The Claim Staker

Jeremiah 49 & 50

I feel like I would probably change the order of these few chapters so that Jeremiah ends on a higher note. But that’s just my own preference, as if it were up to me. To end with restoration-talk and not destruction.  Renewal and new beginnings. 

These two chapters contain more prophesies against the nations. And yet, hope words about their restorations are also included. 

Ch 49:2 “Then Israel will drive out those who drove her out.  5 Everyone of you will be driven away and no will gather the fugitives. 6 Yet afterward I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites.” 

Even against Babylon, Judah’s mortal enemy.  God will send an enemy form the North (Persia) to destroy Babylon.   Part of me doesn’t understand how in one breath Babylon is God’s tool and servant and in the next breath is punished for the terrible deeds carried out; Tasks completed.

Ch 50: 18 “And I will punish Babylon and his land as I punished the King of Assyria.

19 But I will bring Israel back to his own pasture

And he will graze on Carmel and Bashan;

His appetite will be satisfied

On the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.”

Ch 50:4 “And Israel and Judah will turn to seek the LORD their God.

5 They will ask the way to Zion

And turn their faces toward it.

They will come and bind themselves to the LORD

In an everlasting covenant

That will not be forgotten.

6 My people have been lost sheep

Their shepherds have led them astray

And caused them to roam on the mountains.

They wandered over mountain and hill

And forgot their own resting place.

7 Whoever found them

Devoured them.

Their enemies said: ‘We are not guilty,

For they sinned against the LORD,

Their true pasture,

The LORD, the Hope of their fathers.’”

But I love the shepherd talk. The tone that sounds so familiar to the sheep who recognize the voice of their master.

And after being removed from the Promised Lan of their inheritance these lost and scattered sheep, who forgot their own resting place, are gathered by the LORD, their True Pasture.  

I love that image, of a people that loved their land and inheritance and put so much stock in their lineage where exiled from their country and scattered so very far from home.

So far and so alone in the wild world.

So very far from what they thought gave them value.

So far from what gave them their identity.

Finding themselves in a place where they were objects of scorn and ridicule.

This is the place where God called them.

Where they had lost everything that defined them.

Wandering in the wilderness without a hope and without a home.

This is where God calls them.

God staking His claim on them.

And I love that.

As if they had to lose everything in order to see that all God wants is their hearts and their souls. 

That He wants to fill their emptiness. 

And that gives so much hope for you and for me today.

Hope for our days of wandering in the wilderness. 

Ch 50:34 “Yet their Redeemer is strong;

The LORD Almighty is his name.

He will vigorously defend their cause

So that He may bring rest to their land.”