He Humbles the Proud

So in Jeremiah 49, you actually just brought up a really good question, right? So Jeremiah isn't written linearly, like chronologically wise. And so you're right that when we had looked at Jeremiah chapter 43, he had been taken against his will to Egypt. But now we're at a different section in Jeremiah where he's pronouncing woes on the different nations. But I thought Jeremiah got kidnapped and taken to Egypt. Yeah, he was taken against his will.
Okay, so we're at Jeremiah chapter 49, and he has already pronounced woes against Moab, and he's pronounced woes against the nation of Amnon. Now it's against Edom. Oh yeah, you can have your coffee.
So, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at Jeremiah chapter 49. We're going to look at verses 7 through 22, and we're going to find out what he says about Edom. So let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll get into God's word.
All right. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. And we pray God that you would please help us to understand your word. Please bury it in our hearts. Please teach us to follow after you. Please be our instructor. You indeed are the one who gives us your word for a reason. And so we pray that we would be affected by your word, not just hearers, but that we would actually listen to it, and that you would bury it in our hearts and teach us to practice it in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, Jeremiah chapter 49, and we'll just kind of go back and forth with reading and talking about it, okay? Here we go.
Against Edom, thus says the Lord of Hosts. So Edom is that nation kind of to the south of Judah. So not quite to Egypt, but to the south and a little bit to the east. That's the general area of Edom.
Against Edom, thus says the Lord of Hosts. Is wisdom more in temen Is wisdom no more, Antimon? Has counsel perished from the prudent? Has their wisdom vanished? 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. If grape-gatherers come to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves by night, would they not destroy until they have enough? 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. Leave your fatherless children. I will preserve them alive. And let your widows trust in me."
All right, so what's that talking about there? God is going to, God is gonna judge Edom and yeah. Yeah, so notice he's in verse 8, "...for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him." And then verse 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." Right, so he's saying, right, like, trust me. Trust me, this is gonna happen, you descendants of Esau.
Alright, so go ahead and read verse 12 through 14. For thus saith the Lord, Behold, those whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And are you the one who will altogether go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink of it. For I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Basra shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse, and all its cities will be perpetual wastes. You read verse 14, too. Yeah. I have heard a message from the Lord and an ambassador has been sent to the nation. Nations gather together and come against her and rise up to battle.
OK, so what's that say? God's gonna punish, you know. Yeah, he talks about drinking the cup of judgment, right? I'll read 15 and 16, and then you'll do 17 and 18. We'll keep going like that.
For indeed, I will make you small among nations, despised among men. Your fierceness has deceived you, the pride of your heart. You who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold to the height of the hill, though you make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says Jehovah.
So what's he saying there? Um, Edom deceived itself and God's gonna take down its pride. Well, yeah, kind of right, but this is an area that geographically they were people of like rocky cliff type places. So even if you're like an eagle, like some type of bird that makes their nest really high up in the rocky places and you're safe because of your height, Now the Lord's going to bring you down from there. Don't deceive yourself with your rocky fortresses.
You want to read 17 and 18?
Edom also shall be an astonishment. Everyone who goes by it shall be astonished, and will hiss at all its plagues. As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors, says the Lord, no one shall remain there, nor shall a son of man dwell in it.
Oh boy, what's he say is going to happen to Edom? It's going to be like Sodom and Gomorrah. Yeah, but people are going to be astonished at it, right? Twice it says that in 17. Edom also shall be an astonishment. Everyone who goes by it will be astonished. By astonished, what do you think it means there? Like, whoa, such a great city and it's all gone. You believe God judged Edom like that? They had like these rocky palaces high up in the cliffs, safe and strong. And now, man, it's like destruction like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the floodplain of the Jordan, against the dwelling place of the strong. But I will suddenly make him run away from her. And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her? For who is like me? Who will arraign me? And who is the shepherd who will withstand me?
So what is, what is it talking about here, this lion coming up from the flood plain of the Jordan? I don't know, David? It's talking about God himself being like a lion, right? Coming and judging and devouring them. And the shepherd, are they supposed to protect the sheep against lions? Yeah, but here, can anybody, can any shepherd withstand a lion himself? No.
All right, you want to finish this off, 2322?
