As you open your copies of God’s word to Jeremiah 46, I want us to notice how this section of the book of Jeremiah begins. It simply reads, “The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations” (Jeremiah 46:1). The majority of the book of Jeremiah has been God’s gracious call to his people to listen to him through Jeremiah’s teaching. But there is something that people of God and the world should never forget. God is not a God who only rules over his own people. God rules over the earth. God rules over the nations. God rules over the earth’s leaders. We can sometimes come to the prophetic messages that are directed to the various nations in history’s past and want to skim or skip over what God proclaims. But God is giving the world an important reminder when we come to scriptures like these. The Lord rules over the whole earth and is actively involved in what happens in the world.
Jeremiah 46-50 are prophetic messages to the nations about their condition, about their actions, and about God’s righteous actions as he rules the world. There is a common reason for judgment against all of the nations. The problem that the Lord is going to identify in these nations is pride. Pride is the problem. You might remember that the apostle John wrote about the things that are in the world that are not from the Father are the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life (cf. 1 John 2:16). The pride of life is a wide umbrella to include everything we trust in that is not the Lord. But these chapters in Jeremiah are not going to come out and say that you are proud and therefore you will be judged. Rather, the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah is going to identify these nations are putting their trust in which reveals their pride. In our lesson we are going to look at the different areas where people put their hope and trust and show why these things are foolish so that we will not take pride in the same things.
The Pride of Egypt (Jeremiah 46:1-28)
Jeremiah 46 addresses the nation of Egypt after they had been defeated at Charchemish by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (cf. Jeremiah 46:2). Notice what God describes about Egypt in which they put their pride and their hope. The prophecy is about their armies and about their national power. Put on your helmets, sharpen your spears, and put on your armor! But you are going to running for your lives in terror (cf. Jeremiah 46:4-6). Now this is important to see. God describes the Egyptians’ military failure as God’s victory. When you read verse 10 it sounds like God’s armies were actually on the ground attacking and winning. Egypt falling to the Babylonians was not because the Babylonians were strong, smarter, or better. Jeremiah 46:10-13 show that this was God accomplishing his purposes. This is directly stated in verse 13. God is bringing Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt. But look at Jeremiah 46:15-16. “They do not stand because the Lord thrust them down. He made many stumble, and they fell.” (Jeremiah 46:15-16).
Egypt put their hope in their military might. They thought they were strong and would succeed because they had a powerful army. Egypt is like a beautiful heifer but the Babylonians are going to be like a biting fly (cf. Jeremiah 46:20). Just because you have physical strength and military might does not mean that you will win because the Lord is sovereign over the nations. God breaks human strength and national power. Friends, it does not matter the size of the army, how well trained those troops are, how many bombs they possess, or how many planes and tanks they can mobilize, God can still bring that nation down and destroy it. It was God’s will for the Babylonians to conquer the Egyptians and that is exactly what happened, regardless of how much power and strength the Egyptians had. We forget that God is sovereign over the nations and the nations are a drop in the bucket to him (cf. Isaiah 40:15). Listen to what God says about his power over rulers and nations:
He is the one who reduces rulers to nothing; he makes the earth’s leaders insignificant. Indeed, they are barely planted; yes, they are barely sown; yes, they barely take root in the earth, and then he blows on them, causing them to dry up, and the wind carries them away like straw. (Isaiah 40:23-24 NET)
Why would we take pride in a country or in a leader? Why would we hope in a country or leader? Why would we fear a country or a leader? The Lord is sovereign. The Lord rules. The numbers do not matter and the military might does not matter. God alone matters. Egypt is going to fall but God will save his own people (cf. Jeremiah 46:27-28). Even if God makes a full end of the nations, he will be with his people and he will deliver them. Our hope is not in this country. Our only hope is in the Lord. We need to really check ourselves if we only feel secure because we have a certain leader, or see peace in the world, or live in a particular place. Pride in our nation and in our leaders only means we have a small view of God.
The Pride of Philistia (Jeremiah 47:1-7)
Jeremiah 47 describes a national judgment against the Philistines. You will again notice that God describes himself destroying the Philistines, even though he would use a physical nation and physical army to do it (cf. Jeremiah 47:4,6,7). What was the hope and pride of the Philistines? Notice in verse 4 that the Lord says that he is going to cut off every helper that remains. The Philistines hope was that they had other helpers. For a nation, their other helpers would be other nations who they would have treaties with so that they were allies. So their hope was not in their own nation, like the Egyptians did. Rather, their hope was in other nations being their protection. They had other helpers who would rescue them if trouble came. But God says that he does not care if you have other helpers. God is going to remove all of the Philistines’ helpers and they will be destroyed.
