Jeremiah was called to be “a prophet unto the nations,” and chapters 46 to 49 show what that meant. One after another, God speaks to the peoples around Judah: Egypt, the Philistines, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Damascus, the desert tribes of Kedar, and far-off Elam. These chapters are easy to skip. They are full of unfamiliar place names and hard words of judgment. But they answer an important question: is the God of Israel only Israel’s God? And hidden among the warnings are some of the most surprising promises of mercy in the whole book.
A study in Jeremiah 46-49 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 11 min read
A Prophet Unto The Nations
On the day God called him, He told Jeremiah: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (1:5). Most of the book has been about Judah. These four chapters remind us that God’s concern, and His authority, reach far beyond one small country. In chapter 25 Jeremiah was handed the cup of wrath to pass to “all the nations” (25:15). Here we read what each one was told.
Why is the list here at all? Partly as a warning: no nation is too great to be judged. Partly as comfort for God’s people: the powers that oppressed them would answer to God too. But mostly because it shows that the God of Israel is the Judge of all the earth. The nations did not worship Him, but they still belonged to Him. And that means His mercy could reach them as well.
Egypt At Carchemish
“Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh-necho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah.”
Jeremiah 46:2
The first message is dated to one of the turning points of ancient history. In 605 BC, at Carchemish on the Euphrates, Nebuchadnezzar crushed the army of Pharaoh Necho. Necho was the king who had killed good King Josiah a few years before. After Carchemish, Egypt was never again the great power it had been, and Babylon ruled the region. Jeremiah describes the proud Egyptian army marching out like the rising Nile, then turning and running (46:5-8).
“Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.”
Jeremiah 46:11
Egypt was famous for its doctors and medicines. But no medicine could heal a nation God had judged. Earlier Jeremiah had asked the same thing about his own people: “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” (8:22). The only cure for a sick nation, or a sick soul, is the Great Physician Himself.
“But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.”
Jeremiah 46:27
Right in the middle of the oracle against Egypt, God turns to speak to His own people, repeating the promise of chapter 30, which we studied in The Time Of Jacob’s Trouble. The Jews who had fled to Egypt might watch it fall. But God had not forgotten them. And even Egypt was given a ray of hope: “afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD” (46:26).
Settled On His Lees
After a short word against the Philistines (chapter 47), the longest message is for Moab, Israel’s neighbour across the Dead Sea. Moab’s sins were pride and self-trust: “thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures” (48:7), and “We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceeding proud)” (48:29).
“Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.”
Jeremiah 48:11
This is one of the most vivid pictures in the book. When wine was made, the sediment, or “lees,” sank to the bottom of the jar. A good winemaker would carefully pour the wine from one jar into another to leave the dregs behind. Wine that was never poured off kept a harsh taste. Moab had never been “emptied from vessel to vessel.” It had lived comfortably for centuries, never shaken, never humbled, and so it had never changed.
That is a searching word for comfortable believers. Ease can be more dangerous than hardship. People who are never shaken can settle into their old ways and never be refined. Ellen White applied this verse to church members who had settled comfortably together in one place instead of going out to work for others.
“‘Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed.’ Jeremiah 48:11. This is true of many of the believers who are coming to Battle Creek. Many have a spasmodic zeal in battle, but their light is like that of a meteor that flashes across the heavens and then goes out.”
Ellen G. White · Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, p. 150
One verse earlier stands another strong line: “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the LORD deceitfully” (48:10). In its setting it charged the army sent against Moab to finish its task. But the principle reaches every servant of God: His work deserves our honest, wholehearted best.
In The Clefts Of The Rock
“Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.”
Jeremiah 49:16
After Ammon (49:1-6) comes Edom, the nation descended from Jacob’s brother Esau. Edom lived in the rugged mountains south of the Dead Sea, with cities cut into rock and reached through narrow canyons, the region where the rock city of Petra later stood. Edom felt untouchable. But “the pride of thine heart” had “deceived” it. Jeremiah’s words here are very close to those of the prophet Obadiah: “The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock” (Obadiah 1:3). The study of Obadiah explores Edom’s story in full.
Edom was also famous for wisdom, and God asks: “Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent?” (49:7). Human cleverness and high walls are no protection against God. Pride is a fortress that always falls.
Let Thy Widows Trust In Me
“Leave thy fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.”
Jeremiah 49:11
In the middle of the judgment on Edom, one of Israel’s oldest enemies, God says something startling. The fighting men of Edom would fall. But their orphans and widows? God Himself would take care of them: “I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me.” Even in judgment, the God of Israel is the defender of the fatherless and the widow, whatever nation they come from. “For there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11).
The messages continue to Damascus in Syria (49:23-27), to the Arab tribes of Kedar and Hazor living in tents in the desert (49:28-33), and finally to Elam, far to the east, beyond Babylon (49:34-39). The circle of judgment kept widening, until it reached the edges of the known world.
In The Latter Days
“Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the LORD. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.”
Jeremiah 48:47
Here is the surprise hidden in these chapters. After all the judgments, God promises restoration to several of these nations. To Egypt: “afterward it shall be inhabited” (46:26). To Moab: “Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days.” To Ammon: “afterward I will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon” (49:6). And to Elam, the last and farthest: “But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD” (49:39).
God’s last word over the nations was not destruction. It was hope. Moab already had a place in God’s plan: Ruth, the great-grandmother of King David and an ancestor of Jesus, was a woman of Moab (Ruth 1:4). And Elam’s promise came true in a way Jeremiah could hardly have imagined. On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out in Jerusalem, among the crowd who heard the gospel in their own languages were “Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites” (Acts 2:9).
That is where these chapters finally lead. The God who judged the nations was preparing to gather them. Isaiah had seen it: “all nations shall flow unto it” (Isaiah 2:2). And John saw it fulfilled: “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands” (Revelation 7:9). Jeremiah was a prophet to the nations in judgment, and through Christ, God became the Saviour of the nations in mercy.
