Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
There is ONE verse in Jeremiah that mentions 'desert' that isn't about judgment; I'm going to save it for next week and stay with the judgment theme while I'm there.
We have looked at judgment against Judah's people, leaders, priests, kings, neighbors who have forsaken God...over and over God has warned them of the consequences of disobedience; he even said he would use pagan nations to punish them.
But what of the nations that attacked God's people and ridiculed their God? Who thought that their triumph over the people of God was due to their own cleverness or strength and did not recognize that they were the willow switch in the hand of discipline?
We'll look at what Jeremiah has to say to them today. There are several nations mentioned in the closing chapters of Jeremiah...Phillistia, Phoenica, Edom, Ammon, and others that do not mention 'desert' in their prophecies. All of chapter 48 is dedicated to Moab, however, and there is a desert reference:
"Moab will be broken; her little ones will cry out. They go up the way to Luhith, weeping bitterly as they go; on the road down to Horonaim anguished cries over the destruction are heard. Flee! Run for your lives! Become like a bush in the desert. Since you trust in your deeds and riches, you too will be taken captive and Chemosh will go into exile, together with his priests and officials." Jer. 48:5-7.
Chapter 50 and the first half of 51 relate the judgment against Babylon, and there are a few verses here that mention 'desert':
"Because you rejoice and are glad, you who pillage my inheritance, because you frolic like a heifer threshing grain and neigh like stallions, your mother will be greatly ashamed; she who gave you birth will be disgraced. She will be the least of the nations -- a wilderness, a dry land, a desert. Because of the LORD's anger she will not be inhabited but will be completely desolate. All who pass Babylon will be horrified and scoff because of her wounds." -- Jer 50:11-13
"So desert creatures and hyenas will live there, and there the owl will dwell. It will never again be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation." - Jer. 50:39
"The sea will rise over Babylon; its roaring waves will cover her. Her towns will be desolate, a dry and desert land, a land where no one lives, through which no man travels." Jer 51:43
Moab was a nation that was under judgment from God from the time of the Exodus, because they, who were actually related to Israel through Abraham's nephew Lot, had not given aid to the nation of Israel when they came out of the wilderness, but instead hired Balaam to try to pronounce curses on them. But this judgment is something else..'you trust in your deeds and riches'. They believed they didn't need the God of Abraham...so they learned the hard way that what they could do and the wealth they could amass was not enough to maintain their independence and identity. No one knows, today, who is descended from Moab.
Babylon has suffered a similar fate. Oh, the archaeological ruins have been found, but the remnants of Babylon...anyone who can claim Babylonian heritage...are lost.
The worst fate anyone could suffer under the old covenant was to be 'cut off'...recorded as having no inheritance, no legacy, and no descendants. The heritage of those ancient civilizations has no sons or daughters who know who they are; only artifacts. The nationalities have mixed and blended and now there is no telling who is Bablyonian and who is Persian, or who is descended from Moab and who is descended from the Philistines. It's all lost, gone, destroyed, forgotten. It happened over a span of generations, but it happened. Judah was chastised...Bablyon was condemned.
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