Moab
Moab is a land that lies east of the Dead Sea. Edom is its southern neighbor. Ammon is its neighbor to the north. There is a fair amount of similarity between
this chapter in Jeremiah and Isaiah 16:6-12
Specific Cities
All throughout this chapter Jeremiah lists specific cities that
will be overthrown by the Babylonians. This
serves a very specific purpose. This
makes the prophecy personal and directed.
Jeremiah had years of experience telling the people of Judah that the
Lord was going to come against them if they did not repent. The people of Judah had years of experience
saying, “Not us, we don’t believe you.”
These were people who knew Jeremiah and supposedly also knew Jeremiah’s
God. They were supposed to care, but
didn’t.
On the other hand, The Moabites wouldn’t have particularly known
Jeremiah and they certainly wouldn’t have cared about Jeremiah’s God. So in order to get them to think about the
words, Jeremiah includes references to specific cities. Jeremiah points out those individual cities
that will mourn as the Babylonians come through the land. Jeremiah is just trying to get people’s
attention.
Isn’t this true about human beings? When someone comes around with blessings,
everyone wants to hear. Everyone assumes
that the blessing is for them. But when
someone comes around with a warning, nobody wants to listen. Everyone assumes that the warning is for
someone else. How interesting it is that
human beings naturally hear the best and become deaf to the worst when in
reality we would be prudent to have it be the other way around!
Idolatry
God makes it clear through Jeremiah that the reason for the
judgment is idolatry. The Moabites had
plenty of time to inquire about the Lord of the Hebrew people – Creator of the
universe – and build a relationship with Him.
But instead they worshipped Chemoth, their own national god. Like human beings everywhere they worshipped
the works of their own hands and the idols of their own creating. They were self-mongers to the absolute core.
As I wrote this, I began to have an internal debate about what many
Christians try and do when they come upon a culture that has not heard of
God. They try to look at the culture and
identify where God is already present. {Most recently I heard this through a
discussion of the Great White Spirit among native American Indian tribes –
especially the Cherokee.} Many
Christians try to find God in the already present cultural expressions. This is all well and good, we see Paul do
this frequently in the New Testament as he goes about the Roman Empire
establishing churches.
However, at some point the worship of the culture expression must
stop. At some point the worship of God
must begin. God has indeed hidden
Himself all throughout creation and people who do not know God will find Him
subtly and in a way that they cannot know Him.
But when the truth comes, the relationship with the unknown must stop in
favor of the relationship with the known!
This is the error of the Moabites.
Prior to Abraham – and especially prior to Joshua – the Moabites would
have never heard about God. So they
would have worshipped whatever they found in creation that drew them to
God. But when the Hebrew people are
brought by God out of Egypt, the Moabites had every opportunity to develop this
relationship with God. They don’t. They continue to worship their own creations
and their own perceptions. This
stubbornness is why they are going to be judged and put under the yoke of the
Babylonians.
Complacency
God also makes it clear that Moab’s complacency is reason for
judgment. They had never been taken into
captivity. They had never been
oppressed. They had never been
subjugated. They took pride in this. It had made them complacent.
It had made them arrogant.
They assumed that they were better than others. The Moabites grew in an unhealthy pride. It was time for them to face judgment and
experience a little humbleness before God.
This is another dynamic that I loathe about human nature. Complacency is addictive. We all seek that time and that place where
the work is done, we feel like champions, and we can just sit back and
relax. After all, isn’t that what
retirement means in the American Dream?
Are we not all longing for that time in our life when we’ve made enough
that we can just kick back and “enjoy life?”
Is that not synonymous with “Look at how I’ve provided for myself?” Is that not really what one of God’s major
problems with Moab is in this chapter?
Their complacency has drawn them into pride and arrogance.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m
not saying it is wrong to be successful.
I’m also not saying it is wrong to save up and “retire.” What I am saying is that it is wrong to do
those things so that we can become complacent.
Our work on this world is never done.
God has always called us to do something in this life. To become complacent about what we could be
doing with and for God is tragic.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment