Three nations surrounding Judah who are just as rebellious and lost as Judah is. Jeremiah speaks of how each of them will soon be conquered.
Egypt is south and slightly west of Judah. Moab is directly east, across the Dead Sea. Philistia, or Gaza, is to the west, along the Mediterranean Sea. So that covers the south, east and west….and north was Israel (the other 10 tribes) which has already been conquered by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Every one of these nations has lived in open rebellion to God for many years. It says here that Moab has never been conquered before. And they had been worshipping false Gods in Moab for generations.
Sin always catches up to us. You can’t ever “outrun” sin.
Rebellion wasn’t just a “Judah” problem. God cared about the way all the nations were living. Just as God cares about how His name is treated in every nation on earth today. No one, and no nation will escape answering for how they have treated the Name of Jesus Christ. In Moab, the state god was Chemosh, and he was the national diety for as long as anyone who was alive could remember. There were godly peole in Moab, but they were in smaller numbers. You remember Ruth and Naomi? Ruth came from Moab. She was probably a worshipper of Chemosh before she encountered Naomi and God. Egypt worshipped a variety of gods, Ra the sun god, as well as gods of the Nile, harvest gods, all sorts of idols and false gods were popular in Egypt. And, if you looks at the nation from a business standpoint, things were good. Profits were high in Egypt, and they had an army that would rival any other in the region.
Each of these nations were proud to the point of arrogance, and very involved in idol worship. They gave credit openly and lavishly to their fabrications for all the blessings that God poured out on them. Now God has pronounced judgment, and there is no escape.
Have you ever done something wrong and you weren’t discovered for it? In human terms we call that “getting away with it”. But in reality, no one “gets away with it”. You may sneak a peak at porn and then delete the history, or you may step outside your marriage vows while out of town…or you may pick up a few things that don’t belong to you while no one is watching…but don’t ever believe that you have “gotten away with it” because you haven’t. God knows what you did, and you have to answer for it. Unless of course, you repent and are forgiven.
A businessman quipped this verse to one time when I was complaining about the high price of his product “the bitter aftertaste of low quality remains long after the sweet taste of low cost has gone”. Sin tastes sweet now..no doubt. Our carnal nature wants to drink it in. But that sweetness will soon disappear and the bitter aftertaste of sin will be all that’s left.
Avoid the aftertaste, and say “no” to sin now. Serve the Lord, even when it’s not popular, or when it costs you something. You won’t ever regret it.
And you won’t ever find yourself the intended recipient of a letter such as the one Jeremiah just quoted off to Egypt, Gaza and Moab.
Faithfully,
PR