Friends, we miss that the Lord is our only help (cf. Hebrews 13:5-6). In Psalm 121:1-2 we read the psalmist asking where his help will come from. He then answers the question by proclaiming that his help comes from the Lord. We are put in trials and hardships so that we will see that the Lord is our only help. No one can help but God alone. At the end of the day, there is truly nothing we can do for each other. We can sympathize. We can provide some comforting words. We can provide assistance to the level that human flesh can allow. But the real help is only from the Lord. This problem of pride by trusting in other helpers is magnified in the following chapters where the problem of pride is further condemned.
The Pride of Moab (Jeremiah 48:1-47)
Jeremiah 48 now turns the attention to the nation of Moab and its impending judgment. Why is Moab being judged? Look at verse 7. The reason for judgment is because they trusted in their works and in their riches. They are being judged because their pride was in what they could do and their prosperity they had. Then you see that Moab tied this to their military might (cf. Jeremiah 48:14). This is perhaps one of our greatest temptations to pride. We feel secure because we have so much saved in the bank. We feel secure because of the career we have. We feel secure because we have a retirement or because we have benefits. We feel secure because we own certain things. We feel secure because we can do certain things. We feel secure because of the wealth and freedom our country provides to us. Yet God is telling us that this is not our doing but by the grace of God. Listen to the words of verse 33. “Gladness and joy have been taken away from the fruitful land of Moab. I have made the wine cease from the winepresses; no one treads them with shouts of joy; the shouting is not shouts of joy.” God has turned their joy and prosperity into emptiness. Our wealth and prosperity as a nation is not because we are capitalist system or because we have a democracy or because we have a certain economic system with certain economic leaders. Our national prosperity is from the Lord. Our wealth and prosperity as individuals is not because of us but because of God. God at any time could cripple our country and destroy its prosperity so that there is more joy or gladness from our wealth. We are all one hospital trip away from economic ruin. We put so much of our security in the physical things we have rather than in the Lord who gave us these things. God says that he can show us he is in charge by taking them all away, trying to move people’s eyes back to him and away from their selfish pride. Look at Jeremiah 48:42. Moab will be destroyed because the people magnified themselves against the Lord. These are frightening words. So many nations and so many people exalt themselves over and against the Lord. Pride exalts self and God will destroy that pride.
The Pride of the Nations (Jeremiah 49:1-39)
Jeremiah 49 records a list of many other nations and why God will judge them. I do not have the time to spend a significant effort breaking down their sins. But it is important that we see where else pride lives so that we can uproot it from our lives. In Jeremiah 49:4 we see that the nation of Ammon trusted in their geography and in their wealth. They thought they would survive because of their defenses and wealth. But God says their end will come. How many Ammonites do you know about today?
In Jeremiah 49:7-22 the Lord turns his attention to the nation of Edom. The Edomites will be judged because they took pride in their wisdom (cf. Jeremiah 49:7). Teman was renown for its wisdom yet it would be destroyed. How many Edomites do you know about today?
In Jeremiah 49:23-27 the Lord condemns the city of Damascus. The famous city will no longer be famous (cf. 49:25). The Lord continues with Kedar, Hazor, and Elam to end Jeremiah 49. These nations show pride in their ease and security so that they became complacent and are destroyed (cf. Jeremiah 49:31).
Revealing Pride
What I want us to see in these chapters is that these words are the practical, real life truth that pride comes before the destruction (cf. Proverbs 16:18). Trusting in the wrong things does not honor God. Our pride is revealed when trouble comes. Our hopes and our idols are revealed when hardships arise. How easy it is to try to find our hope and security in military might and political power! How easy it is to try to find our hope and security in our helpers with which we surround ourselves! How easy it is to try to find our hope and security in our actions and in our wealth! How easy it is to try to find our hope and security in our wisdom and in our comfortable living! Yet these scriptures show that God will tear all of them down when we put our hope in them and do not see that each of them come from the Lord.
So how can we reveal pride? The answer is found by looking at what we grab on to when trouble comes. I hate amusement park rides that drop. As a dutiful father I took my kids on the Tower of Terror at Disney World many times. If you have been on that ride, you know that you sit on a long bench and a thin bar is lowered over the whole row. There is nothing over your shoulders. There is not an individual bar for your size. There is not a thick safety bar to hold you down. There is nothing but a thin metal bar across a row of six to eight people. So I grab that bar and wrap my arm around it. When we drop over and over again, I holding on to that bar for dear life. Now here is the thing: my holding on to the bar is not really doing anything. The physics are such that you won’t fly out. But I do not trust that. I hold on to that bar for dear life as a sense of false control and false security. Friends, when we hold on this country, hold on to our political leaders, hold on to our politics, hold on to our helpers, hold on to our wealth, hold on to our strength, hold on to our wisdom, and hold on to our ease, it is all false control and false security. We are holding on to something, wanting it to be our security, when it is not our security at all. We have to grab on to God when life falls. Everything else we grab for reveals the pride we have in our lives.