside there, Nor son of man dwell in it."
Just as God showed the Jews that the rule of Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, Kedar, and Hazor over them would end, He has shown you that the rule of the flesh over you has ended! In Galatians 5:24 you are told that "...those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires."
It is a spiritual fact that your flesh has been crucified. It remains as an enemy within, but you can act upon the fact of its crucifixion. Through a living, personal relationship with God through Jesus, you can by faith act on the fact that your flesh need no longer reign and have dominion over you.
The reign of your flesh ended at the cross. Appreciate it; appropriate it; apply it.
The Devil...
The world, the flesh...and the devil are your enemies. Elam and Babylon, the next and last two nations mentioned, are typical of the devil.
Look at Elam in verses thirty-four and thirty-five of chapter forty-nine:
Jeremiah 49:34 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,
Jeremiah 49:35 "Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, The foremost of their might.
Elam is characterized by a bow. With a bow you can strike and injure secretly from a distance. The Bible characterizes the devil's assaults on you as "the fiery darts of the wicked one," as if the devil were a bowmen secretly shooting you from a distance.
Chapters fifty and fifty-one are devoted to the destruction and overthrow of Babylon. It was at ancient Babel that men erected a tower in order to ascend to the heavens. It reminds you of the Bible's description of Lucifer, who desired to ascend to the throne of God, and in so doing fell to become the devil. Babylon typifies the devil in his rebellion against God, in his desire to ascend to the throne of God.
Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians. Jeremiah prophesied the end of the reign of Babylon, saying in verses eleven and twenty-eight of chapter fifty-one,
Jeremiah 51:11 Make the arrows bright! Gather the shields! The LORD has raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes. For His plan is against Babylon to destroy it, Because it is the vengeance of the LORD, The vengeance for His temple.
Jeremiah 51:28 Prepare against her the nations, With the kings of the Medes, Its governors and all its rulers, All the land of his dominion.
Twice in chapter fifty-one, in verses thirty-nine and fifty-seven, God speaks of making Babylon "drunk." How interesting that it was during Belshazzar's drunken feast that the Medo-Persian army came under the walls of Babylon, along the course of the damned-up Euphrates River, to conquer the city. Look at verses fifty-seven and fifty-eight of chapter fifty-one:
Jeremiah 51:57 "And I will make drunk Her princes and wise men, Her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep And not awake," says the King, Whose name is the LORD of hosts.
Jeremiah 51:58 Thus says the LORD of hosts: "The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, And her high gates shall be burned with fire; The people will labor in vain, And the nations, because of the fire; And they shall be weary."
The end of Babylon is compared to a stone sinking into a river:
Jeremiah 51:59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And Seraiah was the quartermaster.
Jeremiah 51:60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.
Jeremiah 51:61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you arrive in Babylon and see it, and read all these words,
Jeremiah 51:62 "then you shall say, 'O LORD, You have spoken against this place to cut it off, so that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but it shall be desolate forever.'
Jeremiah 51:63 "Now it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the Euphrates.
Jeremiah 51:64 "Then you shall say, 'Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her. And they shall be weary.' " Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
Again it is interesting to compare the end of Babylon to the end of the devil. He sinks! He will be chained and cast into a bottomless pit during the Lord's one thousand year reign on the earth. Then, at the end of the thousand years, the devil will lead one final rebellion before being cast into the lake of fire and brimstone for all eternity.
God has already ended the reign of the devil as an enemy over you. The devil has been defeated by Jesus, but not yet delivered to his final destiny. We live between the devil's defeat and his final destiny. During this time he is alive and well and loose on planet earth. The Apostle Paul calls him "the god of this world." The Apostle Peter describes his activities as "...a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour." James, John, and Jude all speak of his continuing opposition to Christ and to Christians. Unbelievers are said to be "...taken captive by him to do his will."
What we need is a biblical strategy to defy the devil and to deliver those held captive by him. In the third chapter of Mark Jesus tells the parable of the strong man and his house. The devil is the strong man, and his house is the world in which we live. It is the realm of sin and sickness, of disease, demons and death. The strong man's possessions are the people who are held captive by the devil. Jesus has bound the strong man and plundered his possessions; he has defeated the devil, making it possible for those held captive to be set free.
This matter of "binding" the devil comes up in prayer and in preaching. The Bible says that the devil was bound, and that he will be bound! He was bound by Jesus in His earthly ministry; an angel from heaven will bind him after the Great Tribulation. Should we pray that he be bound today?
I think of the devil more in terms of boundaries than of binding! God has chosen, for His eternal purposes, to allow the devil to go on opposing the kingdom of heaven. God, though, sets clear boundaries, past which the devil cannot go. I see the devil as bound within God's boundaries. I have no need to bind the devil since he is already bound by God's boundaries.
The devil is defeated. You have been set free, and are called to help set others free.
Conclusion
You are surrounded, both within and without, by enemies that seek to oppress and oppose you. All of your enemies have already been defeated by Jesus at the cross! God ended their reign over you at Calvary:
The reign of the world over you has ended...
Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
The reign of the flesh over you has ended...
Galatians 5:24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
The reign of the devil over you has ended...
Colossians 2:15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, [Jesus] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in [the cross].
Crucifixion is one form of death you cannot accomplish on your own. You cannot crucify yourself! Nothing you can do to or for yourself can crucify you to the world, the flesh, or the devil. This is why religion, with its rules, rites, and rituals, can never overcome the world, the flesh, or the devil. God must do it for you on the Cross.
He has! If you have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, then the devil cannot use the world to influence you or your flesh to entice you. You can still give in to these things, but you don't have to.
If you don't have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, you can. On the cross Jesus was crucified for you, to set you free from the world around you, your flesh within you, and the devil against you.