Therefore, hear the counsel of the Lord that he has taken against Edom, and his purposes that he has proposed against the inhabitants of Temin. Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out. Surely he shall make their dwelling places desolate with them. The earth shakes at the noise of their fall. At the cry, its noise is heard at the Red Sea. Behold, he shall come up and fly like the eagle and spread his wings over Basra. The heart of the mighty man of Edom in that day shall be like the heart of a woman in birth pains.
Okay, what's that saying? Notice verse 22 let's start there What he's what God compares himself like an equal and what's this equal doing? He's Putting terror into the hearts of You know Yeah, right. He's He's coming. You've seen the eagles here, right when in the winter time when they show up around here Are they coming and and are they like birds that you would want to come near you if you were an animal? No, it's gonna frighten you right because eagles snatch up kittens They'll take small animals. They'll kill Maybe an eagle may have come and taken them.
And so he's saying, that's like the counsel of the Lord. He's going to swiftly come, draw them out of the flock, snatch them up. They thought that they were strong like eagles up in their rocky clefts. And he's saying, no, no, no. I'm going to come like the eagle and snatch you up like little birds out of the flock. That's what the Lord is comparing himself to. This is his counsel. In himself, he knew that this was going to happen.
It's a very happy passage if you're an Edomite, right? Oh good, God has a word for us. This is a hard word, huh? So what's this whole section about if you were to put it in your own words? Keep it open. The destruction of Edom. Alright, God's judgment or destruction of Edom, good. What do you think is your favorite verse to summarize this? Not just your favorite passage in this, but what do you think, what verse summarizes this best in your mind?
Probably 21. 21, okay. Yeah, I like the image of verse 19, and yet I think probably better in my mind would be 17 and 18 and 20, but then I think 12 and 13 also summarize it as well. I think there's just very clear things the Lord is saying in those verses, so maybe I would underline any one of those kind of groups.
Okay, now comes the part where we gotta apply this to ourselves. So we've done A, what's this about? We've talked about B, the best verse to summarize this. Now let's talk about C, calling. What are we called to do? How does this point us to Jesus Christ?
Hmm That the Lord is powerful Yeah, I think that's a good application But what does that change in you? I was I call you to do think feel etc. I and point you to Jesus Christ. You're not supposed to do whatever you want because God's powerful. Okay, yeah, we can't do whatever we want because God is powerful. I think that's a good attitude to have, right? Change our attitude about God.
If we think that we're strong, that somehow we're the mighty ones, recognizing that He's like the strong lion that can come out and destroy. He's like the one, the eagle who can swoop down. He's the one who can, we think we're up in our high lofty places. He's able to make us an astonishment in a bad way. Yeah, that can change our attitude. So the word for that is you should be in servile fear to the Lord. No? Isn't that what you just talked about? So what application are you trying to get at then?
that we should be awestruck by him, not like scared. Yeah, I think that's good. Yeah, right? There's a difference between a reverent fear, like knowing that our God is that powerful and strong, and yet the Lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ himself, though he is powerful and he will come to judge someday he is also the one who's our king and so he's fierce enough to judge the nations he's also fierce enough to protect us and so i think what happens for us is it's not the servile fear of trembling in the sense that like oh he can destroy us at any moment but it's we should be those who are destroyed and yet He has protective love for us. But maybe if somebody's watching who isn't a Christian, maybe for them it's recognizing that this judgment is a foreshadowing of the ultimate judgment that's going to come. And so for us who are in Christ, we can know we're in Him. And we're going to have a respectful reverence.
But do you think the Christian has to, oh no, oh no, am I in Christ? Am I going to face God in His trembling anger? No. No, right? Because there's hope in Him. If we tremble before Him, it shows that we actually know Him. So we don't need to let our assurance go out the window. We can say, no, no, I fear the Lord. And I know He's my only hope, even against His judgment. That's why He sent Jesus. You can't think that or believe that if the Spirit's not in you. That's what Paul was getting at. No one can say, Lord, Lord, unless the Spirit has given him that.
So are you ready to be done? Yeah, your body posture's telling me, yo, bro, dad, I'm done. I wanna go do schoolwork. You ready to pray? All right.
Lord, we thank you so much for sending us your son, Jesus Christ. And Father, we pray that you would please let us stand before you with reverent awe. And Father, we pray that we would know that you are not some trinket or toy to be messed with, but you are the Lord God Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, the one who will come to judge the living and the dead. And so, Father, please, let us find peace in you. In Jesus's name, amen.
Well, may you be protected by the lion, the lion of the tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ himself. May you have hope before him. And we'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.