Bible Lessons: Jeremiah 47, 48

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THE Philistines, perpetual enemies of Israel, are next singled out for an announcement of overwhelming disaster. Chapter 47 is a fresh example of the divinely chosen order in the book of Jeremiah, for what is here recorded bongs, in time of utterance, to a period early in the prophet’s service for God. It is given thus late in the book that all the judgments may be stated in a single group, beginning with Judah, and in turn including each of her neighbors and finally Babylon itself, the first Gentile empire to which all the others were subjected.
Pharaoh was to strike Gaza (during the campaign which took the Egyptian army to Carchemish on the Euphrates — 2 Chronicles 35:2020After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. (2 Chronicles 35:20)), but a far worse affliction would follow, coming from the north; this was the conquering host of Babylon headed by Nebuchadnezzar. The figure of an irresistible flood of water is used to portray that invasion which would result in the ruin of Philistia and largely the Mediterranean coast, for Tyre, and Sidon in the north, far outside of the region occupied by the Philistines, were to be cut off from every helper that remained. In this destruction of the Philistines, Nebuchadnezzar would only be a weapon in the hands of God, as the latter part of chapter 47 shows.
Caphtor, the land from which the Philistines came, is believed to have been a part of Egypt (see Genesis 10:13, 1413And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, 14And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim. (Genesis 10:13‑14)). Gaza and Ashkelon were two of the five principal cities of the Philistines. Isaiah 14:29-3229Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent. 30And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant. 31Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times. 32What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it. (Isaiah 14:29‑32), Ezekiel 25:15-1715Thus saith the Lord God; Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred; 16Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. 17And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them. (Ezekiel 25:15‑17), Amos 1:6-86Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom: 7But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof: 8And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord God. (Amos 1:6‑8), Zechariah 2:4-74And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein: 5For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. 6Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the Lord. 7Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon. (Zechariah 2:4‑7), and Zechariah 9:5-75Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited. 6And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. 7And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite. (Zechariah 9:5‑7) are other prophecies dealing with the Philistines; all of them have not yet been fully accomplished, although the Philistines as a people have disappeared. They will reappear in the last days when Israel again becomes the center of God’s dealings with the earth.
Chapter 48 is occupied with the crushing blow to fall upon Moab through the king of Babylon. Jeremiah, in the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign, twenty-one or twenty-two years before Jerusalem’s destruction, had sent to the kings of Moab, Edom, the Ammonites, Tyre and Sidon, a message from God calling upon them to submit to Nebuchadnezzar. Those nations that would not serve him were to be severely punished (Jeremiah 27:1-111In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2Thus saith the Lord to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, 3And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah; 4And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters; 5I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. 6And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. 7And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. 8And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. 9Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: 10For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish. 11But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall till it, and dwell therein. (Jeremiah 27:1‑11)). It is plain that the message was ignored by all of them; need we wonder at it, when Judah’s last king also treated with contempt every word that Jeremiah brought him from God? In these chapters, we are reading of what befell those who refused God’s mercy.
No less than 27 places are named in this chapter (48), and among them are several north of the river Amon which had separated Moab from the tribe of Reuben. When the Reubenites were smitten by Hazael, king of Syria (2 Kings 10:32, 3332In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; 33From Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan. (2 Kings 10:32‑33)), and later by Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria (1 Chronicles 5:2626And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day. (1 Chronicles 5:26)), the Moabites must have repossessed their land, which had been Moab’s until shortly bore the children of Israel crossed the wilderness from Egypt on their way to Canaan.
“Madmen” (verse 2) is not a term of reproach here, but the name of one of the many small towns in Moab. Chemosh (verse 7) was the principal god of the Moabites and Ammonites. In verse 12 read, “pourers that shall pour him off”, instead of “wanderers that shall cause him to wander”; the reference is to verse 11. The house of Israel’s being ashamed of Bethel relates to Jeroboam’s placing there one of his golden calves, and an idolatrous altar (1 Kings 12:28-3328Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 29And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan. 30And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. 31And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. 32And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Beth-el, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Beth-el the priests of the high places which he had made. 33So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Beth-el the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense. (1 Kings 12:28‑33); see also Genesis 35:1, 71And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Beth-el, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. (Genesis 35:1)
7And he built there an altar, and called the place El-beth-el: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother. (Genesis 35:7)).
Verse 34: “An heifer of three years old” is believed to lie the name of a town, Eglath-shelishijan, rather than a reference to an animal.
The land of Moab was to become a desolation, and this, travelers tell us, is its present condition. (Other Scriptures telling of God’s dealings with Moab are Psalm 83, Isaiah 11:1414But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. (Isaiah 11:14), Isaiah 15 and 16, Isaiah 25:10-1210For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest, and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill. 11And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. 12And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust. (Isaiah 25:10‑12); Zephaniah 2:8-118I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border. 9Therefore as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them. 10This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts. 11The Lord will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen. (Zephaniah 2:8‑11), Daniel 11:4141He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. (Daniel 11:41), Amos 2:11Thus saith the Lord; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime: (Amos 2:1)). As said of the Philistines, all the prophecies concerning Moab are not fulfilled; they await the day to come when the Jews shall be undergoing the fearful experiences of the time of Jacob’s trouble in their land, from which deliverance will come by the Lord’s appearing. Jeremiah, however, except in verse 47, deals only with the time then imminent, when Nebuchadnezzar was to be the instrument of God for Moab’s punishment.
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